Bong Joon-ho made his feature film debut in 2000 with the film "Barking Dogs Never Bite." Of a crowd of talented new Korean directors emerging at the time, Bong appeared to attract the least attention and achieve the least commercial success. Despite earlier strong support for his short film "Incoherence" in 1994, Bong appeared headed for failure.

Three years later, however, the tables turned again for Bong. His thriller "Memories of Murder." based on a real-life unsolved serial killer case from recent Korean history, proved a hit. Already noted from its earlier stages as having an...