Known for Directing
Bong Joon-ho (Korean: 봉준호, Korean pronunciation:[poːŋ tɕuːnho → poːŋdʑunɦo]; born September 14, 1969) is a South Korean filmmaker. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his work is characterised by emphasis on social and class themes, genre-mixing, dark comedy, and sudden tone shifts. He first became known to audiences and achieved a cult following with his directorial debut film, the black comedy Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), before achieving both critical and commercial success with his subsequent films: the crime thriller Memories of Murder (2003), the monster film The Host (2006), the science fiction action film Snowpiercer (2013), which served as Bong's English language debut, and the acclaimed black comedy thriller Parasite (2019), all of which are among the highest-grossing films in South Korea, with Parasite also being the highest-grossing South Korean film in history. All of Bong's films have been South Korean productions. However, Snowpiercer, Okja (2017) and Mickey 17 (2025) are Hollywood co-productions with significant use of the English language. Two of his films have been screened in competitions at the Cannes Film Festival — Okja in 2017 and Parasite in 2019; the latter earned the Palme d'Or, the first for a South Korean film. Considered an immediate favourite by the Academy Awards, Parasite became the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award nominations, with Bong winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, making Parasite the first film in the award's history not in English to win Best Picture. In 2017, Bong was included on Metacritic's list of the 25 best film directors of the 21st century. In 2020, Bong was included in Time's annual list of 100 Most Influential People and Bloomberg 50. Description above from the Wikipedia article Bong Joon-ho, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Born
September 14, 1969 (age 57)
Birthplace
Daegu, South Korea
Filmography
77 films, 12 shows


Incoherence
2025 · 31m
country: South Korea
Over three episodes, three respectable middle-aged men find themselves behaving badly. A teacher hides his pornographic magazine from a female student. A jogger steals milk and blames it on a newspaper delivery boy. A drunk man desperately searches for a public toilet late at night.


Mickey 17
2025 · 2h 17m
country: United States
Unlikely hero Mickey Barnes finds himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living.


Parasite
2019 · 2h 13m
country: South Korea
All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.


Okja
2017 · 2h
country: South Korea
A young girl named Mija risks everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend - a massive animal named Okja.


Snowpiercer
2013 · 2h 7m
country: South Korea
In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, a class system evolves aboard the Snowpiercer; a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine.


3.11 A Sense of Home Films
2011 · 1h 15m
country: Japan
In memory of the Japanese earthquake on 3.11, each director presents a 3 minute and 11 second short film in tribute to those who were lost that day.


Mother
2009 · 2h 9m
country: South Korea
A mother lives quietly with her son. One day, a girl is brutally killed, and the boy is charged with the murder. Now, it's his mother's mission to prove him innocent.


Tokyo!
2008 · 1h 52m
country: South Korea
Three distinct tales unfold in the bustling city of Tokyo. Merde, a bizarre sewer-dweller, emerges from a manhole and begins terrorizing pedestrians. After his arrest, he stands trial and lashes out at a hostile courtroom. A man who has resigned himself to a life of solitude reconsiders after meeting a charming pizza delivery woman. And finally, a happy young couple find themselves undergoing a series of frightening metamorphoses.


The Host
2006 · 2h
country: South Korea
A teenage girl is captured by a giant mutated squid-like creature that appears from Seoul's Han River after toxic waste was dumped in it, prompting her family into a frantic search for her.


Influenza
2004 · 28m
country: South Korea
The film starts with a man named Cho Hyuk-rae who has perched dangerously on top of the Han River Bridge. It is a sad picture of a man who has been caught unwittingly on a security camera. The camera continues to reveal the downward spiral of Cho and those of us who surround him. The 'real' images shown through the camera keep on becoming more 'corrupted' as the time goes by.


Jeonju Digital Project 2004
2004 · 1h 38m
country: Hong Kong
Three digital short films: 'Influenza' by Bong Joon-ho, 'Kyo-shin' by Sogo Ishii, 'Dance Me to the End of Love' by Yu Lik-wai


Sink & Rise
2004 · 6m
country: South Korea
Under the Sungsan Bridge, in a waterside stand by the Han River, a poor and tired-looking father and daughter, Jae-mun, and In-seon, are arguing the generation gap over whether to buy boiled eggs or instant crackers. The stand owner Hee-bong hears Jae-mun suddenly declare that boiled eggs float.


Memories of Murder
2003 · 2h 11m
country: South Korea
A sadistic serial rapist and murderer of young women terrorizes a small province in 1980s South Korea. To prevent further crimes, three increasingly desperate detectives with conflicting methods race against time to unravel the violent mind of the killer in a futile effort to solve the case.


Barking Dogs Never Bite
2000 · 1h 50m
country: South Korea
An idle part-time college lecturer is annoyed by the yapping sound of a nearby dog. He decides to take drastic action.


The Memories in My Frame
1994 · 5m
country: South Korea
A young boy struggles with the loss of his beloved dog.


White Man
1994 · 19m
country: South Korea
A white-collar South Korean man discovers a severed human finger and keeps it.


Looking For Paradise
1992 · 23m
country: Unknown
A gorilla searching for freedom while fighting a caterpillar that emerged from its fecal matter. (Note: This early student film was only screened privately for members of a film club and has not been publicly released or made available for viewing.)