The director’s bold and bonkers fantasies have sparked comparisons with Spielberg, and his latest film delivers a chilling message via the relationship between a girl and a giant, genetically modified farm animal Halfway through my conversation with the Korean film-maker Bong Joon-ho, I notice a tattoo peeking out from under the sleeve of his jacket. “It means ‘wife and son’,” he says, gesturing at the inky characters on his wrist. “Sorry to disappoint. But I do have this …” With that, he yanks down the neck of his T-shirt to reveal a detailed illustration of a tree; its brown branches and green leaves extend across one corner of his chest, over his shoulder, on to his back and out of sight. He and his cinematographer got matching tattoos when they made the 2009 psychological drama Mother, about a woman fighting to help her son beat a murder rap. “There was a beautiful tree on location so we did this to commemorate the shoot.” Glancing down at it now, he wrinkles his nose. “It looks a bit like a skin disease.”

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