By Kim Ji-soo
In these gloomy days in 2019 South Korea, there are bits of bright news including the ongoing rally of South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's "Parasite" in the North American box office. Since it was released in United States on Oct. 11, it has raked in $100 million. Local media reported that as of Nov. 22, the film brought in slightly over $144 million in sales. Fans of the movie have dubbed themselves the #BongHive and others are busily creating memes from scenes in the movie. After it opened in South Korea in May this year, the film sold more than 10 million box office tickets, a barometer of blockbuster success in the 50 million-strong country. Just last week, "Parasite" dominated at the nation's top film awards the 40th Blue Dragon Awards.
Hollywood magazines such as Variety and Deadline have mentioned it as not only a candidate for the Best International-Language Film award but also as contender for the top prize.
Should Bong grab an Oscar next Feb. 9, it would surely be nice to see the reprisal of the boyish jubilance he demonstrated at the Cannes. Also, it would be an achievement for South Korean cinema akin to the epic LPGA win that golfer Pak Se-ri made at McDonald's LPGA Championship in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1998.
The soaring popularity of Korea's popular culture has meant wins at top international film circuits ― mostly in Europe ― and chart-topping records on Billboards. However, the prestigious Grammys and Oscars remain "unconquered." Last year, director Lee Chang-dong came close. His film "Burning" was mentioned as one of top 10 possible Oscar nominees, but then it did not pass muster onto the top 5. Thus, in February this year, Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma" won the Best Foreign Film Award.
"Parasite" has its foreign film contenders, with industry experts citing Pedro Almodobar "Pain and Glory" and Mati Diop's "Atlantics." Never mind, though, because the film's overseas performance is again turning Korean moviegoers' attention to revisit the allure of the movie that made us squirm but also think about the status of Korean society, and as the year nears its end, what the next year may hold.
"Parasite" is about how the poor Kim family, living in a half-basement apartment in some shoddy district in Seoul, manages with wily fabrication and lies, to obtain employment at the posh Park family house. What looked like an unbelievably easy opportunity for the Kims to glean off the bourgeois Park family deteriorates into a murderous tragedy, as we well know.
In that process of deterioration, another family found living in the subbasement of the Parks' home emerges. It is the former housemaid whom the Kims kicked out and her husband hiding away from loan sharks for four years. The only thing that the former housemaid asks from the Kims ― not the Parks ― is that her husband be allowed to subsist in the subbasement. It doesn't happen that way, and murder ensues and another man is once again locked in the subbasement.
One man's wish to merely exist is denied, and another man's wish to climb up is proven futile while the elite bourgeois' non-sympathy meets unintended consequences, "Parasite" seems to say. Perhaps this is the message that corresponds not only with Koreans but societies of the 21st century both wealthy and less-wealthy.
Korean films have been "mentioned" as possible Oscar nominates, but it has never come to pass. Thus with some hefty competition, director Bong should carry pride that his film resonated with global audiences.
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Hollywood magazines such as Variety and Deadline have mentioned it as not only a candidate for the Best International-Language Film award but also as contender for the top prize.
Should Bong grab an Oscar next Feb. 9, it would surely be nice to see the reprisal of the boyish jubilance he demonstrated at the Cannes. Also, it would be an achievement for South Korean cinema akin to the epic LPGA win that golfer Pak Se-ri made at McDonald's LPGA Championship in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1998.
The soaring popularity of Korea's popular culture has meant wins at top international film circuits ― mostly in Europe ― and chart-topping records on Billboards. However, the prestigious Grammys and Oscars remain "unconquered." Last year, director Lee Chang-dong came close. His film "Burning" was mentioned as one of top 10 possible Oscar nominees, but then it did not pass muster onto the top 5. Thus, in February this year, Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma" won the Best Foreign Film Award.
"Parasite" has its foreign film contenders, with industry experts citing Pedro Almodobar "Pain and Glory" and Mati Diop's "Atlantics." Never mind, though, because the film's overseas performance is again turning Korean moviegoers' attention to revisit the allure of the movie that made us squirm but also think about the status of Korean society, and as the year nears its end, what the next year may hold.
"Parasite" is about how the poor Kim family, living in a half-basement apartment in some shoddy district in Seoul, manages with wily fabrication and lies, to obtain employment at the posh Park family house. What looked like an unbelievably easy opportunity for the Kims to glean off the bourgeois Park family deteriorates into a murderous tragedy, as we well know.
In that process of deterioration, another family found living in the subbasement of the Parks' home emerges. It is the former housemaid whom the Kims kicked out and her husband hiding away from loan sharks for four years. The only thing that the former housemaid asks from the Kims ― not the Parks ― is that her husband be allowed to subsist in the subbasement. It doesn't happen that way, and murder ensues and another man is once again locked in the subbasement.
One man's wish to merely exist is denied, and another man's wish to climb up is proven futile while the elite bourgeois' non-sympathy meets unintended consequences, "Parasite" seems to say. Perhaps this is the message that corresponds not only with Koreans but societies of the 21st century both wealthy and less-wealthy.
Korean films have been "mentioned" as possible Oscar nominates, but it has never come to pass. Thus with some hefty competition, director Bong should carry pride that his film resonated with global audiences.
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