So, my timeline is full with the success Oscar story of Bong Joon-Ho and his work, Parasite. What a Day!
The first time I watched Bong’s film was in a new movie-theatre named Blitz Megaplex in Grand Indonesia, Jakarta. It was The Host, circa 2006. What a rollercoaster that was. I got engaged. After the show, my friend asked me: “From 1 to 10, how was the movie?” I answered right away:”11!”. Probably that is a hyperbole, but I really liked it.
About 13 years later, I watched Parasite, last year, in CGV (The new name of Blitz) at Pacific Place,Jakarta. And Bong still blew my mind, and he is more skillful than ever.
In 2011, 5 years after my first experience with Bong’s work, I got invited by IVLP to visit some cities in the US, including Sundance Film Festival. It was snowy and the hill in the winter was colder particularly in the evening and midnight. That day, I really wanted to watch Alex Stapleton’s “Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel”, a documentary on Roger Corman, the King of B-Movies, and his Corman’s Film School. The program title was “Park City at Midnight”, so i had to wait until midnight to enter (with a very long queue, outdoor!) the theater. It was almost midnight, in the cold winter. My colleagues decided to go back to the hotel in Salt Lake City (about 45 minutes from the venue). I made up my mind, i had to watch the movie, so I stayed, sitting in the lobby of a hotel near the venue to keep me warm. And, midnight has arrived. We entered the cinema.
And guess who sat in front of me: Bong Joon-Ho! He was one of the juries.I was not really sure at first, so I asked him nervously:”Are you Bong Joon-Ho?”. And he said yes. So, I asked him to sign the festival booklet. Damn, I forgot where I kept it.n
Anyway, I wrote a short review on the movie: https://m.detik.com/hot/movie/d-1586885/oleh-oleh-dari-sundance-film-festival-2011 (sorry, it’s in Indonesian language).
#starstruck #numpangnorak #bong #bongjoonho #parasite #thehost
Other story related to starstruck with other great filmmakers: https://findingjakasembung.blogspot.com/2019/07/?m=1
