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Korean Movie Parasite directed by Bong Joon-ho wins the Best Picture award at Oscars 2020. It is the first non-English film to ever receive the top award. It seems that the Oscar’s have finally found their call for making themselves open to diversity.
Along with that, Parasite won the Best Director, the Best Original Screenplay and the International Feature Film awards. This win helped the film to get a tie with Walt Disney for most wins on a single night in the history of Oscar’s.
Bong said, “I feel like I’ll wake up to find it’s all a dream. It all feels very surreal,”.
While receiving the award producer Kwak Sin-ae told, “I’m speechless. We never imagined this to happen. I feel like a very opportune moment in history is happening right now.”
The win of Parasite was closely followed by that of 1917, which won 3 awards. It won the awards for Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, and Cinematography.
Before, Parasite has managed to win awards at the Golden Globe, the BAFTAS and the Critic’s Choice Awards.
Korean Movie Parasite Oscars Makes History
Synopsis
The main plot of the movie revolves around the poor Kim family and the rich Park family. When the former meets with Min-hyuk, a friend of their son, he gifts them a scholar’s rock which brings luck. He also suggests that Ki-Woo, the son to take up his English tutoring job at the Park’s, as he was leaving abroad.
After Ki-Woo, all the family members can replace the other servants in the household. But, soon, they get to know about a secret and they have to plan towards getting rid of the parasite.
The film also portrays the ill-effects of greed and discrimination in society. The film is a social commentary showing the disparity of the two families. Bong, the director has always been vocal about the problems present in Korean society.
The Kim family lives in a half-basement flat and folds pizza boxes to earn some money. Bong has made an upstairs and downstairs commentary through the direction. The film also portrays that often there is no way out for families without any means.
Still, Parasite ends with a flicker of hope, of one that urges a person to work hard to achieve something. But the urge may never come true. (leankitchenco.com/)
Bong exclaimed that he wanted his audience to feel naked and raw while watching the film.
Cast
Bong’s direction and screenplay coupled with the phenomenal were plus points for Korean Movie Parasite’s multiple Oscar nominations and awards.
The cast included Song Kang-ho in the position of Kim Ki-Taek, the father of the Kim family. Choi Woo-Shik played Kim Ki-woo (Kevin), son of the Kim family. Park So-dam got portrayed as Kim Ki-Jeong (Jessica) as the daughter of the Kim family. Jang Hye-jin played Park Chung-sook the mother of the Kim family
Along with it, Lee Sun-Kyun played the part of Park Dong-ik (Nathan) the father of the Park family. Cho Yeo-Jeong featured as Choi Yeon-Gyo the mother of the Park family. Jung Ji-so played the part of Park Da-Hye the daughter of the Park family. Jung Hyeon-jun was Park Da-song the son of the Park family.
Lee Jung-Eun marvelously played the role of housekeeper Gook Moon-gwang. Park Myung-hoon portrayed the husband, Geun-Sae.
Park Geun-rok played the part of Yoon, the chauffeur and Park Seo-Joon appeared in a cameo as Min-hyuk.
The actor’s not receiving any nomination in the Oscar’s was a little disappointing.
Little Known Facts About Parasite
Before Parasite, Bong already received critical acclamation with his 2013 movie, Snowpiercer. His 2017 adventure film Okja has also got high ratings. According to Bong his inspiration for Parasite lies in the need to know more about strangers.
“A comedy without clowns, a tragedy without villains, all leading to a violent tangle and a headlong plunge down the stairs”, was Bong’s director statement for Parasite.
As actors speak Korean throughout the film, it needed to have subtitles. It didn’t receive the nomination in the Best Picture category at Golden Globes as it requires “more than 50% English dialogue” to qualify.
The film runs for two hours and twelve minutes and has a Rating 15 for strong and bloody violence. Language, sex and sex references in the film also played a role in the rating.
According to Bong, The Housemaid, a 1960 Korean “domestic Gothic” film inspired him. The French case of Christine and Léa Papin who killed their employers also worked as an inspiration for him.
The parasite has already received high ratings, especially from the audience and the critics. It currently, has an IMDb rating of 8.6 and a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 99%.
The Korean movie Parasite turned out to be quite successful by making over $30 million domestically and this year’s Oscars were yet another proof of its success. It also made over $163 million globally on its October 2019 release.
Critical Review of Parasite
“A miracle of a film. It feels like Bong Joon-ho’s already extraordinary career has been building to this: a riotous social satire that’s as gloriously entertaining as it is deeply sardonic.”, told John Nugget of Empire.
“South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho already has an impeccable track record, but he’s stepped up his game with this brilliant, powerfully revealing social satire”, stated Jeffrey M. Anderson of
Common Sense Media.
Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian said, “It is almost a supernatural or sci-fi story; an invasion of the lifestyle snatchers. Parasite gets its tendrils into you.”
In the past, Parasite on its screening at Cannes won the Palme d’Or in a unanimous vote. It was the first Korean language film to received a notable award.
People who weren’t able to catch the film in the theatres have to wait for its summer release on Amazon Prime.
Allegedly, HBO is also planning to adapt the film in an English TV series for TV, guided by director Bong. He told that it will help him to work more on the intricacies of the plot.
Parasite winning the Academy Awards can provide hope for Oscar’s recognizing diverse talents.
In the future, we can hope to see other non-English foreign films winning awards at Oscar’s.
Parasite left a solid mark at Oscars this year and we hope that we’d be seeing more of Bong’s creation at other big platforms. Also, this kind of reaction for a non-English movie encourages creators who have talent but feels that they would not be recognized, to create more and come out of their shells.
Now, Parasite is a Korean mystery thriller and if you’re someone who’s into K-Drama or basically Korean Creations, Checkout 30+ Best Korean Webtoons to read right now. Also, Don’t forget to comment out your favorite scene from Parasite in the comments below. And if you still haven’t watched it, what are you waiting for? Go and watch it now, it’s available for rent at various platforms including Youtube itself.