Bong Joon-ho's films, through combing various genre, reveal the themes of social irrationality, tyranny of authority, economical inequality and conflict of class. These themes are materialized especially through critical understanding of ‘family’, the usual structure of a society, which is detailed in the plot where ‘patriarchy’ conspiring with capitalism imposes distortion of identity. Not just telling the usually told problems-the despotism of upper class of capitalism, Bong’s films show problems of capitalism in more diverse view to disclose selfishness of characters who cannot fight adequately the tyranny of privileged class and therefore, as for patriarch, uses patriarchal privilege to secure his or her status in ‘family’ or as for ‘family’ members, acquiesce the patriarchal privilege and to manifest the patriarchal ‘family’ members' distorted recognition of the world and the self.
Particularly, incompetent government, unjust society enforce ‘family’ to pursue self-help solution. Unjust environment where law and justice cannot prevail adequately prevents characters who undergo the problems and deception of capitalism-combined ‘patriarchy’ from dreaming structural change and proceeding towards ‘struggle for recognition’.
Experience of alienation and separation, which is the foundation of recognition of injustice and aspiration of change, only results in catastrophic anger-driven crimes. Bong’s two films, 'A higher animal’ and ‘Parasite’, have common background of anger-driven crimes of patriarch.
While a little extent of regret and possibility of restoration remain in ‘A higher animal’, ‘Parasite’ takes gloomy conclusion that main character's ‘patriarchy’ is transmitted to and repeated by his son, so to more harshly criticize our society. Through irrational ‘ideological recognition’ and violent ‘struggle for recognition’ which are originated in ‘patriarchy’, Bong Joon-ho discloses two conflicting aspects of recognition as the apparatus of subjectivization as well as the apparatus of identity distortion and submissiveness, with use of delicate film skill.
Bong's films in which social problems are diagnosed through cinematic imagination, can be used widely as contents of various liberal arts. Utilizing Bong's films as material for discussion class, debate class, writing class and so forth can induce the logical thinking ability to criticize traditional values and universal understandings as well as can bring about advance both in cognition and affect area. Also, Bong's films can be used in liberal arts like sociology, women's studies etc. as apparatus to see social problems from diverse standpoints or as texts to recollect the ultimate goal of gender equality.