31 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Master Filmmaker Bong Joon-ho

By:: Brian C. Miller; Cracked Writers

August 01, 2021

31 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Master Filmmaker Bong Joon-ho

Once in a generation filmmakers only come along… Well, once in a generation! Here are some facts, behind-the-scenes tidbits, and easter eggs that will make you say: “Hey! This guy is pretty good at making movies!”

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BEHIND-THE-SCENESFACTS CRACKED.COM PARASITE WAS INFLUENCED BY MAD MAX: FURY ROAD. PARASITE Bong Joon-ho, who is a massive fan of Fury Road, revealed that the movie directly inspired the pacing of Parasite. The camera is always moving, but the information is explained through action. It was quite inspirational to me. — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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BEHIND- THE-SCENESFACTS CRACKED.COM THERE WOULD BE NO PARASITE WITHOUT SONG KANG-HO. coln Film at Lincoln Center ter Film Lin Ce PARASITE Bong Joon-ho says that Song was the only option to play Kim and that he would've abandoned the project entirely if the actor didn't like the script for the movie. — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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BEHIND-THE-SCENESFACTS CRACKED.COM BONG JOON-HO WROTE A SONG FOR THE FILM. PARASITE Soju One Glass, the song Choi Woo-shik sings at the end of the movie, was written by the director himself. The lyrics don't portray this great sense of optimism but they do feature a sliver of hope, says Bong. — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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BEHIND-THE-SCENESFACTS CRACKED.COM THE CAST BONDED BY GETTING DRUNK. SAG PARASITE Bong Joon-ho says the cast was quite nervous around each other at first due to the fact many of them never worked with each other before. They got around that the old-fashioned way: by getting wasted together. — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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BEHIND-THE-SCENESFACTS CRACKED.COM PARASITE IS PARTLY BASED ON BONG JOON-HO'S LIFE. PARASITE The first part of the movie is based on Bong's experiences as a young man working in the home of a wealthy family with his girlfriend, who tutored the family's child. — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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BEHIND-THE-SCENES FACTS CRACKED OKJA WAS BOOED AT THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL. okja Mirando's 1. RIGH F During a screening for the festival's Palme d'Or honor in 2017, Okja got booed by the snobby Cannes audience members because it was produced by Netflix. — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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BEHIND-THE-SCENESp FACTS CRACKED.co BONG JOON-HO LIED TO PROTECT HIS FAVORITE SNOWPIERCER SCENE. SNOWPIERCER Bong says Harvey Weinstein wanted to cut the scene in which a guard kills a fish as an intimidation tactic. In order to save it, he made up a story about how the scene was important to him because it was made in honor of his father who used to be a fisherman. — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite Bong Joon-ho said that his movie is a homage to the South Korean 1960 film, The Housemaid. The Housemaid is about a well-off family who hires a housemaid-a a character who infiltrates their lives and causes major disruptions. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite The hidden meaning of the peaches. When I was in college... one of my friends said he was severely allergic to peaches. I thought he was kidding. And then some other kid went to a nearby grocery store and tossed it at him as a joke. Even though it didn't hit him directly, he turned bright red and had an attack. It was a really traumatic event. Those kinds of memories always bubble up when you're writing a script. Peaches are so pretty to look at, but you can attack someone with them. I felt that was — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite Vertical lines are scattered throughout the movie, showing class divide. More so, whenever there's a distinct or subtle line in the composition, it usually accompanies a moment in the story when a character crosses the line a major motif in the film. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite The credits song answers whether Kim Ki-woo could make enough money to buy the Parks house. Bong wrote the lyrics, and Choi Woo-shik (who plays Ki-woo) sings it. The song is about how Ki-woo spent his days trying to earn money to purchase that house. It would take 564 years for Ki-woo to actually save up the money in order to buy that house. It's almost impossible for him to buy the house. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite Bong Joon-ho said that there's more to the semi-basement homes than just an authentic Korean element. There's a more specific meaning behind it, because the semi-basement is basically of the middle of high and low. There's this fear that you can fall even further below but you still feel hope that you're still half above-ground, so it really reflects this liminal space that they're in, and the spaces in this film are even more compartmentalized and all connected through a very complicated staircase. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite The fake diploma is a homage to Bong Joon-ho's alma mater. of the When Kim Ki-jung creates a fake diploma for her brother Kim Ki-woo, she uses the template of South Korea's Yonsei University, the same place Bong got his degree in Sociology in the '80s. CRACKED.COM the — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite The many staircases and their use during significant moments in the film were inspired by the Bates house in Psycho. Bong is a huge Alfred Hitchcock fan, and he also snuck in some of the filmmaker's movies into the Park family's movie collection. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite A continuity error was left in, deliberately. During the scene where the Kims are hanging out in the Parks house, Ki-jung is eating jerky and holding the packet in her left hand. When the doorbell rings, a wide shot shows Ki-jung holding the packet in her right hand. The editor said they deliberately kept that shot in, for the fans. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite The Criterion Collection edition of the movie's video release features an Easter egg hidden in plain sight. PARASITE The image has 18 portholes or windows that reveal the original poster of the Kims and the Parks underneath. Those portholes are actually dots and dashes of Morse code grouped in eight lines that spell out Parasite. Morse code features as one of the big twists in the movie. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite There might be a Snowpiercer Easter egg in the movie. When Kim Ki-woo first arrives at the Park house to be the family's new tutor, the housekeepert tells him that the house was built by famed Korean architect Namgoong. It's a fictional character, but a character who shares the name of one of the train's designers in Snowpiercer, Bong Joon-ho's other big movie. Song Kang-ho, who plays Mr. Kim, played Namgoong in Snowpiercer. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite The rectangular windows of both houses. have a greater significance. For the Kims, it shows their lack of privacy, and for the Parks the opposite. The Parks also do not have a TV in their living room, because Bong said he wanted the big window looking out at the garden to resemble that of a TV screen, instead. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite There's a subtle hidden meaning in the bus that passes behind Ki-woo when he's having a drink with his friend Min-hyuk. II In the scene, Min-hyuk offers Ki-woo an opportunity to tutor one of his students. As Ki-woo considers this, a bus rushes by behind him, signaling a turning point in the movie. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite The Jessica jingle Ki-jung sings to remember her fake impersonator story has a bit more to it. The melody she sings it to is from a famous Korean song, Dokdo is Our Land. Dokdo is made up of two islands surrounded by some 89 rocks and is found midway between Korea and Japan. It has caused contention of ownership between the two countries. The tune of the song is also used by some students to help memorize information, just like Ki-jung does. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite The use of cowboys and Indians added a Western layer to the film. Bong says that while Native Americans have a deep history, the Parks simply treat it as a boy's hobby. mentions the tent as a U.S. imported good, and I think it's like the Che Guevara T-shirts that people wear. They don't know the life of the revolutionary figure, they just think it's a cool T-shirt. That's what happens in our current time: The context and meaning behind these actual things only exists as a surface-level thing. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite There's a song reference to a 1964 movie. When the Kims take over the Parks' house while they're away, the song In ginocchio da te by Gianni Morandi plays. Morandi originally sang this song in the film with the same name, where he played a poor soldier who falls in love with a rich woman. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Easter Eggs and Hidden Meanings in Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite”

