The recipient of three Academy Awards, his work is characterised by emphasis on social and class themes, genre-mixing, dark comedy, and sudden tone shifts.

[2] All of Bong's films have been South Korean productions, although Snowpiercer, Okja (2017) and the upcoming Mickey 17 (2025) are Hollywood co-productions with major use of the English language.

Bong's maternal grandfather, Park Taewon, was an esteemed author during the Japanese colonial period, best known for his work A Day in the Life of Kubo the Novelist and his defection to North Korea in 1950.

[1] Shortly afterwards, Bong began shooting his first feature Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000) under producer Cha Seung-jae, who had overseen the production of both Motel Cactus and Phantom: The Submarine.

[15] The film, about a low-ranking university lecturer who abducts a neighbor's dog, was shot in the same apartment complex where Bong lived after his marriage.

[1][better source needed] Bong's second film, Memories of Murder (2003), a much larger project, was adapted from a stage play centered on a real-life serial killer who terrorized a rural town in the 1980s.

Word of mouth drove the film to sell over five million tickets (rescuing Cha Seung-jae's production company Sidus from near-bankruptcy), and a string of local honors followed, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (for Song Kang-Ho) and Best Lighting prizes at the Grand Bell Awards in 2003.

[18] The big-budget ($12 million) work centered on a fictional monster that rises up out of the Han River to wreak havoc on the people of Seoul—and on one family in particular.

[18] After initially contacting New Zealand's Weta Digital—the company responsible for the CGI in The Lord of the Rings—scheduling conflicts led Bong to San Francisco-based The Orphanage, who took on the majority of the effects work.

With theater owners calling for more and more prints, the film enjoyed South Korea's widest release ever (on over a third of the nation's 1,800 screens) and set a new box office record with 13 million tickets sold.

Bong's segment is about a man who has lived for a decade as a Hikikomori—the term used in Japan for people unable to adjust to society who do not leave their homes—and what happens when he falls in love with a pizza delivery girl.

It is based on the graphic novel Le Transperceneige (1982) by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette,[31][32][33][34][35] and set largely on a futuristic train where those on board are separated according to their social status.

The site's critical consensus reads: "Snowpiercer offers an audaciously ambitious action spectacular for filmgoers numb to effects-driven blockbusters.

On April 30, 2015, screenwriter Jon Ronson announced on his Twitter account that he was writing the second draft of Bong's screenplay for the film.

[49] It premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or and sparked controversy due to it being produced by Netflix.

The site's critical consensus reads: "Okja sees Bong Joon Ho continuing to create defiantly eclectic entertainment – and still hitting more than enough of his narrative targets in the midst of a tricky tonal juggling act.

"[59] In 2019, Bong directed the South Korean film Parasite,[60] a black comedy thriller about a poor family that infiltrates a wealthy household by gaining employment as unrelated staff members.

The site's critical consensus reads: "An urgent, brilliantly layered look at timely social themes, Parasite finds writer-director Bong Joon Ho in near-total command of his craft.

[67] Regarding motivation of the film's creation, Bong hoped that he would live a comfortable life, however he was disappointed several times in reality.

[81] Parasite was later submitted as the South Korean entry for Best International Feature Film for the 92nd Academy Awards,[82] making the December shortlist.

[86][87] While accepting the Academy Award for Best Director, Bong expressed his deep respect and appreciation for fellow nominees Martin Scorsese, who inspired his work, and Quentin Tarantino, who supported and praised his earlier films.

[88] He also mentioned a quote from Scorsese—"The most personal is the most creative"—that also inspired him, which prompted the audience to give Scorsese an enthusiastic standing ovation.

[91] Conversely, U.S. president Donald Trump lambasted Parasite's win at a campaign rally in Colorado on February 20, 2020, questioning why a foreign film won Best Picture;[92] his comments were widely condemned as "xenophobic" and "racist".

"[94] In January 2020, an HBO six-hour limited series based on the film, with Bong and Adam McKay serving as executive producers, currently in early development, was announced as an upcoming project.

[104] In May 2022, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo joined the cast and the film is entered in pre-production at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden.

[109] Bong also studied the films of Martin Scorsese and cited him as one of his major influences during his acceptance speech for the Academy Award for Best Director when he won for Parasite (2019).

[110] His process when working with actors is to make them feel comfortable and gives them a high amount of freedom when performing, even allowing them to improvise.

The most defining trademark of Bong's films are their sudden tone shifts (sometimes within scenes) between drama, darkness, and black or slapstick humor.

In an interview promoting Snowpiercer (2013), actor Ed Harris described Bong's shooting process as "cutting while filming".

[114] His list includes three works by Martin Scorsese (Mean Streets, Raging Bull, Goodfellas) and two films each by Shohei Imamura, Kim Ki-young, Alfred Hitchcock, François Truffaut, Federico Fellini, John Carpenter, David Lynch, Akira Kurosawa and Stanley Kubrick.