Bong Joon Ho - Philosopher and Filmmaker

With the release of Parasite (2019), recipient of the Palme d''Or and an Academy Award for Best Picture, South Korean director, Bong Joon Ho, secured his place as one of his generation''s leading filmmakers. Yet while scholars and critics have long appreciated his penetrating critique of Korean society and global capitalism, his oeuvre has not been considered from a philosophical perspective. This book argues that his cinema is philosophical and in a radical and original rather than derivative sense. Anthony Curtis Adler explores Bong''s assertion that Western philosophy is itself a "cinematic apparatus." He claims philosophy anticipates cinema''s technical and expressive means and cinema in turn possesses an extraordinary capacity to criticize philosophy from within. Focusing on the interaction of three closely linked philosophical-cinematic apparatuses used by Bong (the projection of visionary spaces, self-domestication and human life itself as a drama), this book features close readings of his seven feature-length films. Drawing out the philosophical depth of a visionary auteur, Adler brings us on a journey into a unique cinematic world.

Product details

• Authors: Anthony Curtis Adler, Adler Anthony Curtis
• Assisted by: Costica Bradatan (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 01.12.2025
• EAN: 9781350414655
• ISBN: 978-1-350-41465-5
• No. of pages: 240
• Series: Philosophical Filmmakers
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; PHILOSOPHY / Aesthetics, PHILOSOPHY / Criticism, Social & political philosophy, Philosophy: aesthetics, Individual Film Directors, Film-Makers, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / Direction & Production, Film Theory & Criticism, Film history, theory or criticism