Bong Joon Ho's Parasite and Memories Of Murder are both coming to the Criterion Collection
Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite—sorry, that’s “multiple Academy Award-winner Bong Joon Ho’s Best Picture-winning Parasite”—is a film that rewards multiple viewings, filled as it is with twists, turns, and clever ways of laying out both its plot convolutions, and its underlying themes, well before they come fully into the light. And while the movie is readily available for streaming right now, we can’t blame you if you want a version of Bong’s movie’s that a little more permanent. A little more fancy. A little more, well…Criterion.
You’re in luck, would-be cinema snob. The Criterion Collection has just announced that it’ll be adding not just one, but two of Bong’s films to its gussied-up roster of home film releases: Parasite, and his 2003 serial killer movie Memories Of Murder. It’s somewhat on-brand that Criterion has gone, with its picks, for two of Bong’s less overtly fantastical film; no super pigs or mega-trains on display here. (Even though we can’t imagine anyone really complaining if his fantastic slow-burn domestic noir Mother also made the cut.) Criterion has yet to detail how it’ll deck out both films—which, among other things, bookend the highly profitable 17-years-and-counting collaboration between Bong and leading man Song Kang Ho—with special features, although we can keep our fingers crossed for a whole host of of commentaries and other deeper looks into the films’ class-conscious psyches. (That being said, Bong has said in other interviews that he came away from the Parasite edit with almost nothing in the way of deleted scenes; if he filmed it, it’s pretty much all on the screen.)
The Criterion announcement comes shortly after news of another high-profile addition to the collection from publisher Neon: Céline Sciamma’s Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, which was announced to be getting its own prestige release late last year.