Bong Joon-ho has not only never made a bad movie; he has delivered eight feature-length films separated only by degrees of brilliance and your personal preferences. Trying to rank them in any definitive way involves heartbreak and folly, but this is the internet, the home of heartbreak and folly, so here goes.Like many great artists, director Bong Joon-hos accomplishments extend beyond the boundaries of his work. He not only helped lead a cinematic revolution in South Korea but inspired audiences across the world to celebrate and engage with international films in ways that wonderfully contradict so much else that is happening in global culture.With Mickey 17 now in theaters, lets see where it fits in to the directors body of work, as much as for the infinitely enjoyable task of discussing Bong Joon-hos excellent movies as anything else.8. Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000)Like many debut films from directors that went on to enjoy remarkable careers, Barking Dogs Never Bite is equally fascinating and frustrating. You can see so many of the stylistic trademarks that would later make Bong Joon-ho one of the worlds greatest directors, but the movie itself simply pales in comparison to what the filmmaker would eventually deliver.Barking Dogs Never Bite follows a man who goes to extreme lengths to deal with the dogs that are constantly barking in and around his apartment complex. Given that this is a Bong Joon-ho film, it probably wont surprise you to learn that the premise gives way to a pitch black comedy bolstered by social satire. Unlike the directors greatest later works, though, Bong Joon-ho is clearly still figuring out how to balance this concepts seemingly opposed tones and narrative twists.The result is a movie that sometimes feels like more of a collage of concepts than a complete work. Its a surprisingly silly kind of comedy given its subject matter, and its generally excellent moments of suspense are a bit too scattered to offer more than a vague reminder of other Bong Joon-ho movies youve probably already seen. Still, Barking Dogs Never Bite is a solid debut film that even features a few fascinating flourishes that the director never really returned to but certainly should (particularly that wonderful soundtrack.)7. Mickey 17 (2025)Bong Joon-ho has never made a bad movie, though some of his slightly lesser works often see the director boldly explore a variety of ideas and try to make them fit together as cleanly as possible before the ride is over. While opinions vary wildly on which of those fascinatingly imperfect works are ultimately more successful, Mickey 17 stands as perhaps the directors most obvious example of refusing to settle for anything less than a big swing.Inspired by Edward Ashtons 2022 sci-fi novel Mickey7, Mickey 17 explores the many consequences of a revolutionary and controversial piece of technology that allows for otherwise disposable laborers to be cloned and revived when they inevitably die on some absurdly dangerous assignment. Unsurprisingly, Bong Joon-ho uses that technology to thread a plot through the logical gaps that cause capitalists to treat such workers as both essential and disposable. In its best moments, Mickey 17 finds a lot of fun in its inherently dark concept.Yet, Mickey 17 has nearly as many storylines as there are versions of Mickey. Some narrative revelations ultimately work better than others, and the weaker aspects of the plot ultimately monopolize the experience as it builds towards a mixed finale. While the movies wonderful cast (Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette) are game for everything that comes their way, even they cant quite anchor this massive project that reaches for masterpiece status but often falls slightly short.6. Snowpiercer (2013)Ideally, more movies would take place on trains. They offer a perfect contained environment filled with fascinating characters that must interact with each other as they barrel towards a destination/finale. As it turns out, a train is also the perfect place for Bong Joon-ho to explore some of his wildest ideas while trying to keep everything relatively on-track.In the world of Snowpiercer (which is based on Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochettes graphic novel), an apocalyptic event has forced humanitys survivors to live aboard a train designed to run forever and preserve the lives of its passengers. However, those passengers are separated by a brutal class system that eventually inspires the poorest among them to stage a revolution. Snowpiercers greatest moments often come from watching the revolutionists explore the unique social structures of each car, and learn some horrifying information about how the other half is living.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!While much of the film offers a brand of thrilling social satire not seen since Paul Verhoevens sci-fi days, Snowpiercer does struggle to find a destination that is quite as exciting as the journey. Occasional bumpy moments aside, this exciting combination of action, social commentary, thrills, and perfect casting makes it an ideal Bong Joon-ho starting point for many viewers.5. Okja (2017)The last entry in Bong Joon-hos fascinating and flawed international picture trilogy (were on to straight masterpieces from here), Okja follows a young girl who tries to save a genetically modified creature from an abusive corporation. While this movie offers a plethora of Bong Joon-hos trademark twists and turns, the heart of this film is the E.T.