Kwak Yeon-soo is a digital editor at The Korea Times creating, editing and curating digital content for the newspaper’s website, mobile app and social media. She previously covered a diverse array of cultural, political and business topics.
'Parasite' intellectually captivating
Bong Joon-ho, center, and the cast of “Parasite” arrive for the 92nd annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, Sunday (local time). UPI-Yonhap
By Kwak Yeon-soo
By Kwak Yeon-soo
The Oscar-winning South Korean satirical thriller “Parasite” is the latest example of the success of Korean films in Hollywood.
“Parasite” is not the first non-English language film to receive an award at the Oscars ― “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” won best foreign language film, best art direction, best original score and best cinematography in 2001. But it is the first Korean-made film to receive the recognition of The Academy.
Director Bong Joon-ho's style of storytelling is considered wildly innovative, unpredictable and extremely entertaining. “Parasite” will lead to a further explosion of interest in Korean cinema that will become clear in years to come, critics said.
Relatable, yet excitingly new
“The film's theme of income inequality hits a chord in the U.S. as elsewhere around the world, but it's difficult to make a popular film about such a dismal and abstract topic,” said Christina Klein, an English Department professor at Boston College.
“With Parasite, Bong has achieved the very difficult feat of making an intellectually substantive film that is entertaining to watch.”
Klein explained that “Parasite” hits the sweet spot in terms of style as well as content: it is both relatable to American viewers and excitingly new.
Bong has repeatedly shown a long-standing affection for Hollywood cinema, which makes him very familiar with the conventions of American film.
“Bong has also been building his American following for years. His earlier Korean-language films 'Memories of Murder,' 'The Host,' and 'Mother' were released in the U.S.,” she said.
“Thus his style of filmmaking is not wholly unfamiliar to Americans. At the same time, Bong's signature style of rapid shifts in tone and mixing of genre elements is very fresh for American viewers.”
On the topic of Bong's past works Klein said, "The Host found a substantial theatrical audience, as did Snowpiercer."
Director Bong Joon-ho, winner of the best original screenplay, best international feature film, best director, and best picture awards for “Parasite,” poses in the press room during the 92nd Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California, Sunday (local time). AFP-Yonhap
Reaching a global audience
The market for Asian films in the U.S is changing, which indicates a new level of global reach for Korean cinema. Netflix and other streaming services are making Korean films and TV dramas easily accessible.
For instance, the biggest movie theater in Boston, the 19-screen AMC Loews Boston Common, regularly shows commercial Asian films that do not play in art-house cinemas.
In addition to “Parasite” and the Japanese anime film “Weathering with You,” the cinema is currently showing “The Man Standing Next,” a drama about the assassination of former president Park Chung-hee.
“If Koreans keep making great movies, I'm cautiously optimistic that more Americans will find their way to them,” Klein said.
Another critic expressed that the American film industry will observe this situation with “Parasite” very carefully in the wake of the Oscars.
“With 'Parasite,' Hollywood is encouraging and shouting for Koreans to invest in domestic film productions. Korea has no history of doing that except for inviting American actors to act in Korean films,” said Christopher HK Lee, an award-winning filmmaker based in Los Angeles.
“If big companies like CJ start investing in Hollywood films and collaborate with American A-list actors there is strong chance that director Park Chan-Wook and other Korean actors will find more opportunities in the future,” he added.
What's next?
The success of “Parasite” is a wonderful moment for Korean cinema as a whole. The film won four categories ― best picture, best director, best international feature film and best original screenplay on Sunday, stunning movie fans in Hollywood and the rest of the world.
It feels as if it has been a long time coming to finally see the award bodies in Hollywood taking notice of Bong and more broadly of the Korean film industry.
“Bong has entered an elite of the most revered filmmakers in the world so anything he does make in future will attract an immense amount of interest and will likely garner awards buzz,” said Jason Bechervaise, a professor at Korea Soongsil Cyber University in Seoul who wrote a Ph.D. thesis on the work of Bong.
But Klein warned that while “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” was a groundbreaking moment and led to the success of similar films, it did not cause an “explosion of interest in world cinema as a whole.”
“When 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' won four Oscars in 2001, many people predicted it would open the floodgates to Asian cinema. That didn't quite happen, but Ang Lee's career flourished and he did win best director at the Oscars for 'Brokeback Mountain' in 2006,” Klein said.
While some critics have dwelled on the problem that Korean cinema on the world stage is heavily reliant on the auteurs ― Bong, Park Chan-wook, Lee Chang-dong, Kim Jee-woon, Hong Sang-soo and Na Hong-jin. ― Bechervaise holds an optimistic view saying, “The key is to nurture younger talent.”
He explained that a set of unique circumstances ― being born in the '60s, going to university in the '80s and making their debuts in the mid-late 90s or in 2000s ― have led many of these filmmakers to have successful careers in the film industry, making it difficult for the younger generation of filmmakers to replicate their success.
“Still, this is an incredible moment for the Korean film industry and one that will open further doors in Hollywood not only for filmmakers but also for the talent in the film industry ― editors, production designers, composers, actors and so on and so forth,” he said.
In this handout photo provided by A.M.P.A.S. the best picture award winners for “Parasite” pose onstage during the 92nd Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, Sunday. AFP-Yonhap
Gifted filmmaker
Bong was born in Daegu in 1969 as the youngest of four children. His father was a graphic designer and art professor, and his grandfather was acclaimed writer Park Tae-won.
At age nine, Bong moved to Seoul. From then on he spent much of his time watching Hollywood and European films on TV. He had a great interest in comics, which led him to start drawing storyboards for his film ideas.
He majored in sociology at Yonsei University in Seoul, where he joined a film club called Yellow Door and his passion for filmmaking grew.
At that time, Korea was under military dictatorship, during which foreign travel and exchange were heavily restricted. Foreign films were censored, but Bong and his friends managed to make copies and watch them day and night.
After making his directorial debut with the film “Barking Dogs Never Bite,” released in 2000, Bong has maintained a solid record of detailed cinematography. Some of his well-known works include “Memories of Murder,” “Mother,” “Snowpiercer” and “Okja.”