Academy Award-winning director Bong Joon Ho’s latest film, Mickey 17, has arrived on the big screen. The film highlights his signature style and habit of infusing his movies with biting social commentary and dark humor.
Viewers interested in delving deeper into Bong’s work can use our guide to find out where to watch the 10 best movies he has directed and/or written on platforms like Netflix, Peacock, and more! The movies are ranked from the best based on film quality.
Parasite
Bong made history with his film Parasite, the first non-English language movie to take home Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The film follows the Kim family, who struggle with poverty and low-income jobs. However, when the family glimpses an opportunity to infiltrate the Park family, they quickly form a plot to secure employment in the Park household while concealing their identities. Parasite is a gripping, satirical, and surprisingly profound exploration of class inequality. Bong successfully created a bold and unapologetic film about class struggle that can apply to any country, making Parasite both masterful and a rare, universally resonant film.
Snowpiercer
Snowpiercer marked Bong’s first English-language production. The movie takes viewers on a circumnavigational, nonstop train where the last remnants of humanity live after a new ice age began. After 17 years, the train faces a disruption when Curtis Everett (Chris Evans) leads a revolt to protest the squalid living conditions of people with low incomes, who are segregated to the back of the train. Like Parasite, Snowpiercer delves into class inequality and struggles through a unique premise. Although it’s a bit less subtle with its social commentary and relies on an implausible premise, it’s bold, thoughtful, and wildly ambitious.
Mother
Mother tells the story of an unnamed widow (Kim Hye-ja), whose disabled son, Yoon Do-joon (Won Bin), is accused by police of killing a young girl. She refuses to believe he is guilty and sets out to solve the murder case and exonerate him. Mother is an intense, heartrending, and unpredictable film that probes many topics, including how society treats women and the disabled community and the depths of a mother’s love. Bong masterfully misleads and sways the audience in this intense mystery to drive home his points about the power and potential danger of love.
Memories of Murder
Bong’s knack for mystery and crime thrillers shines incredibly bright in Memories of Murder. Loosely inspired by the real-life Hwaseong Murderer, the film follows detectives Park Doo-man (Song Kang-ho) and Seo Tae-yoon (Kim Sang-kyung), who begin investigating a string of murders, only to realize they may be dealing with South Korea’s first serial killer. In terms of execution, Memories of Murder is nearly flawless, balancing darkness, wit, and satire in a devastating and sometimes disturbing depiction of crime and a country woefully unprepared to combat it. It never quite replicates the thrills of typical crime thrillers but stands apart with its unique commentary.
The Host
The Host is Bong’s brilliant take on the monster movie genre. In the film, military personnel recklessly dump chemicals into the Han River, resulting in a terrifying giant creature surfacing from the contamination four years later. When the monster takes Park Gang-du’s (Song Kang-ho) daughter, Hyun-seo (Go Ah-sung), he sets off to track down the monster and rescue her. Bong masterfully caters to those seeking the campiness of a typical class monster movie and those seeking a film with a little more depth and thought. However, The Host occasionally struggles with pacing and delivering the level of excitement and horror one might expect from a monster film.
Mickey 17
Mickey 17 takes place in 2054 and follows the destitute Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), who boards a spaceship to colonize the planet Niflheim to escape his financial difficulties. On the ship, he serves as an “expendable,” meaning he’s given dangerous and lethal tasks and simply cloned every time he dies. Mickey 17 boasts an ambitious and wonky sci-fi premise, excellent performances, and exploration of complex topics about capitalism, identity, and autonomy. At the same time, the script is a little clumsy, and the social commentary isn’t as sharp or focused as most of Bong’s films, which is surprising for a movie tackling such a bountiful topic as cloning.
Sea Fog
Sea Fog is co-written by Bong and directed by Shim Sung-bo. It is a dramatization of the tragic true story of the fishing vessel Taechangho, on which 26 undocumented Chinese immigrants suffocated to death as the ship’s crew attempted to smuggle them to South Korea. In the film, the crew on the Jeonjinho chooses to smuggle immigrants for extra money but quickly experiences trouble as they encounter poor weather. Sea Fog is a thoughtful commentary on human nature and a claustrophobic, suspenseful horror film. However, the tonal shifts can be jarring, and the film sometimes leans more heavily on shock and romance than driving home its commentary.
Okja
Okja follows Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun), a farm girl who forms an incredible bond with a genetically modified, large “super pig,” Okja. When greedy CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) tries to take Okja for her own profit, Mija sets out on a rescue mission to retrieve her friend. Okja is imaginative and whimsical while jolting audiences’ consciences about capitalism, greed, and animal cruelty. While elevating a powerful message through a fantasy sci-fi lens, the film features major tonal shifts and over-the-top, unrealistic characters, making the satire sometimes feel aggressive and unnatural.
Barking Dogs Never Bite
Barking Dogs Never Bite is Bong’s directorial debut. The dark comedy centers on Go Yoon-joo (Lee Sung-jae), a young aspiring professor who gets so frustrated with the barking dogs in his apartment complex that he starts kidnapping them. His actions soon catch the attention of Park Hyun-nam (Bae Doona), a maintenance worker who grows suspicious after receiving complaints of missing pets. Barking Dogs Never Bite is darkly comedic with biting commentary on ethics and unemployment, though the shocking depictions of animal cruelty feel unnecessary and will not sit right with some audiences.
Antarctic Journal
Though Bong didn’t direct Antarctic Journal, he co-wrote its script alongside director Yim Pil-sung. The film follows a group of six explorers on a journey to the most remote point in Antarctica. Along the way, Captain Choi Do-hyung (Song Kang-ho) discovers a journal left beyond by a British explorer and becomes uneasy when his experiences begin paralleling those of the British explorer. Antarctic Journal is a unique psychological horror survival film that successfully creates an atmosphere of dread and unease. However, it’s overly long and doesn’t deliver much in terms of a climax or finale.
Where to watch Bong Joon Ho’s best movies streaming online
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