Familiar Faces: Bong Joon Ho Edition
Tuesday, February 4, 2020 at 11:29AM by Nathaniel R
South Korean auteur Bong Joon Ho has justly received a lot of attention for the brilliant Parasite. But the instant classic wouldn't have caught the fascination of audiences worldwide and the Academy here in the US without that finely honed ensemble navigating its tricky tone and endless talking points. So let's talk Bong Joon Ho's great taste in actors. Were you wondering where you'd seen some of these expressive faces before? Possibly in other films by Bong Joon Ho! Like most of the best auteurs, he likes to reuse actors as if he's running a theater troupe whilst building a great filmography.
Herewith the 18 actors he's used the most often in his 7 films to date and where else you might have seen them if you're curious...
4 films
SONG KANG-HO If you've seen any popular Korean movies in the past decade you were surely already familiar with this amazing actor's indelible face. He's a favourite of many of the country's top directors. In fact, he's starred in 4 of the past 5 Oscar submissions from South Korea (all but Burning last year)...
Bong has previously cast him in his murder mystery Memories of Murder, the monster movie The Host, and in that international dystopia Snowpiercer. He now leads the shady Kim family in Parasite as the driver. Outside of Bong's filmography his most famous roles are in the gangster drama No 3, and three hits from Park Chan Wook, Joint Security Area, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance , and the wildly unsettling vampire thriller Thirst.
BYUN HEE-BONG Bong's other most favourite actor is not in Parasite but he's been with the auteur since his debut film Barking Dogs Never Bite. You can also see him in Memories of Murder, The Host, and Okja.
3 films
LEE JEONG-EUN Though she otherwise works mostly in television in South Korea she's a favourite film presence for Bong. She's the original housekeeper for the rich Park family in Parasite. She also has a small role in Bong Joon Ho's best film prior to Parasite, Mother (South Korea's Oscar submission in 2009). And in addition to a wheelchair bound onscreen appearance in Okja she's the voice of that film's giant mutant pig title character! Her most famous films outside of Bong Joon Ho's filmography are the horror film The Wailing (2016) and as a member of the ensemble of South Korea's 2017's Oscar submission A Taxi Driver.
LEE DONG YONG You can see him briefly as one of the offending drunkards in Parasite. He also makes brief appearances in Memories of Murder and The Host so we figure he's either a friend of Bong's or a favourite of casting directors.
YOON JE MOON He's not in the latest film but you can catch him in the ensemble of both Mother and Okja and as a homeless man in The Host.
2+ films
KIM ROE-HA One of Bong Joon Ho's first collaborators. He's in his debut Barking Dogs Never Bite as "Shadow Man", and he's one of the key detectives in Memories of Murder. He also made a short film with Bong.
2 films
DOONA BAE She's arguably the most famous South Korean actress internationally, since she's worked in multicultural productions on television (Sense8) and in big budget blockbusters (Cloud Atlas). But Bong gave her one of her very first roles in his debut Barking Dogs Never Bite and she is also heroic in The Host.
JEON MI-SEON appears in both Memories of Murder and Mother.
TILDA SWINTON She's the only non-Korean actress to appear in two Bong Joon ho movies. She won some random (but deserved) supporting actress citations for her evil executive in Snowpiercer and had a campy dual role (again villainous) in Okja.
KO ASUNG She led the boisterous monster movie The Host when she was just 14 (her screen debut!) and later shared the screen with Chris Evans and more as Yona, one of the largest roles in Snowpiercer. (To be honest we were a bit surprised she wasn't asked to do the "Jessica" role in Parasite.)
Bong Joon Ho with Paul Lazar
PAUL LAZAR The cross-eyed actor is a favourite of numerous auteurs and the only American actor to appear in two Bong Joon Ho movies. He's a doctor in The Host and Paul in Snowpiercer.
ANDREAS FRONK This German actor is a mercenary in Okja and you can see him in long shot for a split second as a new homeowner very late into Parasite.
CHOI WOO-SIK He nails his plum role as the tutor son in Parasite (who then pulls the whole family into employment in the rich household) but it wasn't his first time with Bong. He also played Kim in Okja.
PARK KEUN-ROK This handsome actor plays plot catalyst with his single scene in Parasite -- he's the college student gifting a very lucrative tutor job to his friend (Choi Woo-sik). Before that he had a small role in Okja.
AHN SEONG-BONG He has small roles in both Okja and Parasite (as "man provoking quarrel")
KIM GIN-GOO She plays a grandmother in both Barking Dogs Never Bite and Mother.
PARK HAE-IL He's in the ensemble of both Memories of Murder and The Host. Outside of Bong's filmography he works often and his most well known role was leading the box office action hit War of the Arrrows. Weirdly he hasn't been working for a few years. What happened to him? Do any of you know?
PARK NO-SHIK This actor pops up in both Memories of Murder and The Host.
The rest of Parasite's cast not mentioned here were working with Bong Joon Ho for the first time but they're all so delicious in the movie that we hope he continues the collaboration.We would especially like to see "Jessica" (Park So Dam) and Mr and Mrs Park (Lee Sun Kyun & Cho Yeo Jeong) return in the next picture.
If those actors seemed familiar to you that's not surprising if you watch Korean movies. Lee Sun Kyun (Mr Park) is a favourite of the prolific director Hong Sang Soo and also does musical theater (!!!) and TV roles. Cho Yeo Jeong (Mrs Park) has also co-starred in various TV series, action films, and erotic dramas The Concubine and The Servant so she's got a lot plentiful range as well as beauty and comedic timing. CAST HER IN LOTS OF MOVIES AND SEND THEM TO THE U.S., PLEASE. Park So Dam ("Jessica"), who became a star in South Korea in 2015, previously co-starred in the Korean Oscar submission The Throne (2015) and played a possessed high school girl in The Priests (2015)
Reader Comments (7)
Recently I've been watching a lot of Korean films, in particular the work of Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook. It's incredible how many movies Song Kang-ho appears in and just how spectacular he is in all of them. The versatility of his man is staggering. For me, the pain of him missing out on a nomination for Parasite stings even worse now.
I wish Cho Yeo Jeong would have gotten more traction for a supporting nom.
I love the fact that Bong Joon-Ho kept around his company of actors as they're starting to be more recognizable for me having seen almost all of Joon-Ho's films (the only one I haven't seen is Okja).
Strongly second sending more movies to Cho Yeo Jeong. She is talented, funny, attractive, not afraid to look silly, and her English is very good. To paraphrase Meryl Streep "Somebody give her a movie!"
His actors clearly trust him and like working with him. I forgot that he convinced Lee Jeong-Eun to voice Okja. The roles he gets his returning actors to perform are always quite different from each other. He likes his actors to show off their range, which probably gets the m more excited to take on the challenge of his work and really commit to his vision. I'm a fan.
Glad to see Lee jeong-eun rightfully sweeping supporting actress award in Korea.
I think you're wrong about Park Keun-Rok, he played the original driver in Parasite,
the one who gives the Kim family a rock & tutor job played by Park Seo-joon (who arguably the most famous star in Korea among this cast).
He should use Kim Hye-ja again. She was so good in Mother and had I ruled the Academy she would have gotten an Oscar for her work there.