'Parasite' wins Oscar for Best Original Screenplay Bong Joon Ho accepts the award for best original screenplay for "Parasite" at the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. AP Photo/Chris PizzelloBy Park Si-sooBong Joon-ho’s black comedy “Parasite” won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay at the 92nd Academy Awards held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday (local time). It is the first Korean film to take home the prestigious prize in the country’s 101-year cinema history. It was co-written by Bong and Han Jin-won."Writing a script is such a lonely process, and we never write to represent our country. This is the very first Oscar to South Korea. Thank you," the auteur said through his interpreter in an acceptance speech. "I thank my wife for always giving inspiration to me, and I thank all the actors here with me today for bringing this film to life."Co-writer Han said he wants to share this honor with his colleagues and with storytellers in South Korea."Parasite" is the first non-English movie to win the best original screenplay award since the Spanish-language "TaFeb 10, 2020
Not just 'Parasite': South Korean documentary also up for Oscar While all eyes will be on Parasite, the film by director Bong Joon-ho that is nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, another film from South Korea is also making history this weekend in Hollywood.In the Absence, a 29-minute documentary by director Yi Seung-jun and producer Gary Byung-seok Kam about the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster in South Korea, is nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject, another first for a Korean film.And while Parasite shines a darkly humorous light on the pervasive sense of inequality in South Korean society, In the Absence revisits one of the most painful events in the country's recent history.The film starts on April 16, 2014, when a passenger ferry carrying 476 passengers and crew, the MV Sewol, began listing dangerously near Jeju Island before capsizing. More than 300 people would ultimately perish in the disaster, including some 250 students from Danwon High School in Ansan.The tragedy deeply shook South Korean society, with outrage directed toward the ship's owners, crew and captain -- who abandoned ship with more than half the passengFeb 10, 2020
At rain-soaked Oscars, 'Parasite' hopes to upset '1917' Park So-dam (L) and Bong Joon-ho, director of "Parasite," from South Korea, pose on the red carpet during the Oscars arrivals at the 92nd Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S., February 9, 2020. REUTERS/Eric GaillardThe Oscars are here, already. After the shortest awards season in decades, the 92nd annual Academy Awards is getting underway Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The red carpet is being rolled out two to three weeks earlier than usual in a bid to freshen up a ceremony and potentially boost ratings. The truncated time table has put the normally bloated Oscars season on a diet (Sunday's show will also, for the second straight year, be hostless) and sent film academy members scrambling to finish their movie-watching _ no small task in a year featuring a few three-hour epics like ``The Irishman'' and ``Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood.''The weather provided some early drama on the carpet, with workers scrambling to keep rain from leaking onto camera crews covering the ceremony. Workers with umbrellas greeted arriving limos and the red carpet lookFeb 10, 2020
Jung Woo-sung creates fresh character in latest crime thriller Jung Woo-sung / YonhapIn the upcoming crime thriller "Beasts Clawing At Straws," Tae-young, a customs official played by star actor Jung Woo-sung, falls into the hands of loan sharks after his girlfriend leaves him stuck with her massive debt.When Tae-young finds a bag of cash, he thinks his dreams have come true, but it leads to him becoming entangled in a complex web of crime."When I first read the screenplay, the stories behind each character were impressive," actor Jung Woo-sung said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Thursday. "The film focuses on desperate people, not on their desire for money. It is a dense portrayal of what made these characters thirsty for money.""Beasts Clawing at Straws," the directorial debut of Kim Yong-hoon, is a finely constructed crime drama that starts with the bag full of banknotes in a locker at a public baths. Soon, all the characters are after it.The film won the special jury award at this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam, held Jan. 20-Feb. 2.Jung said that although financially squeezed Tae-young is a careless and clumsy man ―Feb 9, 2020
Fun facts and trivia about the Oscars Workers are at work on the Red Carpet on the eve of the 92nd Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Calif., Feb. 8, 2020. AFPCan the black comedy "Parasite" win South Korea its first Oscar ever? Will Laura Dern become the first in her acting family to nab an Oscar statuette?Here's a look at some interesting facts and trivia ahead of the 92nd Academy Awards being held Sunday in Hollywood:- 'Parasite' aims big -"Parasite" already made history when it became the first South Korean film nominated for best international feature film as well as for best picture and best director.The dark comedic thriller, which has taken the awards circuit by storm, is tipped to win as best foreign-language film, but it also could make history by becoming the first non-English-language production to win for best picture.- All in the family -Dern, nominated for a best supporting actress award for "Marriage Story," comes from Hollywood royalty.While dad Bruce and mom Diane Ladd are no strangers to the Oscars, Laura would be the first in her family to actually win the award.In 1992, Dern and Ladd became thFeb 9, 2020
