Almost exactly one year since it began its theatrical release in the United States, Bong Joon Ho‘s Parasite is arriving on The Criterion Collection. The Best Picture winner leads their October 2020 lineup, and for those who bought the standard Blu-ray edition earlier this year, you can now plan to give it to a friend as the disc is packed with extras.
Among the special features is the black-and-white version of the film, an audio commentary by Bong Joon Ho and critic Tony Rayns, a feature on the New Korean Cinema movement featuring Bong and Park Chan Wook, a storyboard comparison and more. (Also, hat tip to Nessim Higson’s new morse code cover, based on the original theatrical poster by Kim Sang-man.)
Also part of the October lineup is Stephen Frears’ crime drama The Hit, starring Terence Stamp, the Gregory Peck-led western The Gunfighter, John Berry’s Claudine, which features an Oscar-nominated performance by Diahann Carroll, and a new restoration of the Jean-Luc Godard classic Pierrot le fou.
See the cover art for the releases and special feature details below.
- New 4K digital master, approved by director Bong Joon Ho and director of photography Hong Kyung Pyo, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New audio commentary featuring Bong and critic Tony Rayns
- Black-and-white version of the film with a new introduction by Bong, and Dolby Atmos soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New conversation between Bong and critic Darcy Paquet
- New interviews with Hong, production designer Lee Ha Jun, and editor Yang Jinmo
- New program about the New Korean Cinema movement featuring Bong and filmmaker Park Chan Wook (Oldboy)
- Cannes Film Festival press conference from 2019 featuring Bong and members of the cast
- Master class featuring Bong from the 2019 Lumière Festival in Lyon, France
- Storyboard comparison
- Trailers
- PLUS: An essay by critic Inkoo Kang
- High-definition digital restoration, approved by director of photography Mike Molloy, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary from 2009 featuring director Stephen Frears, actors John Hurt and Tim Roth, screenwriter Peter Prince, and editor Mick Audsley
- Interview from 1988 with actor Terence Stamp from the television show Parkinson One-to-One
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Graham Fuller
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New interview about director Henry King and the film with filmmaker, writer, and archivist Gina Telaroli
- New video essay on editor Barbara McLean by film historian and author J. E. Smyth
- Audio excerpts of interviews with King and McLean from 1970 and ’71
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- More!
- PLUS: An essay by film critic K. Austin Collins
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Audio commentary from 2003 featuring actors Diahann Carroll, James Earl Jones, and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs; filmmaker George Tillman Jr.; and Dan Pine, son of screenwriters Lester Pine and Tina Pine
- New conversation on the film between filmmaker Robert Townsend and programmer Ashley Clark
- Illustrated audio excerpts from a 1974 AFI Harold Lloyd Master Seminar featuring Carroll
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Danielle A. Jackson
- New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Interview with actor Anna Karina from 2007
- A “Pierrot” Primer, a video essay from 2007 written and narrated by filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin
- Godard, l’amour, la poésie, a fifty-minute French documentary from 2007, directed by Luc Lagier, about director Jean-Luc Godard and his work and marriage with Karina
- Excerpts of interviews from 1965 with Godard, Karina, and actor Jean-Paul Belmondo
- Trailer
- PLUS: An essay by critic Richard Brody, along with (Blu-ray only) a 1969 review by Andrew Sarris and a 1965 interview with Godard
See more on Criterion’s official site.