Bong Joon Ho on the influence of Hayao Miyazaki: “His work has naturally seeped into my blood”
Only 12 people have won three Oscars in a single night in the entire history of the Academy Awards – the same number as people who have walked on the surface of the moon.
Many of the names who have done it are those you might expect: James Cameron, the Coen brothers, Peter Jackson. But one you may not know is South Korean director Bong Joon Ho, who won ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Screenplay’ for the amazing Parasite in 2019.
It was a film that became a must-see around the globe on release; a twisting black comedy that was as tense as it was bloody, breaking box office records and sparking new interest in not just Joon Ho’s work but South Korean cinema in general.
He had gained some recognition a few years earlier with the underrated Snowpiercer, his first English language movie and one featuring a memorable turn from British actor Tilda Swinton. If you haven’t seen it then you really should – it’s a violent and thrilling literal ride through a post-apocalyptic world, with the remainder of humanity packed into a train divided by class and wealth.
Marvel star Chris Evans puts in one of his career’s best performances as Curtis Everett, who leads passengers from the back of the train to the front on a daring revolt, and Ed Harris plays as memorable a role as he did in The Truman Show as the train’s designer.
Snowpiercer was such an underground hit that it inspired a TV series back in 2020 which ran for four seasons and was executive produced by Joon Ho. The South Korean filmmaker had originally been inspired by a French graphic novel Le Transperceneige which he had found in a comic book shop, and he has found similar influence throughout his career from the greats of cinema.
One director in particular has proved very important for him, the Japanese animator and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, famed for his much-heralded movies Spirited Away in 2001 and 1998’s My Neighbour Totoro. Both animations were produced by Miyazaki via his Studio Ghibli outlet, of which he still serves as honorary chairman. He’s widely regarded as one of the finest animators in history and has inspired the likes of Wes Anderson, Guillermo Del Toro and James Cameron.
Bong Joon Ho revealed to Screen Anarchy: “I had grown up watching Miyazaki’s films. His work has naturally seeped into my blood stream and cells.”
Two years before the director found fame with Parasite, he again cast Tilda Swinton in Okja, a sci-fi adventure movie about a teenage girl raising a genetically modified super pig who she must protect from slaughter. While many again found similarities to Miyazaki’s work, Joon Ho instead focused on Australian director George Miller’s kids movie from 1998.
He explained: “I feel that the films of Hayao Miyazaki and the films that Steven Spielberg had created in the ‘70s are always generally connected to me. However, for Okja specifically, I was very influenced by George Miller’s work Babe: Pig in the City.”
This year, Bong Joon Ho returned to cinemas with Mickey 17, a space colonisation comedy starring Robert Pattinson, an actor who rarely takes on a bad script and is carving out a reputation as one of the finest of his generation.
The film deals with many of Joon Ho’s most common themes: inequality, corporate greed and exploitation, and while reviews have been mostly fairly positive, it hasn’t quite lived up to the hype around the director’s work after a six-year wait following the success of Parasite.
He now has another forthcoming project in development, believed to be an animated movie dealing with conflict between humans and underwater creatures.
