Parasite (Korean: 기생충; RR: Gisaengchung)
Parasite (2019 film)
| Parasite | |
|---|---|
.png) Theatrical release poster | |
| Hangul | 기생충 |
| Hanja | 寄生蟲 |
| Revised Romanization | Gisaengchung |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kisaengch'ung |
| Directed by | Bong Joon-ho |
| Produced by |
|
| Screenplay by |
|
| Story by | Bong Joon-ho[1] |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Jung Jae-il[1] |
| Cinematography | Hong Kyung-pyo[2] |
| Edited by | Yang Jin-mo |
Production company | Barunson E&A[1] |
| Distributed by | CJ Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 132 minutes[3][4] |
| Country | South Korea[1][3] |
| Language | Korean |
| Budget | ₩20.5 billion[5] (~US$11.4 million) |
| Box office | $264.4 million[6] |
Parasite (Korean: 기생충; RR: Gisaengchung) is a 2019 South Korean black comedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Han Jin-won. It stars Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin, and Lee Jung-eun; and it follows the members of a poor family who scheme to become employed by a wealthy family by infiltrating their household and posing as unrelated, highly qualified individuals.
Parasite premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2019, where it became the first South Korean film to win the Palme d'Or. It was then released in South Korea by CJ Entertainment on 30 May 2019. The film was considered by many critics to be the best film of 2019 as well as one of the best films of the decade. It is also the 42nd highest rated film of all time on Metacritic. It grossed over $264 million worldwide on a production budget of about $11 million, becoming the highest-grossing South Korean film.
Among its numerous accolades, Parasite won a leading four awards at the 92nd Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film, becoming the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, the first South Korean film to be nominated, and first non-English language film to win Best Original Screenplay since 2003's Talk to Her, produced by Spain.[note 1]
It was also the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award recognition, and the first film since 1955's Marty (and third film overall) to win both the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Picture. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language, and became the first non-English film to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. At the 56th Grand Bell Awards, Parasite earned a leading eleven nominations with five awards (the most for the show).
Plot[edit source]
The Kim family—father Ki-taek, mother Chung-sook, daughter Ki-jung and son Ki-woo—live in a small semi-basement apartment (banjiha),[9] have low-paying temporary jobs as pizza box folders, and struggle to make ends meet.[10] University student Min-hyuk, a friend of Ki-woo's, gives the family a scholar's rock meant to promise wealth. Leaving to study abroad, he suggests that Ki-woo pose as a university student to take over his job as an English tutor for the daughter of the wealthy Park family, Da-hye. Ki-woo poses as a Yonsei University student and is hired by the Parks. Ki-woo becomes romantically involved with Da-hye.
The Kim family recommends one another by posing as unrelated and highly qualified workers to take over as servants of the Parks. Ki-Woo as a reference refers Ki-jung, posing as "Jessica," as an art therapist to the Parks' young son, Da-song. Ki-jung frames Mr Park's chauffeur for having sex in the car, then recommends Ki-taek, ostensibly her family member's former chauffeur, to replace him. Finally, Chung-sook takes over as the Parks' housekeeper after the Kims exploit the peach allergy of the long-time housekeeper, Moon-gwang, to convince Mrs Park that she has tuberculosis.
When the Parks leave on a camping trip, the Kims freely revel in the luxuries of their residence before Moon-gwang appears at the door, telling Chung-sook she has left something in the basement. She enters a hidden entrance to an underground bunker created by the architect and previous homeowner, where Moon-gwang's husband, Geun-sae, has been secretly living for over four years, hiding from loan sharks. Chung-sook refuses Moon-gwang's pleas to help Geun-sae remain in the bunker, but the eavesdropping Kims accidentally reveal themselves. Moon-gwang threatens to expose their deceit to the Parks.
A severe rainstorm brings the Parks home early, and the Kims scramble to clean up the home and subdue Moon-gwang and Geun-sae before they return. The Kims trap Geun-sae and Moon-gwang in the bunker. Mrs Park reveals to Chung-sook that Da-song had a seizure-inducing traumatic experience on a previous birthday, when he saw a "ghost" (Geun-sae) emerging from the basement. The Kims manage to sneak out of the house, but not before hearing Mr Park's off-handed comments about how Ki-taek smells bad. They find their home flooded with sewer water and are forced to shelter in a gymnasium with other displaced people.
