AJA Named Korean Film Director As ‘Asian Of The Year 2019’

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 (Bernama) -- The Seoul-based Asia Journalist Association (AJA) has selected and announced Korean film director Bong Joon-ho as the recipient of its prestigious ‘Asian of the Year’ award for 2019. With the selection, Bong joins previous awardees including Indonesian President Joko Widodo (2016), Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma (2017) and Korean football manager Park Hang-seo (2018). “Bong will receive the Asian of the Year award from the Asia Journalist Association on Nov 11. The date is also the 8th anniversary of the first publication of the AsiaN,” AJA said in a statement made available here Friday. Since his debut in 1994 with the short film White Man, Bong has evoked deep empathy in his audiences by delving into the paradoxes and dark sides of society in films such as Memories of Murder (2003) and The Host (2006), the statement added. This year, Bong, born in 1969 in Daegu, South Korea, unveiled Parasite, in which he approached and exposed the class structure and conflict from a sociological perspective. “Parasite will soon be released in the US,” the statement said, adding that Bong won the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. According to AJA, which was founded in 2004 with some 500 members from 50 Asian countries, Bong was considered as the greatest Korean film director at present, the year of the Korean film industry’s centennial anniversary. The AJA played a central role in the publication of the AsiaN in 2011 in English, Korean and Arabic, with articles contribution from more than 100 active veteran journalists. The magazine with its motto of “Inspiring Asia, Empowering People, Leading Change”, reports various news from an accurate, fair and balanced perspective from the Asian viewpoints. -- BERNAMA