At the 2020 Oscar Awards, the critically acclaimed film Parasite made history. Taking home impressive awards such as Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, Parasite won more awards than any other nominee (including that of Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood, and Greta Gerwig’s Little Women). Parasite also became the first non-English speaking movie to ever win Best Picture at the Oscars.
Parasite is a Korean social-satire about two fundamentally different classes of society: the wealthy and the impoverished. An incredibly poor family has the opportunity to slowly integrate each one of themselves into the lives of an extremely rich, upper-class family, and they aggressively pursue this opportunity. It starts out as a comedically brilliant social statement but turns into something much darker. Considered to be one of the best films of the year, Parasite is regarded as one of master filmmaker Bong Joon Ho’s best work.
Bob Mondello, a top critic on Rotten Tomatoes, says, “Let’s just say that by Parasite’s conclusion, what started out as a comedy of manners has become a furious snarl of rage and his most arresting social satire yet.” Additionally, the film scored a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, and a 91% on the Audience Score with more than six thousand reviews.
There’s no telling what Parasite will mean for the future. While it is possible that Hollywood will quickly move on from this epic win in foreign cinematic history, this is something the Academy cannot simply ignore. It is believed by many that Parasite could open up doors for all international films going forward, and it could very well ripple throughout the decisions made by the Oscars. There is no telling the limit to the staunch promise this magnetic film displays.
As Tom Quinn (whose company, Neon, distributed Parasite), backed by Bong Joon Ho, declared staring down the best and most glimmering stars of a few generations: “This is a win for all of us tonight. We put the rest of this industry in check, because cinema won!”