The next day, Mrs Park hosts a house party for Da-song's birthday with the Kim family's help. Ki-woo enters the bunker with the scholar's rock to face Geun-sae. Finding Moon-gwang has died from a concussion received during the earlier fight, he is attacked by Geun-sae, who bludgeons his head with the rock and escapes, leaving Ki-woo lying in a pool of blood in the basement. Seeking to avenge Moon-gwang, Geun-sae stabs Ki-jung with a kitchen knife in front of the horrified party guests. Da-song suffers another seizure upon seeing Geun-sae, and a struggle breaks out until Chung-sook fatally impales Geun-sae with a barbecue skewer. While Ki-taek tends to a severely bleeding Ki-jung, Mr Park orders him to drive Da-song to the hospital. In the chaos, Ki-taek, upon seeing Mr Park's disgusted reaction to Geun-sae's smell, takes the knife and kills him. Ki-taek then flees the scene, leaving behind the rest of the Kim family.
Weeks later Ki-woo wakes up after brain surgery. He and Chung-sook are convicted of fraud and put on probation. Ki-jung has died and Ki-taek, wanted by the police for Mr Park's murder, has vanished. Geun-sae has been assumed to be a homeless man, and neither his nor Ki-taek's motive for the stabbings are known. Ki-woo spies on the Parks' home, now sold to a German family unaware of its history, and sees a message in Morse code from a flickering light. It is from Ki-taek, who escaped into the bunker via the garage. He has buried Moon-gwang in the backyard, and now raids the refrigerator at night and flickers the light every day, hoping Ki-woo will see it. Still living in their original basement apartment with his mother, Ki-woo writes a letter to Ki-taek, vowing to earn enough money to one day purchase the house, and allow his father reemerge in the light.
Cast[edit source]
- Father of the Kim family. Is hired as Mr Park's chauffeur.
- Father of the Park family. A successful businessman.
- Mother of the Park family.
- Son of the Kim family. Poses as a Yonsei University student to be hired a Da-hye's English tutor and is known by the Park family as "Kevin." Ki-woo has a notable inability to perform well in university examinations. Choi Woo-shik stated that the character is intelligent, yet he does not have the vigour needed to succeed in examinations.[11] Ki-woo himself tells Da-hye that she needs that quality to pass examinations.[11]
- Daughter of the Kim family. Poses as "Jessica," an art student of Illinois State University, to be hired as Da-song's art therapy teacher.
- The Park family's housekeeper, who was hired after working for Namgoong, the architect and previous owner of the house. Bong Joon-ho said her relationship with the architect and parts of her story "that happen in between the sequences in the film" will be explored in the spin-off television series.[12]
- Mother of the Kim family. Is hired as the Park family's housekeeper, recommended through a fabricated elite membership service.
- Moon-gwang's husband.
- Daughter of the Park family.
- Son of the Park family.
- Park Keun-rok as Yoon (윤; Yun)Kim Ki-taek's predecessor as Park Dong-ik's chauffeur.
- Ki-woo's friend (cameo).[13] A university student who recommends Ki-woo to replace him as an English tutor to the Park family.
