Parasite was one of the most memorable films to come out in the last few years, becoming the first non-english film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It also won the Palme d’Or when the film premiered at Cannes earlier the same year, the first South Korean film to take home the award; to say director Bong Joon-Ho is on a historic run would be a gross understatement. He does not appear to be slowing down however as he has discussed plans for subsequent films that would be a continuum of the Parasite narrative. The first of these follow up films has been more or less confirmed now by Joon-Ho himself when he announced its completion on The Director’s Cut podcast earlier this week.
For those unfamiliar with the original 2019 film, Parasite was a satirical work that examined class structure and disparity with South Korea and around the world through some rather dark and obscure themes. The 90 minute film achieved its objective flawlessly, if I do say so myself, with Joon-Ho’s menacing style wholly capturing how menacing this struggle is to the people within it. The director had been openly vocal about how exhausted he was following the film’s press run during Oscar season, however he seemingly still found time to be productive in 2020 as he completed the script to the first follow-up film of the Parasite franchise. Working on two scripts simultaneously, one in Korean and the other in English no less, the director had this to say on The Director’s Cut podcast: “It feels like I’m splitting my brain in half left and right writing these two scripts. But I finished one last week.” Though it is unclear where the next film will lead off following the ending of the original film, fans are sure to be excited at the sheer sound of this.
While half a brain may not be enough for most, for Joon-Ho it is plenty to write another film worthy of critical appraise. Since the release of Parasite, the director has also begun working on a Snowpiercer television series based upon the 2013 film directed and has racked up 20 episodes thus far. For someone who sounded outright exhausted following his Academy win, Joon-Ho’s pen seemingly never stops moving. Now among the countless films fans have to look forward to upon theaters reopening worldwide, moviegoers can add the next installment of Parasite to their list.
