Guillermo del Toro said Friday that his Netflix film Frankenstein, which made its Asian premiere this week at the Busan International Film Festival, is a monster movie with a message of tolerance in a divided world.

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"The story for me is about forgiveness and imperfection," del Toro said during a press conference at the Busan festival. "We live in a time where we have polarized everything into completely good or completely bad. And there's no oxygen for humanity in those two sides."

"We should we not be imperfect?" he added. "And why should we not forgive each other for not being perfect?"

Frankenstein is the latest addition to del Toro's catalog of critically acclaimed creature features, which includes Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim and the Academy Award-winning The Shape of Water.

The Mexican filmmaker said he has long been fascinated by monsters as a means for exploring both the beauty and the horror of existence.

"Life is full of imperfection, and full of pain and things we don't discuss," del Toro said. "Monsters are my patron saints of imperfection. They allow us to make peace with the darker sides of humanity."

It was a childhood viewing of James Whale's 1931 Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff, that launched del Toro's lifelong passion for monsters.

"I found Frankenstein very autobiographical," he said. "When I saw Boris Karloff, I felt I was him. I understood it as a fable of me and my father as a figure who remained elusive to me as I grew up."

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The 60-year-old director had wanted to direct his own adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 gothic horror novel for decades, but said that as he grew older, his perspective on the story changed.

"I became a father, which helped me understand my father more," he said. "The film became the tale of a father and son and a lineage of pain. The film wouldn't have been the same at 30 or 40 [years old] as it was at 60."

Del Toro, who is making his first appearance at BIFF, also expressed his love for Korean cinema on Friday. He singled out directors Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, whose No Other Choice opened the festival earlier this week.

"I'm very in awe of director Bong and director Park, because they bring the chaos, the ridiculous, the sublime, the poetic and the horrible all in the same movie," he said. "Every time I want to feel more alive, I watch a Korean movie."

Frankenstein, which made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last month, stars Oscar Issac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz. It opens in theaters on Oct. 17 and starts streaming on Netflix on Nov. 7.