Production[edit source]
Development[edit source]
The idea for Parasite originated in 2013. While working on Snowpiercer, Bong was encouraged by a theatre actor friend to write a play. He had been a tutor for the son of a wealthy family in Seoul in his early 20s, and considered turning his experience into a stage production.[14] The film's title, Parasite, was selected by Bong as it served a double meaning, which he had to convince the film's marketing group to use. Bong said "Because the story is about the poor family infiltrating and creeping into the rich house, it seems very obvious that Parasite refers to the poor family, and I think that's why the marketing team was a little hesitant. But if you look at it the other way, you can say that rich family, they're also parasites in terms of labor. They can't even wash dishes, they can't drive themselves, so they leech off the poor family's labor. So both are parasites."[15]
Writing[edit source]
After completing Snowpiercer, Bong wrote a fifteen-page film treatment for the first half of Parasite, which his production assistant on Snowpiercer, Han Jin-won, turned into three different drafts of the screenplay.[14] After finishing Okja, Bong returned to the project and finished the script; Han received credit as a co-writer.[14]
Bong said the film was influenced by the 1960 Korean "domestic Gothic" film The Housemaid in which a middle-class family's stability is threatened by the arrival of a disruptive interloper in the form of household help.[16] The incident of Christine and Léa Papin—two live-in maids who murdered their employers in 1930s France—also served as a source of inspiration to Bong.[17] Bong also considered his own past, where he had tutored for a rich family. Bong said "I got this feeling that I was infiltrating the private lives of complete strangers. Every week I would go into their house, and I thought how fun it would be if I could get all my friends to infiltrate the house one by one."[18] Additionally, the element of Moon-gwang having an allergy to peaches was inspired by one of Bong's university friends having this allergy, as Bong confirmed in a Reddit AMA.[19]
Darcy Paquet, an American residing in South Korea, served as translator for the English subtitles and worked directly with Bong.[20] Paquet rendered Jjapaguri or Chapaguri, a dish cooked by a character in the film, as ram-don, meaning ramen-udon. It is a mix of Chapagetti and Neoguri produced by Nongshim.[21] The English version of the film shows packages labelled in English "ramyeon" and "udon" to highlight to English speakers how the name was created. Paquet believed the word ram-don did not previously exist as he found no results on Google.[22] On one occasion, Paquet used Oxford University as a reference instead of Seoul National University, and in another, used WhatsApp as the messaging application instead of KakaoTalk.[20] Paquet chose Oxford over Harvard because of Bong's affinity for the United Kingdom, and because Paquet believed using Harvard would be "too obvious a choice".[22] Paquet wrote, "[I]n order for humor to work, people need to understand it immediately. With an unfamiliar word, the humor is lost".[22]
Filming[edit source]
Principal photography for Parasite began on 18 May 2018,[23][24] and ended 124 days later on 19 September 2018.[25] Filming took place around Seoul and in Jeonju.[26] The director of photography for the film is Hong Kyung-pyo.[27]
The Parks' house[edit source]
The Parks' house was a specially constructed set. The ground floor and the garden were constructed on an empty outdoor lot, while the basement and first floor were constructed on set.[28] "We built the main floor of the house in a backlot and for the second floor it was all green screen outside," explained editor Yang Jin-mo. "When we shot toward the outside from inside, everything beyond the garden was all VFX."[29]
Bong, as part of the scripting, had also designed the basic layout of this home. "It's like its own universe inside this film. Each character and each team has spaces that they take over that they can infiltrate, and also secret spaces that they don't know."[30] A fictional architect Namgoong Hyeonja had been introduced as the home's designer and the previous owner before the Parks, and production designer Lee Ha-jun considered the function and form of the house based on how Namgoong would have designed it.[28] The Parks' house was designed and constructed to not only be a beautiful house, but also "a stage that served the precise needs of his camera, compositions, and characters, while embodying his film's rich themes."[31]
Lee said, "Since Mr Park's house is built by an architect in the story, it wasn't easy finding the right approach to designing the house...I'm not an architect, and I think there's a difference in how an architect envisions a space and how a production designer does. We prioritize blocking and camera angles while architects build spaces for people to actually live in and thus design around people. So I think the approach is very different."[30] For example, Ha-jun established that Namgoong would have used the first floor's living room to appreciate the garden, so it was built with a single wide window and only spartan seating options for this function.[28] Some of the interior artwork in the house sets were by South Korea artist Seung-mo Park, including existing artwork of hers and some explicitly created for the film.[28] Further, design of the home and of its interiors were aimed to make the set amenable for filming at the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, favouring wide and deeper rooms rather than height.[30]
