Los Angeles: Bong Joon-Ho was born in Korea's ‘most conservative city’ as the youngest child of an elite artistic family which poured scorn on the movie industry.
But the rebellious film fanatic quickly broke out of his middle-class mould to join the fight against a punitive top-down system, and was even arrested for hurling petrol bombs during pro-democracy student protests.
Thirty years later, Bong Joon-ho continues his campaign on social inequality, he portrays oppression through his films, the most recent of which made history at the Oscars last night, according to a Daily Mail report.
“Parasite”, a stinging satire on class divides in South Korea, jumped the “one inch long subtitle barrier” to land on the Oscar stage and in record books as the first non-English film to win an Academy Award for best picture.
Coloured in various shades of black, Bong Joon Ho’s wicked comedy that found resonance the world over also won the best director Oscar as well as the awards for original screenplay and best international feature.
While the big wins for “Parasite”, the first South Korean film at the Oscars, came as a surprise for many, given the Academy Awards' 92-year history of favouring English cinema, the awards in the acting categories were along expected lines.
Joaquin Phoenix won best actor for “Joker” and Renee Zellweger bagged best actress for “Judy”. Brad Pitt and Laura Dern won the supporting gongs for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Marriage Story”.
