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Director Bong Joon-ho, 50, seemed more like the younger brother in the line of Korean auteurs such as Im Kwon-taek, Lee Chang-dong, Hong Sang-soo and Park Chan-wook. (Some critics dub them the "new wave" directors in Korean cinema.) It was however Bong who brought home the much-coveted Palme d'Or with his film "Parasite" in Cannes, France, Sunday.
If heaven should have a visual expression, it rested on the face of Bong on that day. After receiving a thump of a hug from his "persona" the actor Song Kang-ho, pumping his fist in the air multiple times, he stood on the podium to accept the Palme d'Or. With his cheeks blushing red, and apologizing for not having prepared a speech in French, Bong thanked everyone, including the actors, for allowing him to physically touch the Palme d'Or.
"I was a little 12-year-old boy, and a huge cinema fan, when I decided I would be a director. I am amazed to have won this prize, which means a great deal to me," Bong said in Korean.
Afterwards, outside the venue, Bong playfully went on his knees to gesture offering up the prize to the actor. The duo returned to Korea Monday.
"Parasite" got rave reviews at its screening in Cannes, but then so did Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt) and French-Senegalese female director Mati Diop's feature-film debut, "Atlantics."
It however probably was Bong's time. Korean directors have been knocking on the doors of Cannes, in earnest since the 2000s with director Im Kwon-taek. Also Korean cinema celebrates its centennial this year.
Personally, Bong made his feature-length film debut with the "Barking Dogs Never Bite (Flandersui Gae)" in 2000. He went on to create "Memories of Murder" (2003), and "Monster" (2006) that were hugely commercially successful. This writer remembers coming out of the theaters after those movies, thinking how poignantly sensitive and thoughtful the movies were. His more recent films such as "Snowpiercer" (2013) and "Okja" (2017) foretold of Bong's expanding presence in the international cinema landscape, which he clinched at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival.
"Parasite" will open in Korean theaters today. Yet anticipation for it is high since the news of the Palme arrived.
But the film could not have better timing for capturing the essence of Korean society in 2019, the divide between the rich and the poor. Film watchers have said that they greatly connected with this theme, saying how universal it was across the world. Yet, many a Korean may protest and ask back, with a sense of desperation, whether the gap between the haves and the have-nots has widened as rapidly as in Korea. It would be interesting to see how the director has parlayed this prevalent feeling of the times in his movie.
The news from Cannes, interestingly, has that feeling of way back when Korean golfer Pak Se-ri took off her socks and put her feet in water to hit the ball to win the U.S. Women's Open tournament. Pak imbued hope―which was just as precious as the gold bar that people donated at that time ― in the country heavily reeling from a major economic crisis. The so-called "IMF" financial crisis that hit Korea struck fear deep into the people of a nation that recovered rapidly from the ashes of the Korean War to industrialize its economy to become rich. Pak's win also stirred a group of "Se-ri Kids," who now tour the world golf tournaments with outstanding results.
As a multitude of issues gloomily linger over Korea's landscape, Bong's victory provides at the least a heart-warming reminder that that 12-year-old self may still exist in us and at most, a hope of sorts.
