Meet Bong Joon Ho, ‘Parasite’ director who created history at Oscar 2020

Bong Joon Ho’s ‘Parasite’ on Monday leap-frogged through 92 years of Oscar history to become the first non-English and South Korean film to win the best picture award. It’s a film with twisted satire on class divide and cultural identities.

It also bagged Academy Awards for best original screenplay and best international feature after winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes, a Golden Globe and two Baftas.

"We never write to represent our countries," said the 50-year-old Bong. "But this is (the) very first Oscar to South Korea. Thank you."

Later, as he accepted the prize for best international feature, he said in English, eliciting laughs from the audience: "Yeah, I'm ready to drink tonight."

South Korean Director had grown up in an artistic family in Seoul. His maternal grandfather was a known novelist. All of Ho’s siblings are university professors in fields including fashion and fine art.

Parasite’s director studied sociology at the South's prestigious Yonsei University. He reportedly participated in street protests while he was enrolled there during the country's pro-democracy movement in the 1980s.

During an interview, Bong said he had been arrested for using petrol bombs.

Bong was among the first group of filmmakers in South Korea to prosper after the country's full democratisation.

Memories of Murder - a 2003 film by Ho was based on real-life serial killings that rattled South Korea in the 1980s. The feature film was seen as a metaphor for a repressive society under military rule.

Ho’s Snowpiercer released in 2013 depicted a dystopian future in which the last humans on Earth - who survived a failed attempt to stop global warming - travel endlessly on a train separated according to class and the lower class revolts.

Quentin Tarantino once referred the South Korean as "Steven Spielberg in his prime".

All through his career, Bong has often dealt with dark and difficult subjects including violent crime, systematic oppression and the climate crisis.

Bong has also candidly spoken about dealing with severe anxiety in a country where mental health has long been a taboo topic.