Lee said the sun was an important factor when building the outdoor set. "The sun's direction was a crucial point of consideration while we were searching for outdoor lots", explained Lee. "We had to remember the sun's position during our desired time frame and determine the positions and sizes of the windows accordingly. In terms of practical lighting, the DP [director of photography Hong Kyung-pyo] had specific requests regarding the color. He wanted sophisticated indirect lighting and the warmth from tungsten light sources. Before building the set, the DP and I visited the lot several times to check the sun's movement each time, and we decided on the set's location together".[30]
The Kims' apartment[edit source]
The Kims' semi-basement apartment and its street were also built on set, partially out of necessity for filming the flooding scenes.[30] Lee Ha-jun visited and photographed several abandoned villages and towns in South Korea scheduled to be torn down to help inform the set design. He also created stories for the Kims' neighbours and added details of those residents along the street to improve the authenticity of the street's appearance.[28]
Editing[edit source]
According to editor Yang Jin-mo, Bong Joon-ho chose to shoot the film without traditional coverage. To give them more editing options with limited shots, they sometimes stitched together different takes of the same shot.[32] Yang edited the film using Final Cut Pro 7, a program not updated since 2011.[33]
The principal release and editing of the film was done for release in color. A black and white version of the film was produced prior to the world premiere in Cannes and debuted on 26 January 2020 at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and was re-screened from 29 to 31 January. It also received a limited release in some countries.[34][35]
Music[edit source]
| Parasite: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Jung Jae-il | |
| Released | 30 May 2019 |
| Recorded | 2019 |
| Genre | Soundtrack |
| Length | 52:14 |
| Language | Korean Italian[citation needed] |
| Label | |
| Singles from Parasite: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
| |
The score was written by South Korean composer Jung Jae-il, who also wrote the score for Bong Joon-ho's 2017 film Okja. Jung's music for Parasite consists of "minimalist piano pieces, punctuated with light percussion", which sets the film's "tense atmosphere".[36] Excerpts from Handel's opera Rodelinda and the 1964 Italian song "In ginocchio da te" by Gianni Morandi also appear.[36]
The end credits song "Soju han jan" (Korean: 소주 한 잔, lit. 'A glass of soju'; not to be confused with an unrelated song with same Korean title by Im Chang-jung) was written by Bong and is performed by Choi Woo-shik, who also played the main character Ki-woo.[37] It is displayed in English as "Soju One Glass" [sic] in the international digital releases of the soundtrack. When the song made it to the December 2019 shortlist for the 92nd Academy Awards in the Best Original Song category,[37] it was listed under a grammatically correct English title, "A Glass of Soju".[38]
The English titles of the scores listed below are as displayed in the back cover of the album and in the international digital releases of the soundtrack;[39][40] the romanisation of names and nouns used are slightly different from those seen in the official English subtitles as translated by Darcy Paquet.[41][42]
The soundtrack was released by Sacred Bones Records on vinyl in January 2020 and was co-released by Waxwork Records on a different colour variant of vinyl.[43]
- ^ Jjapaguri refers to a mashup dish of instant noodles Chapagetti and Neoguri. The name of the dish was translated as "ramdon" in the official English subtitles of the film.
Themes and interpretations[edit source]
The main themes of Parasite are class conflict, social inequality and wealth disparity.[44][45] Film critics and Bong Joon-ho himself have considered the film as a reflection of late-stage capitalism,[46][47] and some have associated it with the term "Hell Joseon" (Korean: 헬조선), a sarcastic phrase that describes how living in hell would be exactly like living in South Korea. This term came out because of the youth-unemployment due to high education and the crisis of home affordability happening in South Korea, and also increasing socio-economic gap between the wealthy and poor.[48][49][50] The film also analyses the use of "connections" to get ahead, for rich and poor families alike.[51]
Critics have also considered the themes of colonialism and imperialism. According to Ju-Hyun Park, the film plays out within "the capitalist economic order inaugurated and upheld in Korea by colonial occupation," and the use of English language in the film denotes prestige within that economic system.[52] The Park family's son, Da-song, is obsessed with "Indians" and owns Native American-themed toys and inauthentic replicas.[53][54] Bong has noted that "the Native Americans have a very complicated and long, deep history. But in this family, that story is reduced to a young boy's hobby and decoration... That's what happens in our current time: The context and meaning behind these actual things only exists as a surface-level thing".[55]
Bong has referred to Parasite as an upstairs/downstairs or "stairway movie",[17] in which staircases are used as a motif to represent the positions of the Kim and Park families as well as those of Moon-gwang.[56] The semi-basement apartment that the Kims live in is common for poorer Seoul residents due to its lower rent, despite having issues such as mould and increased risk of disease.[44] Monsoon floods such as the one depicted in the film commonly damage these types of residences the most.[51]
