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Abstract
This thesis explores the intersection of the subversion of genre conventions and the socioeconomic hardships in contemporary South Korea through the domestic films of Bong Joon Ho, Memories of Murder (2003), The Host (2008), and Parasite (2019), respectively. Bong's unique narrative formula utilizes the Hollywood genre as a method of exposing systematic injustices that force civilians into oppression, examples include their suppression of democracy, public safety, and opportunities for economic prosperity through Cold War ideologies, neocolonialism, and neoliberalism. This suppression forces the protagonists to fail, leaving the narrative without a satisfying conclusion, creating a nihilistic outlook on Korean society at the fault of corruption. I argue that the subversion of the expectations of Hollywood genres is Bong's creative method of critiquing the consequences of the direct oppression put onto vulnerable populations.