Director’s Inspiration: Bong Joon Ho is the first exhibition dedicated to the Oscar–winning film director. This exhibition features a spotlight on Bong Joon Ho’s creative process, filmography and cinematic influences. Whether set in 1980s Korea or an imagined future, Bong Joon Ho’s movies highlight transnational and universal issues: class disparities, social injustice, the environmental crisis, along with political and moral corruption. His protagonists are everyday people who confront the absurdities of modern life. From his earliest short films to his international breakthrough The Host (2006), through the Oscar–winning Parasite (2019), Bong Joon Ho’s work defies simple categorization, embedding social critique into deeply funny, unexpected, and thought-provoking stories.

With unprecedented access to the filmmaker’s archive and personal collection, the exhibition features over 100 original objects including storyboards, research materials, film posters, concept art, creature models, props, and on-set photographs.

Director’s Inspiration: Bong Joon Ho is curated by Exhibitions Curator Michelle Puetz, with the support of Assistant Curator Nicholas Barlow, Research Assistants Josue Lopez and Jeongsil Yoon, and former Getty Marrow Curatorial Intern Janice Kim.