20 Years Later, Bong Joon-Ho Looks Back at His Sci-Fi Thriller Masterpiece: 'It Was a Very Tough Process'

Two decades ago, in a 2006 interview with a Korean newspaper, Bong Joon-ho made a surprising statement about his then-new horror movie, The Host . The director, who would go on to make Parasite , Snowpiercer , and Mickey 17 , revealed that the mutated monster from The Host was based on an actual creature he'd spotted in Seoul’s Han River, 19 years earlier. "I don't know exactly what it was," Bong said at the time. "What is clear is that it was a living creature, and it wasn't human.