‘Parasite’ shocks world by winning award for best ensemble
Fair use image by Barunson E&A
“Parasite” has become one of the most successful foreign films in history, winning the Palme D’Or, a Screen Actors guild award, and six Oscar nominations.
January 13, 2020
With a nomination for three Golden Globes, four BAFTA awards, The Cannes film award for best actor and actress and nine Oscar nominations (Including best picture), as well as becoming the second film in history to unanimously win the Palme D’or, filmmaker Bong Joon-ho already has a massive presence on the international film community with his new film, “Parasite.” But undeniably, the biggest shock this South Korean filmmaker has given the world was when his film became the first foreign film to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
The film currently boasts an almost unheard of 99 percent critics score on rotten tomatoes, as well as a 96 percent on metacritic and an 8.6/10 on imdb. With incredible acting, beautiful cinematography, a compelling story with likable characters and a lot of thought behind it, parasite is a film worth anyone’s time.
“I liked how it was sort of brought together and acted out. I felt that it was done really well and deserves all of the credit that it has,” junior Jose Lopez said.
The film follows a poor family in urban South Korea, the Kims, who con a wealthy family, the Parks, into giving them all jobs and money by lying about their identities. This story hopes to connect with people through its exploration of themes like poverty and class struggle.
Maybe most teenagers might find it boring…But I think that you might have to be more mature or you might have to be focused more on the political the economical issues or political issues to understand the true concept of this story.
— Vatuazenj Yang
“Maybe most teenagers might find it boring…But I think that you might have to be more mature or you might have to be focused more on the political the economical issues or political issues to understand the true concept of this story,” Cutaway Productions student Vatuazenj Yang said.
On Jan. 19, the film became the first foreign film in history to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Motion Picture. The cast of this film did an incredible job and are absolutely deserving of this award.
However, not everyone believed the film’s acting was award worthy, “To me, the expressions (of the actors) didn’t seem right,” freshman Charlie Corbett said. He said the actors “didn’t really sell it to me.” Although he did say that the reason for this might have been the fact that he was distracted by reading the subtitles.
However, Yang disagreed. He believed that it was “Miraculous to see the how they work so well with each other and the story was just so much more attention grabbing with their acting.”
This film is one of the most critically successful films of the year. It currently boasts 6 Oscar nominations, including one for best picture.
However, not everyone feels that this film should win best picture. Corbett said although this is “overall, a really good movie,” and one that he believes everyone should watch, he believes that film “Joker” is better and more deserving of the Oscar for best picture. He said although he didn’t like the film when he first saw it, it “hit me hard.” However, there were a few who disagreed.
“I would file for what I’ve seen in 2019, this has to be in my top ten, maybe in the top five because it was just so compelling. The story, how the director decided to shoot the whole thing, the whole scenery and the background, and how it just kind of accompanies each other to get this amazing film. So I think it does deserve its titles,” Yang said.
Lopez said, “I think its nominations are justified. Most movies I watch are just like the same, stereotypical trope over and over, versus when this movie seemed like it was going that direction it took an entirely different turn and just made it unique.”
However, regardless of whether of not this film wins an Oscar, it still stands as a reminder that an amazing film can come from anywhere, from Hollywood to Seoul. This film is certainly an amazing work of art that anyone who can appreciate true art should watch.