According to Bong, the ending implies that Ki-woo will not be able to earn the funds needed to buy the house, as the final shot shows Ki-woo still in the basement flat; he described this shot as a "surefire kill" (확인사살), referring to a coup de grace to ensure death.[17] The ending song, translating to "564 years", refers to Ki-woo working to make money to get the house. Its title is an allegory that is a calculation made by Bong that it will take approximately 564 years for Ki-woo to earn enough money to purchase the house. Choi Woo-shik stated that "I'm pretty sure Ki-woo is one of those bright kids. He'll come up with some idea, and he would just go into the German family's house, and I think he will rescue his father."[11] According to many interpretations, this dream subscribes to a bootstrapping mentality and is unlikely to be achieved;[17][46][11] furthermore, "it does not address the fundamental problem at hand. Even in this fantasy scenario, Ki-taek would still be contained in the house by a legal system that would seek his prosecution and imprisonment. The forces that created and upheld the Kim family's separation would not be undone, merely adapted to."[52]
Release[edit source]
_director_and_cast_in_2019.jpg)
Neon acquired the US and Canadian rights to the film at the 2018 American Film Market.[57][58] The film's rights were also pre-sold to German-speaking territories (Koch Films), French-speaking territories (The Jokers) and Japan (Bitters End).[59] The film had its world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May.[60] It was released in South Korea on 30 May 2019.[4][25]
It was released in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Films on 27 June 2019[61] (becoming both the highest-ever-grossing Korean film in the region[62] and the distributor's highest-ever-grossing non-English-language film in Australia),[63] Russia on 4 July 2019, and in the United States and Canada on 11 October 2019.[64] The film was originally scheduled to be screened as a closing film at FIRST International Film Festival Xining in China on 28 July 2019, but on 27 July, the film festival organisers announced that the screening was cancelled for "technical reasons".[65]
It was licensed for the United Kingdom and Ireland by Curzon Artificial Eye at Cannes, and had preview screenings in cinemas nationwide with an interview with Bong Joon-ho shared live by satellite on 3 February 2020, followed by the film's general release on 7 February.[66]
Neon expanded the number of North American theatres showing the film from 1,060 to 2,001 starting the weekend of 14 February 2020, following the film's recognition at the Academy Awards,[67] despite the film having already been released on home video in the region.[68] A special IMAX remaster was shown at limited North American theatres during the week of 21 February 2020.[69]
Home media[edit source]
On 28 January 2020, Parasite was released on Blu-ray Disc in Region A and DVD in Region 1 by Neon, with distribution by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.[70][71] On 13 February 2020, it was announced that the film will be released on home media by The Criterion Collection.[72][73] On 15 July 2020, The Criterion Collection announced the release date of 27 October 2020, featuring the long-awaited black and white version.[74] On 24 February 2020, the subscription-based streaming service Hulu announced that it had secured exclusive rights to stream the film in the United States, starting on 8 April 2020.[75] Additionally, Amazon Prime Video began streaming the film outside of the United States on 28 March 2020.[76]
Black-and-White Edition[edit source]
A special monochrome version of the film, Parasite: Black-and-White Edition, had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in January 2020 and was released in cinemas in some cities in the United States in the same month.[77]
It was released on 24 July 2020 in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Curzon Artificial Eye in cinemas and on-demand simultaneously,[78] and was released on 27 October 2020, in the United States and Canada by the Criterion Collection on DVD and Blu-ray Disc, as part of their special edition rerelease.[79] The black and white transfer of the film was overseen by director Bong Joon-ho and cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo.[80][77]
Reception[edit source]
Box office[edit source]
Parasite grossed $53.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $211.1 million in other countries (including $71.3 million from South Korea), for a worldwide total of $264.4 million.[6][81] It set a new record for Bong, becoming the first of his films to gross over $100 million worldwide.[82] Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $46.2 million.[83]
In the film's United States opening weekend, it grossed $376,264 from three theatres. Its per-venue average of $125,421 was the best since La La Land's in 2016, and the best ever for an international film.[84] It expanded to 33 theatres in its second weekend, making $1.24 million,[85] and then made $1.8 million from 129 theatres in its third.[86] The film made $2.5 million in its fourth weekend and $2.6 million in its fifth.[87] The film's initial theatre count peaked in its sixth weekend at 620, when it made $1.9 million.[88] It continued to hold well over the following weekends, making $1.3 million and $1 million.[89][90]
In its tenth week of release the film crossed the $20 million mark (rare for an international film), making $632,500 from 306 theatres.[91] During the weekend of the Oscars, the film made $1.5 million from 1,060 theatres for a running total of $35.5 million.[92] After Neon's doubling of theatre showings in the week following the Academy Awards, the film made $5.5 million in revenue from the US & Canada, making it one of the biggest Best Picture bumps since Slumdog Millionaire in 2009 and the biggest in ten years.[93]
