Speaking of South Korean director Bong Joonho, most Chinese audiences who have an impression of him may first think of his 2003 crime suspense film "Memories of Murder". This movie is based on real cases. Last year, the original murderer of the "Hwaseong Serial Rape and Murder Case" was finally captured 33 years after the incident. It caused a sensation again, which undoubtedly deepened people's thinking about "Memories of Murder". The impression of Bong Joonho and even the representative works of Korean movies. As a result, when "Parasite" has won multiple Oscars these days, some people have played the old tune of "Memories of Murder is better".
Bong Joonho is a master of genre movies in Korea today. One of his unique skills lies in his ability to make movies that are both good-looking and thought-provoking, and he can subtly integrate serious connotations into the story without preaching, so that both elegance and common appreciation can be appreciated. This characteristic was demonstrated quite maturely in his first feature film "Kidnapping a Dog at the Door" in 2000, and was consistently adhered to in subsequent creations, and finally reached a new level in "Parasite". the height of.
breaks the genre boundary, merges the two domains of elegance and commonness, and integrates into the world trend
It is difficult to call Feng Junhao an art director. Although his second feature film "Memories of Murder" is highly regarded among literary and artistic youths, its artistic quality is not so profound, and the way of telling the story is just as restrictive as the debut. On the whole, "Memories of Murder" is a box office-oriented commercial film. The excellent results of 5.2 million movie viewers in Korea that year made Bong Joon-ho naturally rank among the box office directors.
's work that really marks Bong Junho's maturity is actually his third feature film "Han River Monster". In this film, Feng Junhao's imagination was fully released, and the subject matter began to involve the field of surrealism, laying the foundation for future science fiction films such as "Snow Country Train" and "Yuzi". However, the story of a monster derived from environmental pollution raging on the banks of the Han River, and an ordinary family who stood up to fight to save the family and eventually wiped it out is destined to be nothing more than a Hollywood blockbuster. The final box office score of "Han River Monster" was 13 million viewers. It once ranked first in the history of Korean film and still ranks in the top five. This fully demonstrates Feng Junhao's appeal in the mass market.
used the commercial success of "Han River Monster" as a springboard, Bong Joon Ho smoothly went to the world, and the theme of the movie became increasingly serious, and gradually found a "Bong Joon Ho-style balance" between the refined and the popular. Starting from the fourth feature film "Mother" in 2009, Feng Junhao's subsequent creation has only one "Snow Country Train" cooperating with Hollywood, which has not been selected for the Cannes Film Festival; although the film "Yuzi" invested by Netflix in 2017 caused controversy, The evaluation also ranks last in his works, but he still won the nomination of the main competition unit. In 2019, Bong Joon-ho won the first Palme d'Or for a Korean film in 100 years with "Parasite", thus officially bidding farewell to his role as a director of a genre film.
Bong Joon-ho’s creation from popular to serious, reminds me of Kim Young-ha, a Korean novelist who is also a "post 60". Kim Young-ha started as an online writer and was originally a genre writer. After turning to serious literature, his works retained the readability of popular literature, but at the same time, they did not damage the artistic value of the works. Eventually, he moved from Korea to the world and gained a global reputation. . It can be seen that since the wave of postmodernism, breaking the boundaries of genres and merging the two domains of elegance and vulgarity is the common trend of various art categories. Feng Junhao can achieve such a success today, perhaps because his creation is integrated into the world today. Spring tide.
's "Snow Country Train" in 2013 was the beginning of Bong Joon Ho's journey into the world-although this started from Hollywood, he made another "Han River Monster" popcorn blockbuster. But now it seems that its important position in Feng Junhao's works has been greatly underestimated. Looking back, Feng Junhao has made a total of three movies since he left the country. The themes all involve the ugly side of capitalism in the process of globalization. Among them, the movie "Snow Country Train" and "Parasite" have obvious differences. The homology, the focus is entirely on the problem of class consolidation and the gap between the rich and the poor. In "Snow Country Train", this is clearly shown with the first carriage and the rear carriage, and in "Parasite" it is put into the metaphor of the sunny house and semi-basement. And the designer of this train and this house, the former is named Nangong Minxiu, the latter is named Nangong Xianzi, they are bothThere is a common surname: Nangong. For Feng Junhao, who has the nickname of "Feng Xiaoxiao", this setting is no coincidence. The same symbols appear repeatedly, which is the lead of Feng Junhao's long-planned plan. Although limited by my knowledge, I don't know what special references are made to the surname Nangong, but the relationship between "Snow Country Train" and "Parasite" is certain.
"Parasite" is both Korean and the world's
new film "Parasite" is undoubtedly the masterpiece of Bong Joon-ho. It mixes Bong Joon-ho's previous movie styles together, with fantasy in reality and despair in joking, all of which are controlled properly. Although the whole movie is highly dramatic and symbolic, it is achieved through a rather meticulous realism approach. Some plots may seem fake and illogical, but after thinking about it, I think it’s not completely impossible. In terms of content,
continues Feng Junhao's thinking on human social class issues since "Snow Country Train", and pushes it to an unprecedented high in the depth of thought. In "Snow Country Train", the relationship between the poor and the rich has always been within a fiercely antagonistic framework. Although in the end the poor discovered that even their fighting was arranged, their will was not obliterated. Still die with the rich. Such treatment is obviously kitsch, but as a Hollywood blockbuster, it is also a choice that has to be made. "Parasite" is completely different. The rich-poor relationship it shows is dependent. Whether it is a basement or a semi-basement family, they are sincerely satisfied that they can work for the rich President Park's family. The people in the basement express gratitude and respect to President Park through the Morse Code every day when he returns home from get off work, while the people in the semi-basement want to be President Park’s son-in-law and inherit the entire property. This kind of plot may seem funny, but behind it is the desperate reality that the poor people can never change their destiny because the path of Korean class rise is blocked. It is especially sad that after the secrets of the two poor people were revealed to each other, the poor did not unite against the rich as in "Snow Country Train", but instead directed threats and violence to each other. Behind this change, there is undoubtedly all Feng Junhao's thinking about class issues. In Bong Junhao’s previous films, each of them involved different themes and has never been repeated. In recent years, he has repeatedly focused on the gap between the rich and the poor, which shows that he is deeply concerned about this issue. . What caused Bong Junho’s concern was obviously the deteriorating socio-economic situation in South Korea since the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. The gap between the rich and the poor was further widened ironically, and finally a movie like "Parasite" was born in 2019. the film. And because the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008 was a global economic downturn, what "Parasite" showed was both South Korea and the world. Some critics believe that the reason why this movie is also well received in countries and regions outside Korea is inseparable from the audience’s closeness and understanding of this subject matter. Although this cannot explain all, the difference between "Snow Country Train" and "Parasite" TV series copyrights have been bought by TNT and HBO, which may reflect some facts. Author: (Korea) Li Cheng division Fudan University PhD students
