Grand Central Publishing will be releasing the complete storyboards to writer-director Bong Joon Ho’s four-time Academy Award-winning Parasite as a book, currently set to hit stores on May 19, 2020. Parasite just made history as the first foreign-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and the first Korean film to win Best Director, Best International Film, and Best Original Screenplay.
RELATED: Parasite to Stream Exclusively on Hulu in the U.S. This April
Grand Central has acquired North American rights to the book, which has already been published in South Korea, from David Kuhn and Nate Muscato at Aevitas Creative Management. The 304 pages, drawn by Bong himself, depict every scene in the movie and read like a graphic novel. The dialogue, stage and camera directions will be translated into English from Korean, and the book will include a foreword written by Bong about the making of the film and his creative process.
“Director Bong’s illustrations share the illuminating power of his writing and directing, making the Parasite graphic novel a gorgeous, riveting read and fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse at the making of one of the best films of the year,” says Senior Editor Wes Miller, who acquired the graphic novel for Grand Central Publishing. “The result is an all-new way to experience the vertiginous delights and surprises of Bong Joon Ho’s deeply affecting, genre-defying story.”
Parasite is set amidst the two families, the Parks, the picture of aspirational wealth, and the Kims, rich in street smarts but not much else. Be it chance or fate, these two houses are brought together and the Kims sense a golden opportunity. Masterminded by college-aged Ki-woo, the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist, to the Parks. Soon, a symbiotic relationship forms between the two families. The Kims provide “indispensable” luxury services while the Parks obliviously bankroll their entire household. When a parasitic interloper threatens the Kims’ newfound comfort, a savage, underhanded battle for dominance breaks out, threatening to destroy the fragile ecosystem between the Kims and the Parks.
RELATED: Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, Memories of Murder Getting Criterion Releases!
Parasite is a peculiar tale about two families who are worlds apart yet somewhat alike, portraying a striking reality of the world we live in. The film stars Song Kang Ho, Lee Sun-Kyun (A Hard Day), Cho Yeo-Jeong (Obsessed), Choi Woo-Shik (Okja), Park So-Dam (The Priests), and Chang Hyae-Jin (Poetry). The film was written and directed by Bong Joon Ho.
