“When I was young and studying cinema,” South Korean director Bong Joon-ho said in his Oscars acceptance speech for best director for his film Parasite, which also won best picture, on Sunday, “there was a saying that I carved deep into my heart, which is, ‘The most personal is the most creative’” – a quote he attributed to Martin Scorsese.

But it wasn’t just Bong’s vision that brought Parasite to the screen; it was the institutional power of one of the most powerful Korean companies – and the personal quest of a single woman inside it.

Foreign Policy