Anchor: South Korean director Bong Joon-ho won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his movie "Parasite" on Saturday, becoming the first South Korean to grab the award. KBS spoke to Bong at Cannes before the closing ceremony about the satirical black comedy.
Kim Bum-soo has more.

Report: 

[Nat sound: 72nd Cannes Film Festival closing ceremony (May 25/ Cannes, France)]
(Alejandro González Iñarritu announcing Bong Joon-ho as the Palme d'Or winner: "Parasite of Bong Joon-ho!")

South Korean director Bong Joon-ho won the top Palme d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his film "Parasite."

Accepting the prize on Saturday after a unanimous decision by the 21-member jury, the 49-year-old director said the black comedy was an amazing adventure for him as well.

[Sound bite: Film director Bong Joon-ho (Korean)]
"I was a young movie buff who decided to become a film director when I was 12 years old. I never imagined there would be a day when I would hold this trophy in my hands. Merci beaucoup!"

He also thanked his staff and cast, calling his longtime leading actor, Song Kang-ho, onto the stage to receive the award with him. 

Bong is the first Korean director to win the highest honor in the festival's 72-year history. Korean Park Chan-wook won the runner-up Grand Prix for "Old Boy" in 2004 and Im Kwon-taek took the best director award for "Chihwaseon" in 2002. 

Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Bong said that one-hundred years of Korean cinematic history finally had born fruit. 

[Sound bite: Film director Bong Joon-ho (Korean)]
"This year marks one-hundred years of Korean cinema. Cannes has given a meaningful gift to the Korean movie industry. 
"I didn't come out of nowhere to suddenly make movies in Korea; there are great Korean directors like the late director Kim Ki-young." 

Starring Song, Lee Sun-kyun and Cho Yeo-jeong, "Parasite" tells the story of two families who are markedly different yet also alike. 

Before winning the Palme d'Or prize, Bong told KBS at Cannes that the film's story appeals to non-Korean audiences, too. 

[Sound bite: Film director Bong Joon-ho (Korean)]
"I naturally talk about it with foreign friends and [industry] people and they all say that the situation is the same in their countries. [They say] the scenario doesn't need to be fixed if it is remade in London." 
"If you look at how we live, reasonably good and reasonably bad people live together. The fun of the movie is that these people run into an unexpected situation. I tried hard to depict various expressions of a home and I sought hard to capture various depictions of the house as it is itself a main character along with the actors and their characters. The whole movie is composed of situations where the rich and the poor pass by closely enough to smell each other, including a poor youth becoming a tutor to a rich family. This is a movie in which smells had to be an important motif." 

Main actor Song agreed, saying that the movie isn't about good or bad.

[Sound bite: Actor Song Kang-ho (Korean)]
"Because this story is not about a specific country but a universal theme, it can be empathized with in in any country." 
"It's not a drama that distinguishes the good and the bad but is about ordinary people who ran into a difficult situation." 

At this year's Cannes, Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop's "Atlantics" won the Grand Prix award. Spain's Antonio Banderas won the male acting prize for his role in "Pain And Glory" and Britain's Emily Beecham grabbed the best actress award for "Little Joe."
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.