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EASTER EGGSTRA Parasite The artwork in the living room of the Parks home has a significant meaning. Named 'Maya,' the piece has a rocky texture, and it represents what happens when you throw a rock into a quiet pond and watch the waves get bigger. CRACKED.COM — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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BEHIND-THE-SCENESFACTS CRACKED.co ALAN MOORE'S WRITING INFLUENCED MEMORIES OF MURDER. ALAN MOORE . EDDIE CAMPBELL MEMORIES FROM HELL OF CMASTER EDITIONS FULLY COLORIZED MURDER A state of ( Darkness Fam Hel Netter. write out donn From Hell Bong Joon-ho says that reading Moore's From Hell pushed him to start thinking less about the actual killer and more about the spirit of the times which produced the murders. — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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BEHIND-THE-SCENESFACTS CRACKED.COM THE HOMES OF THE TWO FAMILIES WERE BUILT FROM SCRATCH. PARASITE Bong Joon-ho had the production build them because he wanted to have full control over both houses. The Park family home is actually located in the middle of nowhere- the surrounding neighborhood is entirely CGI. — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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BEHIND-THE-SCENES FACTS CRACKED.C BONG JOON-HO GOT THE IDEA FOR THE HOST AS A KID. HOST THE Bong says he was fascinated with the idea of a movie about a creature coming out of the Han River since he was in high school. He eventually decided to make the movie after an American officer got caught dumping 400 bottles of formaldehyde into the river in 2000. — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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BEHIND-THE-SCENESp FACTS CRACKEDG TILDA SWINTON'S CHARACTER WAS WRITTEN FOR A MAN. SNOWPIERCER According to Swinton, Minister Mason was originally written as a mild-mannered man in a suit. Bong Joon-ho and Swinton desperately wanted to work together SO he gave her the role of Mason without rewriting the part. — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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BEHIND-THE-SCENES FACTS CRACKED.COM SNOWPIERCER IS BASED ON A GRAPHIC NOVEL. LE TRANSPERCENEIGE Rochette Lob SNOWPIERDER The movie is based on Le Transperceneige an acclaimed French graphic novel that only got translated to English in 2014. Bong Joon-ho fell in love with the novel after finding it in a shop in Seoul in 2005. — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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BEHIND-THE-SCENES FACTS CRACKED.COM QUENTIN TARANTINO HAS BEEN A LONGTIME FAN. HI In 2009, Tarantino included Bong Joon-ho's Memories of Murder and The Host on his list of favorite 20 movies since 1992. Bong ended up thanking Tarantino for introducing Western audiences to his films during his Oscar acceptance speech. — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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BEHIND-THE-SCENES FACTS CRACKED.COM PARASITE WAS CONCEIVED AS A THEATER PLAY. PARASITE Bong Joon-ho says he started developing Parasite as a play but changed his mind soon after writing the very first line. He immediately started imagining different camera positions for the scene, and realized it just had to be a movie. — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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BEHIND-THE-SCENESFACTS CRACKED.COM PARASITE WAS ALMOST CALLED DECALCOMANIA. PARASITE Before it got its final title, the movie went by Decalcomania, which is the name of a technique for creating symmetrical works of art by transferring an image from paper onto another surface. — Source: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Bong Joon-ho Films

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