Bong Joon-ho and Cast Have Lunch at Cheong Wa Dae

Published on 2020/02/21 | Source

President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook meet with the cast and crew of Bong Joon-ho's film "Parasite" at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Thursday. /Yonhap

President Moon Jae-in sat down for lunch at Cheong Wa Dae on Thursday with Bong Joon-ho and the cast and production team of his Oscar-winning film "Parasite".

Moon spoke of the country's pride in their achievement and pledged further government support for the movie industry in Korea "without meddling".

Bong was on a secret blacklist kept by the previous Park Geun-hye administration of artists to be denied public funding because they were considered "hostile" to her vaudeville regime.

Picking up on the theme of the movie, Moon also spoke of his frustration with the opposition over lack of speedy progress to policies aimed at "resolving inequality".

Responding to criticism that the lavish lunch was held while many Koreans are hunkering down amid the coronavirus panic, a Cheong Wa spokesman said, "The lunch had been planned in advance and was aimed at providing a morale boost to the public".

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"Parasite" is directed by Bong Joon-ho, and features Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Wooshik, Park So-dam, Lee Jung-eun. Release date in Korea: 2020/02/26.