The result is a fun and insightful commentary track that hardly ever betrays the fact that it was recorded some 5,500 miles apart (Bong in Seoul, and Rayns in London) - one that will prove illuminating to casual “Parasite” fans, and leave diehard connoisseurs with a few tidbits that even they might not have known before.įrom visual details to previously unrevealed factoids and Bong’s few regrets, here are 10 things we learned from Criterion’s “Parasite” commentary: Recognizing how the various ideas and social concerns behind the film had already been discussed ad nauseum, Bong and Rayns devote their conversation to the minutiae of making “Parasite” in the hopes that an extreme close-up might reveal new (or clearer) ways of looking at it. 'French Dispatch' and 'Last Night in Soho' Start to Lift Stagnant Specialty Box Office Wes Anderson's Favorite Movies: 35 Films the Auteur Wants You to See 'One Night in Miami' and More Criterion Collection Movies to Pre-Order for the Holidays 'Get Out' Tops WGA List of 101 Greatest Scripts of the 21st Century, 'Parasite' Cracks Top 10 By this point, the vast majority of people who love “Parasite” enough to buy it on premium DVD or Blu-ray and sift through the special features already know about the invention of jjapaguri or “ram-don” noodles (which Bong still insists he’s never tried), the influence of Kurosawa’s “High and Low” on the verticality of the film’s class divide, and the fact that Ki-woo - on an average Korean salary - would have to work for 547 years to afford the house above the basement where his father ends up living at the end of the movie.
Nevertheless, when Bong and revered British film writer Tony Rayns connected over Zoom to record the audio commentary for the Criterion Collection’s new edition of “Parasite,” they were faced with the unusual challenge of shining new light on a movie that had been having a year-long moment in the sun. It’s a testament to Bong’s endurance that he survived that gauntlet (and was just as pleasant to speak to at the end of that journey as he was at the beginning), and it’s a testament to the vitality of his film that - even after speaking with virtually every semi-legitimate entertainment journalist on the planet Earth - there was still more to say about it. That’s an average of more than two interviews every single day. Between the Cannes premiere of “ Parasite” in May 2019 and its Best Picture win at the Oscars some nine months later, writer-director Bong Joon Ho gave over 600 interviews, and participated in more than 100 post-screening Q&As.
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