by FilmInk Staff
Orchestra Victoria will present a landmark cinematic event this August as part of the 2025 Melbourne International Film Festival with ‘Parasite Live in Concert’ — an electrifying encounter between screen and stage, sound and image. For the first time in Australia, composer Jung Jae-il will appear in person to perform his acclaimed score for Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, presented live with a full screening of the film. In two exclusive performances at Hamer Hall, Jung will lead Orchestra Victoria from the piano, performing and conducting simultaneously in a virtuosic embodiment of the film’s emotional core.
Released in 2019, Parasite proved a cultural phenomenon: after already claiming the coveted Cannes Palme d’Or it went onto become the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Beneath its tightly coiled plot and darkly comic tone, Bong’s film is a precise social parable dissecting class, aspiration, and the architecture of inequality with surgical precision. Jung’s score evocatively threads through the film like an elegant provocation. Equal parts chamber music, baroque pastiche and minimalist unease, it reframes the Kim family’s quiet infiltration of the Park family household as something operatic, even inevitable. Hearing it live, with the film projected in full, promises a new way of encountering both the music and the moral tension that simmers just beneath the frame.
Of Parasite and his upcoming Melbourne performances, Jung Jae-il said: “Composing the score of Parasite for Director Bong Joon Ho was a life changing experience for me, and it’s a work I’m incredibly proud of. I’m so excited to conduct and perform this original score Live in Concert for the first time in Australia with the talented Orchestra Victoria as part of Melbourne International Film Festival.”
Since Parasite, Jung has rapidly risen to become one of the most celebrated and sought after film composers of his generation. He has composed for the global Netflix smash Squid Game (Seasons 1–3), brought intimate lyricism to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker, and scored Bong’s latest sci-fi venture Mickey 17. Most recently, he collaborated on Twinless, the darkly comic debut feature from James Sweeney, also screening at MIFF 2025.
“What a coup for Melbourne audiences – a groundbreaking film, an iconic score, and the composer himself, live on stage,” said Jacinta Ewers, CEO of Orchestra Victoria. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with MIFF to present an experience that pushes the boundaries of what orchestral performance can be, and invites new audiences into the world of live music in an unforgettable way.”
“This isn’t just a film with live music, it’s something far more rare,” emphasised MIFF Artistic Director, Al Cossar. “To see Jung Jae-il perform and conduct his own score, live, brings an intimacy and immediacy you can’t replicate. It’s exactly the kind of experience that belongs on a festival stage. In collaboration with Orchestra Victoria, we’re proud to present something that speaks directly to MIFF’s mission to bring audiences the story of the world through unforgettable screen experiences.”
This Melbourne-exclusive concert marks both Jung’s first performance in Australia and a continuation of Orchestra Victoria’s commitment to bold, cross-disciplinary programming. Known for their collaborative ethos, the ensemble has become a key cultural agent in staging hybrid works that speak to the breadth of modern audiences.
Parasite Live in Concert is presented by Orchestra Victoria and Melbourne International Film Festival as part of the 2025 MIFF program this August. Tickets are on sale from 11am AEST on Thursday 12 June via Arts Centre Melbourne.