In its native South Korea, Parasite grossed US$20.7 million on its opening weekend,[81] and would close its box office run with US$72.2 million and more than 10 million admissions, roughly one-fifth of the country's population and ranking among the year's top five films.[94][95] On 5 February, Parasite became the first Korean film in nearly 15 years that surpassed one million moviegoers in Japan.[96] In the UK, it broke the record for the opening weekend of a non-English-language film, making £1.4 million ($1.8 million) including previews over its debut weekend, from 135 screens,[97] and in Australia it took in over $1.9 million.[98] In the weekend following its Oscars wins, the film made $12.8 million from 43 countries, bringing its international total to $161 million, and its global running gross over the $200 million mark.[99]
Following its Academy Awards success, Parasite received significant rescreening, generating significant further revenue. The Associated Press reported the biggest "Oscar effect" since 2001 after Gladiator won the Oscar for Best Picture. Parasite's box office revenue increased by more than 230% compared to the prior week, grossing $2.15 million in a single day. It also ranked No. 1 in Japan, the first Korean film to do so in 15 years.[100] The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia announced that $749K worth of cinema tickets were sold in a single weekend, with the film re-entering the top 10 at the local box office more than six months after it debuted in Australian cinemas. Parasite also surged back to fourth place in South Korea's box office by attracting more than 80,000 viewers.[101][102]
Critical response[edit source]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Parasite holds an approval rating of 99% based on 452 reviews, with an average rating of 9.40/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "An urgent, brilliantly layered look at timely social themes, Parasite finds writer-director Bong Joon Ho in near-total command of his craft."[103] On Metacritic, 52 compiled reviews from critics were identified as positive, giving the film a weighted average score of 96 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim".[104] On the same site, Parasite was rated as the best film of 2019[105][106] and was ranked 7th among the films with the highest scores of the decade.[107] As of 12 November, 2020 it is the 47th highest-rated film of all time on the website.[108]
Writing for The New York Times, A. O. Scott described the film as "wildly entertaining, the kind of smart, generous, aesthetically energized movie that obliterates the tired distinctions between art films and popcorn movies".[109] Bilge Ebiri of New York magazine wrote that Parasite is "a work that is itself in a state of constant, agitated transformation—a nerve-racking masterpiece whose spell lingers long after its haunting final image".[110] In his five-star review, Dave Calhoun of Time Out praised the social commentary in the film, calling the overall work "surprising and fully gripping from beginning to end, full of big bangs and small wonders".[111] Variety's Jessica Kiang described the film as "a wild, wild ride", writing that "Bong is back and on brilliant form, but he is unmistakably, roaringly furious, and it registers because the target is so deserving, so enormous, so 2019: Parasite is a tick fat with the bitter blood of class rage".[112] Joshua Rivera from GQ gave a glowing review and declared Parasite to possibly be one of the best films from 2019.[113]
Michael Wood writing for the London Review of Books found its following a theme of class consciousness to be consistent with the director's previous Snowpiercer stating, "The theme of social ascent, or social difference as a landscape, could hardly be more obvious, but we are beginning to get the movie's idea: not to avoid stereotypes but to keep crashing into them".[114] UK film website TheShiznit awarded an A, noting "it makes you wonder what the inflection point for such behaviour is in a culture where manners and servitude are drilled into those who can't afford not to have them".[115] The A.V. Club's A. A. Dowd awarded the film an A− grade, praising the fun and surprising twists.[116]
Parasite ranked first in a survey by IndieWire of over 300 critics, in the Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Foreign Film categories.[117] It also appeared on over 240 critics' year-end top-ten lists, including 77 who ranked it first.[105]
Accolades[edit source]
Parasite won the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. It became the first South Korean film to do so, as well as the first film to win with a unanimous vote since Blue Is the Warmest Colour at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.[118][119] At the 77th Golden Globe Awards, the film was nominated for three awards, including Best Director and Best Screenplay, and won Best Foreign Language Film, becoming the first ever South Korean film to achieve that feat.[120][121]
It became the second international film to ever be nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture since Life Is Beautiful (1997), and ultimately won the category, making it the first international film to win the prize.[122][123] Parasite was also nominated for four awards at the 73rd British Academy Film Awards—Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Not in the English Language, being the first South Korean film to receive nominations other than for Best Film Not in the English Language, and went on to win Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Not in the English Language.[124][125]
