GUEST EDITORIAL: The "Parasite" Oscar Win as a Foreign Film is a Game Changer

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The Parasite Oscar Win as a Foreign Film is a Game Changer

by Susan Saurel

The Oscar Academy Award remains one of the world’s prestigious annual award ceremonies organized to reward excellent achievements for trailblazers in the international movie production scene. The award directed by the renowned Academy of Motion Pictures has about 6000 members. The Oscars awards recognize individuals in a structured 24 set categories of the award with leading categories as best actress in leading and supporting role, best actor in leading and supporting role, best pictures, music, director, virtual effects and many others. 

The Oscar awards 2020 was different as it recorded a streak-breaking award to a South Korean movie which attracts various commentaries in the world scene when Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite took the big hit after 91 years of a streak of English movie wins. At the 92nd Oscars, Parasite took the world by surprise when it was announced for the Best Pictures award, being the first of foreign film announced as the winner of a highly-rated award from the beginning of the Hollywood Film Academy. Also, it is recorded as the first South Korean movie nomination for a competitive award in the international award category.

The Parasite Story

Bong’s Parasite narrates in a humorous tragicomedy exposed fissures that appear between South Korean families from different social strata, bringing to the fore the contrast between two families: one unemployed, living in a seedy underground apartment and the family Park, educated, kind and recently rich, considered ideal among the modern urban elite. The South Korean manages to mobilize the reactions of the spectators in a schizophrenic way and turns the collective laughter into sighs of dismay, between the visible and the underground, where social classes act as an effect of the system. 

The groundbreaking thriller movie centers around a poor family trying to infiltrate and associate with one wealthy family household. It was a perfect definition of struggles between social strata.  Parasite bagged four awards as the Best in the categories of Best International Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Film. From the records of best resume writing service, Bong is the first Korean to receive this award, which beats previous polls awarded to 1917, the war drama by Sam Mendes that only won three categories.

The Parasite Nomination

Parasite’s race to the Oscars began last May when he won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, in the finals towards the Academy Awards. He then won the Best Director award at the popular Critics’ Choice Awards, Best Cast at the awards given by the Hollywood Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and Best Foreign Film awarded at the Golden Globe Awards. This South Korean movie recorded about five nominations and a chance to win a highly-rated Oscar’s Best Pictures Award, was not a straight guess. The Bong’s Oscars win was surprising. 

The Significance of Parasite Oscar Win

The Parasite award carries recognition of the exponential growth that the South Korean film industry has been experiencing for decades, as regards films that manage to jump the borders of their domestic market and that manage to combine popular taste and knowledge of genres with deep cinematographic reflection. A writer at best essay writing service emphasized that this historic happening is a great step in history. 

Surprisingly, the Academy chose a film of this kind to win the award. The first-time record of such event was the nomination for the award in a top category was 1998 for Roberto Benigni’s movie Life is Beautiful and almost 30 years later another nomination for the Mexican director, Alfonso Cuaron’s movie Roma. In both cases, there was no record that these foreigners won the award, even when Roma was an option acclaimed.

In recent years, the Academy has been embroiled in controversies that question its objectivity when it comes to recognizing outstanding directors and performers. In retrospect to past editions, the predominant films are made and / or starred by white and male people. Mostly, films that do not comply with the scheme and / or are foreign have been considered strange and, mostly, are nominated in some less relevant categories.

Saying that Parasite won this best film award as a form of inclusion means putting the work of art and social criticism that it represents to a heartbreaking and competitive society below, as well as affirming that only Hollywood films are worthy of the award. It represents an extreme change in how the Academy is choosing its winners, but it is also a fully deserved recognition.

Is the Parasite Oscar Win a Game Changer?

The most recent edition of the Oscars showed us that they are going through a period of transition, where it is possible to look further for different proposals that can touch fibers in different parts of the world. Some have commented that the international industry still has a long way to go, but opinions from the best dissertation service prove that this event is the best step to start the revolution. The parasite has been recognized; many other recognitions will start showing.

This Korean movie did not feature any internationally recognized cast member, yet it achieved this great feat that has been internationally viewed as game-changing. The award has changed the global perception of South Korean’s Hollywood and cultural history. This remains an inspiration for other filmmakers around the world that they have a place in global recognition if they put in their best to create the magic in their movie. Although some have commented that winning an award doesn’t necessarily prove the best, it is a known fact that award for the film is not an easy task. The fact that parasite made the nomination is enough to prove the inclusion of other non-English quality movies in the definition of the internationally-defined standard. The whole process signals the arrival of a new dawn in the international movie industry.

The Parasite Oscar award strengthens the claim that the South Korean movie Industry is the fifth biggest in the world. As described by Jason Bechervaise, a professor at Soongsil Cyber University, Bong’s Parasite award at the 92nd Oscar is “a significant opportunity for the Korean film industry to showcase its wealth of talent that has been flourishing for decades”. The win is an eye-opener to neighboring countries like China and exploring the means to create quality pictures in movies will be seen more in the international movie industry.

Conclusion

Bong’s win is a surprising breakthrough for Asians. Parasite’s Oscar Award is not only a South Korea win but also a world win. It is an Asian representation and first breakout. It’s a continental reinforcement and a game-changing win. Now everyone is back to the drawing table to strategize, because winning an Oscar has left it former definition and crossed all political-like border. Parasite brings glory out of the Korean culture, and this serves as a shift because it is accorded national win. The significance of this event is that local or cultural product is not just any ordinary product but can, in reality, be the game changer leading the course to more victory.  

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