He first became known to audiences and achieved a cult following with his directorial debut film, the black comedy "Barking Dogs Never Bite" (2000), before achieving both critical and commercial success with his subsequent films: the crime thriller "Memories of Murder" (2003), the monster film "The Host" (2006), the science fiction action film "Snowpiercer" (2013), and the Academy Award-winning black comedy social thriller "Parasite" (2019), all of which are among the highest-grossing films in South Korea, with "Parasite" also being the highest-grossing South Korean film in history.