Parasite makes history at Oscars and South Korean fans join Bong Joon-ho in celebrating
- The film offers a withering critique of South Korean society’s growing inequality, striking a chord with a younger generation of audiences
- Fans also welcomed greater representation for Asian artists on the international stage after Hollywood has been criticised for lack of diversity
Parasite, a satirical take on the widening gap between South Korea’s rich and poor, overcame what Bong’s described as the “one-inch barrier of subtitles”, which the director said had in the past dissuaded English-speaking audiences from discovering foreign films. According to Chosun, South Korea’s biggest newspaper, the win for Parasite “rewrote the Academy’s 92-year-old history”.
Bong’s win for Best Original Screenplay was the first Oscar for South Korea’s film industry. Parasite then won Best International Feature Film before Bong claimed the award for Best Director – then finally the top award for Best Picture.
“I’m ready to drink tonight,” Bong said during his acceptance speech after winning Best International Feature Film.
Backstage, he added: “It’s such a great honour. I feel like I’ll wake up to find it’s all a dream. It all feels very surreal.”
South Korean film fans also took to social media to celebrate.
“I am in tears,” one wrote on Twitter. “I’m so proud of Bong Joon-ho. It’s amazing to hear acceptance speeches in Korean.” Another joked: “Shouldn’t today be declared a public holiday?”
BITING CRITIQUE OF INEQUALITY
Parasite explores the relationship between the rich Park family, who live in a mansion, and the destitute Kims, who live in a basement apartment, as well as the corrosive effects of greed and class discrimination.
It mounts a sharp critique of South Korean society, and its themes of financial inequality and the deepening divide between rich and poor have struck a chord with South Korean audiences. Bong references many familiar scenes around Seoul, using visual cues to highlight the gulf between the city’s haves and have-nots.
“His way of dealing with the underside of Korean society and problems such as rich-poor gaps and the way he expresses those issues are very expressive,” said Jeong Ho-cheol, a 26-year-old student at Seoul’s Yonsei University, Bong’s alma mater.
A 2019 survey by the government affiliated Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs found more than 85 per cent of South Korean respondents felt there were “very big” income gaps in society and people needed to be from a wealthy family to be successful.
Many South Koreans have come to identify as “dirt spoons” – born to low-income families who have all but given up on owning a decent house or climbing the social ladder – as opposed to “gold spoons” from better-off families.
“The issue is really in our blood, something we’re very sensitive to,” said Andrew Kim, a professor of Korean studies at Korea University in Seoul. “I think we’re much more status-conscious than Americans, and I think that has a lot to do with Confucianism. We always try to distinguish people by our status, and that translates in the modern era into how much money you have.”
‘LIKE WELCOME RAIN’ IN SOUTH KOREA
The historic win for Parasite could also open the door for other Asian filmmakers.
“It’s not just a win for Korean films, it’s a new opportunity for all non-English movies,” said Dong-chul Nam, director and head programmer for the Busan International Film Festival, the largest film festival in Asia. “For people making movies in Korea and across Asia, it’s truly a pleasure to see this.”
The accolades for Parasite and its director have provided a welcome distraction from the outbreak of the novel coronavirus which has infected at least 27 people in South Korea.
“It’s happy news, like welcome rain, to the Republic of Korea, which is depressed, stagnant and thrown into despair [by the coronavirus],” Korea’s main opposition, the Liberty Korea Party, said in a statement.
Korean Americans also celebrated the victory in an industry where Asians have been historically under-represented.
“Having a film that is almost entirely not in English go to win Best Picture was a historic moment for us to feel accepted in a country that always sees you as a foreigner,” said Eugene Lee, a 29-year-old Korean American from Los Angeles currently studying in Seoul.
“A bunch of my Korean American friends are in a group chat and were watching the awards. Once Parasite won the Best Picture award we were in awe.”
Another student at Yonsei, Kim Nam-hoon, 21, said: “It’s deeply meaningful for Korean movies and this will open the path for further development. It’s such a great honour. I’m speechless.”
CONTROVERSY ONLINE
Not everyone in the US was in a mood celebrate. After Bong won Best Original Screenplay, beating out 1917 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood among other films, he gave an acceptance speech mostly in Korean.
Jon Miller, a TV host and commentator for the conservative Blaze Media, courted controversy online by tweeting that “these people are the destruction of America”.
He later explained that by “these people” he had been referring to Hollywood elites and not Koreans, but his tweet had by then provoked a stream of scathing replies.
Nevertheless, Koreans and Korean Americans welcomed the opportunity to further denounce racism.
“It was actually refreshing to see all the comments below supporting and defending against racism,” Lee said. “One comment can’t bring down the success of tonight and if anything, it just makes him look ignorant.”
Hollywood’s awards season has come under scrutiny in years for a perceived lack of diversity and some critics questioned whether Parasite had benefited as a result.
“The Academy is becoming more diverse and letting previously ignored films to infiltrate its judgment,” said Greg Sedlik, a film major and Screen Actors Guild member living in Seoul. “But don’t let that tell you that Parasite is a diversity vote. It is an unbelievable triumph on the part of everyone who had a hand in its making.”
Additional reporting by Associated Press
