Bong Joon Ho’s Translator Was Oscar Season’s MVP, Now She’s Writing Her Own Film About Oscar Season
Zack Sharf
If there’s one person who spoke the most during the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony, it was most likely Sharon Choi. The 25-year-old took the stage at the Dolby Theater four times in order to translate “Parasite” writer-director Bong Joon Ho’s acceptance speeches. Bong was awarded the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film, capping a game-changing night where South Korea won its first Oscars ever and the Academy gave Best Picture to a foreign-language film for the first time in 92 years. Choi has been by Bong’s side since the “Parasite” world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. The “Parasite” Oscar campaign has taken Choi around the world and to countless awards ceremonies, where more often than not she took the stage with Bong to accept awards. From the Oscars to the Critics Choice Awards, BAFTAs, and Golden Globes, Choi was the undisputed MVP of Oscar season.
Anyone curious what Choi will do next now that her “Parasite” journey has come to an end should be delighted to learn that a feature film is in her future. Choi is an aspiring filmmaker and Bong confirmed backstage at the Oscars that she’s already developing a screenplay for an original project.
“You already know she’s a filmmaker,” Bong told reporters. “And she studied film in the university, yeah, so I’m so curious about her script. Actually, she’s writing some feature-length script, I’m so curious about it.”
Choi’s regular appearances at the major film festivals and award shows this Oscar season made her a social media favorite, so much so that Bong told E! in a red carpet interview from the Oscars, “I know she has a huge fandom.” Choi added about the experience, “It’s very embarrassing to translate, but [Bong] said that thanks to me, this campaign has been a smooth journey.”
Alongside Choi, Bong delivered one of the highlights of the 2020 Oscars ceremony after being named the winner of the Best Director prize. Bong used his speech to honor fellow nominees Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. Bong referenced a Scorsese quote that has become his guiding light as a director (“the most personal is the most creative”), prompting the audience at the Dolby Theater to give Scorsese a standing ovation in the middle of Bong’s speech. Bong then gave a shoutout to Quentin Tarantino for championing his movies long before “Parasite” made him a hot commodity in the U.S. Bong’s “The Host” is one of the Tarantino’s favorite films of all time. Of course, Choi was right beside Bong during these tributes translating them into English.
As for details about Choi’s move into directing, specifics are staying under wraps for now. The Wrap reporter Steve Pond wrote on social media that Choi revealed at the Oscars her script is set during awards season, which is a setting the young woman knows much about after traveling with Bong to every major ceremony on the Oscar season circuit. Here’s hoping Choi gets a chance to return to the Oscars one day in the future as a nominee herself.