Parasite was submitted as the South Korean entry for Best International Feature Film for the 92nd Academy Awards, making the December shortlist.[126][127][128] It went on to win four awards—Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film. Parasite became the first non-English language film in Academy Awards history to win Best Picture. Parasite also became the first South Korean film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards and the second East Asian film to receive a nomination for Best Picture since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000),[129] and Bong Joon-ho became the fourth Asian to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, becoming the second to win following Ang Lee. It also received nominations for Best Film Editing and Best Production Design.[130][131][132] The film is also the second film to win both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Palme d'Or at Cannes under the latter's name in sixty-five years since Marty,[133] being the third film to win both grand prizes after the former and The Lost Weekend.[134]
At the 56th Grand Bell Awards, Parasite earned a leading 11 nominations with 5 awards (the most for the show) to its name. It won for Best Film, Best Director (for Bong Joon Ho), Best Supporting Actress (for Lee Jung-eun), Best Screenplay (for Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin-Won), and Best Music (for Jung Jae-il).[135]
During Bong Joon-ho's acceptance speech at the Oscars, he paused to thank Martin Scorsese, a co-nominated director, whom Bong recognised as having historical importance to the history of filmmaking which resulted in spontaneous applause from the audience in recognition of Scorsese during his speech. The following day Scorsese sent the director a personal congratulatory letter which Bong reported while on a speaking engagement at the Lincoln Center Film Society where Bong stated that he could not share the full letter from Scorsese due to its personal nature. He did, however, share the conclusion of the letter by stating that Scorsese told him that "You've done well. Now rest. But don't rest for too long." Bong then added that Scorsese ended his letter by stating "how he and other directors were waiting for my (Bong's) next movie".[136]
The Associated Press commented that although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) had previously failed to adequately recognise women filmmakers in the Academy Award nominations, this time it acknowledged diversity. The AP noted that the film's victory, because of its being an Oscar-winning foreign film in a regular Academy category, opens the door for Hollywood to undergo a radical change and a different kind of advancement. The Wall Street Journal also stated that the film seemed to promise a "more inclusive Oscars" demanded by those who have previously criticised AMPAS.[137]
Legacy[edit source]
Spin-off television series[edit source]
An HBO limited series based on the film, with Bong and Adam McKay as executive producers, is in early development.[138] Bong has stated that the series, also titled Parasite, will explore stories "that happen in between the sequences in the film".[139][12][12]
Plans for tourist set[edit source]
A South Korean local government (Goyang City) plans to restore the Goyang Aqua Special Shooting Studio set, where the film Parasite was produced, and use it as a Parasite movie experience tourism facility. In addition, Goyang City has announced that it will invest $150 million in the development of the Goyang Film Culture Complex by 2026 to accommodate film experience tourism facilities, additional indoor studios, outdoor set production facilities, inter-Korean video content centres, and image research and development companies.[140][141][142] However, criticisms have been made about the commercialisation of areas known for poverty in South Korea as tourist destinations without concrete steps being taken to address the issues at hand.[143][144]
City tourism and food[edit source]
Seoul Tourism Organization has been criticized by South Korea's opposition party and residents of Seoul for introducing a tour route featuring filming locations and stories from the movie. The Justice Party claims that the movie became famous due to the universal recognition of global inequality.[145] However, it sees the development of a tourist attraction based on the film in Seoul as amounting to the further exploitation of poverty.[146] Residents living in Parasite's filming locations have reportedly complained of a sense of embarrassment and discomfort due to an increase in tourists visiting their neighborhoods and taking photos of their surroundings, making them feel like "monkeys in a zoo".[147] In response, the local government of Seoul has announced that government funding will prioritize the estimated 1500 low-income families living in the semi-basement type accommodations featured in the film.[148]
People began posting videos on how to make jjapaguri/ram-don on YouTube after the film was distributed.[149]
See also[edit source]
- List of submissions to the 92nd Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
- List of South Korean submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film
- List of films considered the best
Notes[edit source]
- ^ Although Parasite was the first film with a non-English script to win Best Picture at the Oscars, it is not to be confused with the first foreign film (produced by a company of a country that does not have English as its primary language) to win Best Picture, which was achieved by The Artist in 2012. The French-produced film was largely silent with French intertitles and contained a few spoken lines in English.[7] The Academy dictates foreign language as the main qualification for international film, hence The Artist did not qualify.[8] Further, while prior winners The Last Emperor and Slumdog Millionaire include significant amounts of non-English dialogues, they were considered as domestic productions.[7]
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