Film

Idiots Keep Asking Bong Joon-Ho, A Korean, Why ‘Parasite’ Was Filmed In Korean

Famously Bong Joon-Ho is a Korean man, who filmed a movie about Korean class conflict with a Korean cast. But sure, I guess.

by Michelle Rennex  12 February 2020
bong joon-ho korean parasite

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At the Academy Awards, Bong Joon-Ho won a staggering four Oscars, including the most-anticipated award of the night, Best Picture.

Beating out expected winner 1917, Parasite swept at the awards — as it very much deserved to. Beyond the adorable moments like Bong staring lovingly at his Best Original Screenplay trophy or making his awards kiss, one part of the night had the internet talking.

Prior to the awards taking place, an ABC correspondent interviewed Bong Joon-Ho on the red carpet about his nominated film Parasite. During their chat, she decided to ask Bong: “As a filmmaker, what made you decide to have the film in Korean when you had other films in English?”

With the help of his extremely-loved translator and fellow director Sharon Choi, Bong Joon-Ho explained that while “the Snowpiercer is also about the rich and poor, I wanted to explore the similar theme with characters that I can see around my own daily life set in Korea with the Korean language.”

The seemingly silly question confused people online who thought the question was unnecessary and pointless.

Parasite is literally a film that critiques the class conflict in Korea with a Korean cast, and is directed by a Korean man who lives in Korea and speaks Korean. To ask why he chose to create the movie in the language he speaks implies that all films must be in English — which, frankly, is just a totally boring and wrong take.

While the interviewer did reference Bong Joon-Ho’s “other films” that are in English, of all 14 pieces of his directing work only two are not in Korean. Snowpiercer was Bong’s first foray into English-based films with Okja being released five years later in both Korean and English.

So to suggest that Bong should be producing his masterpieces in English is pretty misinformed. It would essentially be like asking American directors why they film in English over literally any other language in the world.

But Americans asking dumb questions is not foreign to Bong Joon-Ho or the Parasite cast. Just before the Oscars, a clip from the Screen Actors Guild Awards went viral when Variety asked the cast: “What’s the best part about being famous in America?”

“Is that the question?,” the teams iconic translator asked back. The question, even after translated, confused the entire Parasite team, and honestly it makes sense. There really isn’t much America has to brag about. Stans of the Korean boyband BTS even found similarities between the ridiculous questions the band and the Korean cast of Parasite have had to endure from Americans.

In conclusion, everyone needs stop asking foreign artists why their art is in their own language. To quote Bong Joon-Ho’s always iconic Golden Globes line: “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”