"The Films of Bong Joon Ho is at once a path-breaking study of the director Bong Joon Ho—one of the most recognized and internationally acclaimed filmmakers currently active in South Korea—and his films and simultaneously a study of how the post-1987 South Korean film industry came into being. Drawing upon her own rich experience as a former staff writer and film critic in South Korea and with judicious use of relevant critical theories, Lee offers us both the larger sociopolitical, historical, and cultural context of Bong's films as well as detailed analyses of a set of films, both critically received and commercially successful ones as well as relatively unknown earlier short films. This book is a great service not only to the fans of Bong but also to the general public who are interested in films of South Korea, as well as to the scholarly community of film studies and Korean studies."— Namhee Lee, University of California, Los Angeles"For the legions of new fans of Bong Joon Ho, this timely book will demonstrate that the triumph of Parasite in the West was no fluke. Nam Lee demonstrates in loving detail just how Bong has managed over a two decade-long career of unprecedented critical and commercial success to condemn and critique contemporary society through the lens of satire, humor and sheer entertainment. It's hard to think of a director better able to address both Korean controversies and universal anxieties and a writer better able to explicate these concerns."— David Desser, founding editor, the Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema
