With a Golden Globe victory under his belt, there is no better time to get acquainted with the films of Bong Joon Ho. Fortunately for those in New York City, Film at Lincoln Center is launching a retrospective of the South Korean filmmaker this week. Running January 7-14, The Bong Show is a singular celebration of the artist. You won’t find Gene Gene the Dancing Machine, or a celebrity panel of judges, but the series does include Bong’s features, a shorts program, and a Carte Blanche section, which boasts some of the filmmaker’s favorite films. Plus, Bong will be in attendance.

The 50-year-old filmmaker is the toast of the town. Since Cannes, Bong has been out drumming up support for his Palme D’Or-winning class thriller, Parasite, and cinephiles have been eating it up. Within the last year, the Munich International Film Festival, the Korean Film Festival in Australia along with the Sydney Film Festival, and American Cinematheque in partnership with the Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles have all hosted retrospectives feting the darkly humorous genre-twisting director. And, Korean Cinema, which celebrated its centennial in 2019, has also been parading Bong as its poster child.

It’s not really a competition, but Film at Lincoln Center’s Bong retrospective is head and shoulders above the rest. It follows their terrific New Korean Cinema series that also featured Bong. The Bong Show comprises his seven feature films, including a new 4K restoration of Memories of Murder (2003). The series continues to diverge from others by assembling his shorts. Among them, you find works he made during his days at the Korean Academy of Film Arts and for the 2004 Jeonju Cinema Project. If you can only go to one program during the series, we recommend catching the shorts.

The Bong Show also offers a glimpse into Bong’s inspirations. For the Carte Blanche section, the filmmaker has handpicked seven films, many of which you can rarely see up on a big screen. These range from Henri-George Clouzot’s 1953 thriller The Wages of Fear to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 1997 Japanese horror film Cure. Other highlights include John Frankenheimer’s 1966 sci-fi drama Seconds, John Boorman’s Deliverance (1972), John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), and Shôhei Imamura’s Intentions of Murder (1964).

As for Bong’s attendance, he plans to introduce the Wednesday, January 8 screening of Memories of Murder. For more information on that, go here. We’ve included a list of the films screening below. For more details, and to buy tickets, visit Film at Lincoln Center’s website.

And for the Bong superfans out there, Film at Lincoln Center’s series isn’t the only celebration of the director to look forward to in 2020. The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is also hosting a retrospective from January 15-25 that Bong will be attending. Also, getting in on the act is the Walker Art Center with Bong Joon Ho: Beyond Boundaries. This series runs from January 31 to February 12 and includes a conversation with the director. And, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is planning a special screening of Parasite in B&W.

If you want to catch up on Bong’s films but can’t make it to any of these retrospectives, we outline how you can watch them over here.

Film at Lincoln Center’s THE BONG SHOW
Barking Dogs Never Bite / Flandersui gae
Bong Joon Ho, South Korea, 2000, 35mm, 110m
Korean with English subtitles
Sunday, January 12, 6:30pm

The Host / Gwoemul
Bong Joon Ho, South Korea, 2006, 35mm, 120m
Korean and English with English subtitles
Tuesday, January 7, 6:00pm
Wednesday, January 8, 3:30pm
Tuesday, January 14, 9:00pm

Memories of Murder / Salinui chueok
Bong Joon Ho, South Korea, 2003, 132m
Korean with English subtitles
Tuesday, January 7, 3:30pm
Wednesday, January 8, 6:00pm
Monday, January 13, 6:00pm*

Mother / Maedo
Bong Joon Ho, South Korea, 2009, 129m
Korean with English subtitles
Thursday, January 9, 8:30pm
Saturday, January 11, 6:15pm
Monday, January 13, 8:30pm*

Okja
Bong Joon Ho, South Korea, 2017, 118m
English, Korean, and Spanish with English subtitles
Tuesday, January 14, 6:30pm

Parasite
Bong Joon Ho, South Korea, 2019, 132m
Korean with English subtitles
Screens daily

Snowpiercer
Bong Joon Ho, South Korea/USA, 2013, 125m
English, Korean, French, Japanese, Czech, and German with English subtitles
Sunday, January 12, 4:00pm
Tuesday, January 14, 1:00pm

Shorts Program: 1994-2008
Friday, January 10, 6:30pm

CARTE BLANCHE: BONG JOON HO SELECTS

Cure
Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan, 1997, 35mm, 112m
Japanese with English subtitles
Tuesday, January 7, 1:00pm
Wednesday, January 8, 8:30pm

Deliverance
John Boorman, USA, 1972, 35mm, 109m
Thursday, January 9, 2:00pm
Sunday, January 12, 8:45pm

Intentions of Murder / Akai satsui
Shohei Imamura, Japan, 1964, 35mm, 150m
Japanese with English subtitles
Friday, January 10, 3:30pm
Saturday, January 11, 9:00pm

Io Island / Iodo
Kim Ki-young, South Korea, 1977, 110m
Korean with English subtitles
Friday, January 10, 1:00pm
Saturday, January 11, 4:00pm

Seconds
John Frankenehimer, USA, 1966, 106m
Friday, January 10, 9:00pm

The Thing
John Carpenter, USA, 1982, 35mm, 109m
Tuesday, January 7, 8:30pm
Wednesday, January 8, 1:00pm

The Wages of Fear / Le salaire de la peur
Henri-Georges Clouzot, France/Italy, 147m
French, English, German, Italian and Russian with English subtitles
Sunday, January 12, 1:00pm
Tuesday, January 14, 3:30pm

*Added screenings due to demand