About the Exhibition
Director's Inspiration: Bong Joon Ho is the first exhibition dedicated to the internationally acclaimed, Oscar®–winning film director. In a continuation of the Academy Museum’s Director’s Inspiration series, this exhibition offers a focused spotlight on Bong Joon Ho’s creative process, filmography, and cinematic influences.
Whether set in 1980s Korea or an imagined future, Bong Joon Ho's films highlight transnational and universal issues: class disparities, social injustice, the environmental crisis, and political and moral corruption. His protagonists are everyday people—unlikely heroes—who confront the absurdities of modern life. From his earliest short films to his international breakthrough The Host (Republic of Korea, 2006), through the Academy Award®–winning Parasite (Republic of Korea, 2019), Bong Joon Ho's work defies simple categorization, embedding social critique into deeply funny, unexpected, and thought-provoking stories.
With unprecedented access to the filmmaker's archive and personal collection, the exhibition features over 100 original objects including storyboards, research materials, film posters, concept art, creature models, props, and on-set photographs.
Director's Inspiration: Bong Joon Ho is curated by Exhibitions Curator Michelle Puetz, with the support of Assistant Curator Nicholas Barlow, Research Assistants Josue Lopez and Jeongsil Yoon, and former Getty Marrow Curatorial Intern Janice Kim.
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Screenings
The Thing in 4K
In person: John Carpenter and Bong Joon Ho. Museum member presale begins 2/19 at 9am PT. Public ticket sales open on 2/21 at 9am PT.
4K DCP
Screenings
Screenings
Screenings
Snowpiercer (설국열차)
Bong Joon Ho's first English-language film is a dystopian fantasy realized with horror, humor, and magnificent visuals, and features a stellar cast including Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris, and Song Kang-ho.
DCP
Screenings
Mother (마더) in 35mm
Actor Kim Hye-Ja, known to be the prototypical mother figure in Korea, stars in Bong Joon Ho’s psychological thriller as the titular “mother” who takes extreme measures to free her only son, imprisoned for the alleged murder of a teenage girl. Kim is brilliant in her subversive depiction of a Korean mother, going against the grain of the types of characters she’s played since the 1960s, all popular and familiar to Korean audiences. Heavily driven by the mother’s agenda, the film’s narrative constantly shifts and reroutes its direction, unfolding new elements derived from the mother’s subjective, instinctual investigation in which the line between truth and deception is neither crucial nor corroborated.
35mm
Screenings
The Host (괴물) in 35mm
Oscar-winning director Bong Joon Ho’s third feature film, The Host, is a monster blockbuster starring Song Kang-ho as Park Gang-du, the head of a dysfunctional family.
35mm
Screenings
Memories of Murder (살인의추억) in 4k
Inspired by a true story, Memories of Murder centers around the gruesome serial killings of women in South Korea in the 1980s, investigated by Doo-man (Song), a detective who relies on instinct rather than factual objectives.
4K DCP
Screenings
Barking Dogs Never Bite (플란다스의개) in 35mm
Barking Dogs Never Bite is centered around an unemployed academic and his satirical battle against barking dogs in his apartment building.
35mm
Supported By
Director’s Inspiration: Bong Joon Ho is made possible in part by leadership support from CJ ENM, Korea Foundation, and Netflix. Additional support provided by Sara Risher and Yeardley Smith. Technology solutions generously provided by Panasonic. Special thanks to the Korean Film Archive for their partnership.