For Bong Joon-ho, navigating the virtual Parasite set was like playing an RPG

In February, Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite made history as the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards. Now the film is getting a Criterion Collection release, which features a heap of extras, including a conversation between director Bong and critic Darcy Paquet. In this exclusive clip from that supplement, Bong discusses his storyboarding process and how the now-iconic Park house came together.

The house owned by the rich Park family is a key structure in the film, as its lavishness easily indicates the disparity between the Parks and the Kim family members who come to work for them. The structure is so remarkable that it even got its own feature in Architectural Digest, not least because it was a fully built set, not a real house. (Bong notes later in the conversation that even Alejandro González Iñárritu, who was on the Cannes jury that awarded Parasite the Palme d’Or, had been fooled into thinking it was an existing structure.) In the conversation, Bong notes that, in order to help prepare for shooting, the crew had constructed a virtual version of the house that could be navigated “kind of like an RPG game.”

The Criterion release of Parasite also includes the black-and-white version of the film, with a new introduction from director Bong, as well as the following other supplements:

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital master, approved by director Bong Joon Ho and director of photography Hong Kyung Pyo, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New audio commentary featuring Bong and critic Tony Rayns
• Black-and-white version of the film with a new introduction by Bong, and Dolby Atmos soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New conversation between Bong and critic Darcy Paquet
• New interviews with Hong, production designer Lee Ha Jun, and editor Yang Jinmo
• New program about the New Korean Cinema movement featuring Bong and filmmaker Park Chan Wook (Oldboy)
• Cannes Film Festival press conference from 2019 featuring Bong and members of the cast
• Master class featuring Bong from the 2019 Lumière Festival in Lyon, France
• Storyboard comparison
• Trailers
• PLUS: An essay by critic Inkoo Kang
2019 • 131 minutes • Color • Dolby Atmos/5.1 surround • In Korean with English subtitles • 2.39:1 aspect ratio

The Criterion edition of Parasite is available for purchase now.