-like child and their unlikely friend narrative that will pull you in by your heartstrings.Its that element that grounds the movie compared to some of Bong Joon-hos other conceptually ambitious works. No matter how dark and weird things get (in often wonderful ways), everything that happens revolves around the characters at the center of this adventure. Okja is often overwhelmingly emotional in ways that extend well beyond the cheap tricks of featuring a cute character in peril and instead tap into the core of our humanity.Okja is also one of Bong Joon-hos most outwardly politically rebellious movies. While the director has never been afraid to speak his mind in that arena, Okjas focus on the topics of environmentalism and animal cruelty offers this picture more specific targets that its director skewers with razor sharp wit.4. The Host (2006)Much like 1954s Godzilla, you can watch The Host and simply enjoy it as one of the best entries in the beloved giant monster movie genre. However, the lasting brilliance of this film is found in the often subtler pieces of social commentary that fuel all of the grand things that happen on-screen.The Hosts conceptually simple premise deals with a monster that emerges from the Han River and terrorizes the residents of Seoul. As military and government officials struggle to contain the creature, one family does their best to stay together while evading the monsters assault. Bong Joon-ho described The Host as the project hes been dreaming of most of his life, and you can certainly see his love for this genre in every masterfully crafted sequence that both recalls the best monster movies of eras gone by and elevates that entire concept.Dig a little deeper, though, and youll find so much more than that. Not only is the movies inciting incident based on a tragic real event that saw Americans dump gallons of formaldehyde into the Han River, but The Host generally addresses South Koreas push-and-pull cultural fascination with Western (specifically American) influences. Literally toxic American contributions force struggling locals to discover their strength and unity as those in power around them continuously make the wrong decisions. It should have never come to this, but The Host explores what we can learn and build in the chaos of it all.3. Mother (2009)Mother feels like it could have just as easily been directed by that other prolific South Korean auteur of the modern movie era, Park Chan-wook. This story of a mother who goes to incredible lengths to clear her sons name features more of the visceral bleakness that is often associated with Park Chan-wooks work than Bong Joon-hos typically more satirical stories.Yet, Mother is ultimately a reminder that Bong Joon-ho is one of our most gifted modern masters of suspense. The noir-like adventure that this truly unlikely protagonist is thrust into is both instinctively thrilling and packed with subtle observations that are only revealed to those who dare to dwell on this often difficult watch. Mother is a meditation on the incredible things our emotions enable us to do and the awful places they can take us as told through the lens of the ultimate global protagonist: a mother trying to save her son.And while its a stretch to call many moments in this film humorous, there are traces of amusing absurdity spread throughout this movie that recall Bong Joon-hos wonderful ability to turn the bleakest observations about the everything of it all into something so fundamentally watchable.2. Memories of Murder (2003)Ranking Bong Joon-hos top two films is more of a 1A and 1B situation, but lets not get too caught up on the semantics when allowed to discuss two of the greatest film achievements of the last 25 years.Inspired by a true story, Memories of Murder follows two detectives who attempt to solve a brutal crime that their community is not emotionally or logistically prepared to deal with. Whatever your expectations are for a crime/police movie with such a premise, I can assure you that you can safely check them at the door. Memories of Murder only treads familiar ground when it offers the most efficient path to its stunning conclusions. The heroes in such works are replaced by mere humans who are assigned to solve something that they continuously struggle to understand. Worse, they have this misinformed expectation of how such investigations should go that is often inspired by that other media that misrepresents these occurrences.Despite its heavy subject matter, Memories of Murder may be Bong Joon-hos most thrilling and hilarious screenplay. Scenes of the killer stalking his victims are some of the tensest ever captured on film, and the sight of an overly enthusiastic cop continuously dropkicking suspects never fails to invoke a laugh that is entirely within the spirit of what that visual is trying to say about that person. It all leads to an ending that ranks among the most powerful uses of perspective in film since an outlaw fired their gun towards the audience in 1903s The Great Train Robbery.1. Parasite (2019)If Parasite isnt a perfect film, its as close to that mark as a movie has ever come within the natural limits of human endeavors. And while Bong Joon-hos 2019 movie received ample accolades during its legendary award season run, much of what has occurred in the world since then only strengthens the power of this immediate yet timeless work.At first, Parasite focuses on a young man who lands a pretty cozy job tutoring the daughter of a wealthy family. While he is able to use his position to find jobs for the rest of his family, their good fortune is threatened by a series of shocking revelations that forces us to confront the cost of getting ahead.Parasite is a heist movie where the prized jewel is a paycheck. Its a con artist movie where the grift is getting a job youre qualified for. It is a complete indictment of the parasitic nature of capitalism that never stops thrilling and delighting even as it offers several movies worth of characters, scenarios, and concepts. And while Bong Joon-ho is known for delivering some of the greatest endings in modern movie history, it will be hard for him to top Parasites wonderful final moments in which we are forced to stare down the barrel of the weaponized dream that inspires new generations to buy into the big lie at the heart of it all.