Will Bong Joon-ho win Oscar? Winner of Best International Film "Parasite" Korean film director Bong Joon-ho poses in the press room during the 35th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 8, 2020. ReutersWhen Bong Joon-ho's tragic comedy thriller "Parasite" debuted at Cannes and won the Palme d'Or in May last year, nobody anticipated that the South Korean film would contend for best picture and five other awards at the 92nd Academy Awards nine months later.But the Korean auteur's seventh feature film about have-nots infiltrating a wealthy family has created strong buzz throughout the U.S. awards season and become a massive hit since its stateside release in October.It is nominated in six categories at this year's Oscars: best picture, best director, best screenplay, best editing, best production design and best international feature film.It will be a history-making event if "Parasite" wins an award at the Oscars on Sunday (local time) as no other South Korean film has even been nominated for an Oscar despite Seoul's booming movie industry and international successes.Many news outlets in aFeb 9, 2020
'Parasite' has collected 55 awards at 57 film fests Film “Parasite.” Courtesy of CJ ENMBong Joon-ho's sensational black comedy "Parasite," nominated in six categories, including best picture, at the upcoming Oscars, has been invited to 57 film festivals and award events across the world, and collected 55 trophies, its production company CJ ENM said Friday.In May last year, the film about class division through two extreme families embraced the highest prize of Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, becoming a massive hit in 2019 and starting its awards-winning streak.A month later, it won the top prize at the 2019 Sydney Film Festival, while actor Song Kang-ho, who played the father of a down-and-out family in the film, received the Excellence Award at this year's Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland in August.It also received awards at film festivals in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, including the Calgary International Film Festival, Ulaanbaatar International Film Festival in Mongolia and the Slemani International Film Festival in Iraq.Since it was released stateside in October, "Parasite"Feb 7, 2020
'Untold' documentary dredges up painful memories of Vietnam War Director Lee-Kil Bora, right, stares at the graves in the military cemetery in Hoi An, Vietnam, in this March 8, 2016 photo. / Courtesy of Cinema DalBy Kwak Yeon-sooNguyen Thi Thanh, 60, still vividly remembers the day she lost her mother and two siblings in the 1968 Phong Nhi massacre.Her mother, who was raising four children alone after husband's death, was out in the field picking vegetables when Korean soldiers broke into their house and started firing guns.Nguyen's sister was shot when running through a back door. Her little brother was shot in the mouth. The two died following heavy blood loss.Nguyen was shot in her thigh when crawling into the kitchen, and her big brother in his buttock. The two luckily survived.When soldiers set fire to their house to cover up their crime, Nguyen hurriedly escaped, gasping for fresh air. Only eight years old at the time, she left her dying siblings behind and went searching for her mother. Neighbors assured her that mother was still alive, but that was a lie. Korean soldiers had pushed her mother onto a pile of bodies in the field and shot heFeb 6, 2020By Kwak Yeon-soo
Filmmaker zooms in on migrant workers, wartime sex slaves Director Shekh Al Mamun speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the Asia Media & Culture Factory in Seoul, Jan. 20. / Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-seokBy Kwak Yeon-sooShekh Al Mamun, a Bangladeshi documentary filmmaker, initially came to Korea in 1998 as a migrant worker. Al Mamun remembers that his decision to come to Korea was made with no particular purpose. His cousin, who had already settled here in 1995, advised him to follow his lead, an offer he accepted. “Once I quit college, I just wanted to earn money. In the 1990s, relatively rich Bangladeshis migrated to Japan or Europe. The not-so-wealthy people like me moved to other regions of Asia or to the Middle East,” he said during a recent interview with The Korea Times.Although he barely knew the country and its culture, he quickly found a job at a furniture factory and adapted to Korean society. Since the early 1990s, Korea has recruited an increasing number of migrant workers through an industrial trainee program and the workers have toiled away in factories, on construction sites and on farms ― doFeb 6, 2020By Kwak Yeon-soo
INTERVIEW Kim Nam-gil plays unconventional exorcist in 'The Closet' Actor Kim Nam-gil plays exorcist Kyung-hoon in new horror drama “The Closet.” Courtesy of CJENMBy Lee Gyu-leeActor Kim Nam-gill/ Courtesy of CJ ENMActor Kim Nam-gill is known for his portrayal of a diverse range of characters, such as a jaded cop in 2014 romance “The Shameless,” and a hot-tempered priest in 2019 comedy TV series “Fiery Priest.” This time, in the new mystery drama “The Closet,” he puts on another multi-layered performance as an unconventional exorcist.“I wanted my character to be different from those in other occult movies,” the actor said during an interview with The Korea Times, Friday, in Samcheong-dong, Seoul. “Although he works as an exorcist, I wanted him to be depicted as a normal person.” Directed by rookie Kim Kwang-bin, The Closet is a mixture of various genres ― supernatural occult horror, drama, mystery, and a bit of comedy ― and revolves around an architect called Sang-won (Ha Jung-woo), an uncaring single father living with his daughter, Yi-na (Heo Yool). One day after they move intoFeb 6, 2020By Lee Gyu-lee
