Readers of this blog may recall that I named Parasite as one of my favorite films of 2019. It’s recently been in the news due to its winning a Best Picture Oscar.
I’ve seen some reviews that didn’t seem to understand the film. Some argued that it was unrealistic, not seeming to understand that it’s supposed to be unrealistic; it’s a black comedy. Some pointed out that it commented on inequality in South Korea, without mentioning what sort of “comments” it made. Whereas a Hollywood film on inequality would portray the poor as wholesome and hardworking and the rich as corrupt and lazy, this film did almost the opposite.
I read that this is the first foreign language film to win a Best Picture Oscar. There’s also an Oscar for “Best Foreign Language Film.” That raises the question of why this film won best picture. While it’s a fine film, I’ve seen several dozen other Korean films of comparable quality. Indeed it’s not even the best film by this director (I’d vote for “Memories of Murder”.)
Perhaps Hollywood is beginning to feel guilty about its past nationalism (especially now that we are in the Age of Trump.) It’s not just that no foreign language film had won in the past, even worse, a number of them were nominated and lost. If none had been nominated, then you could treat the two awards as separate categories, best English language film and best foreign language film. By nominating some foreign language films for Best Picture, but never giving them top honors, Hollywood was saying, “we’ve looked around the world and never seen a foreign language film as good as what America produces.” Ouch! In 2020, that’s too jingoistic for even Hollywood.
I’d actually prefer they not allow foreign language films in the best picture category, as they’ll never be judged on a level playing field. Alternatively, have three Oscars; best high-brow film, determined by highbrow critics. best middlebrow film, determined much like the current Best Picture, and best popular film, determined by box office receipts. The same film would be allowed to compete in all three categories.
The Godfather would have won all three, but I’m not sure any other film would have (Birth of a Nation?, Lord of the Rings III?)
Rear Window would have won highbrow and popular, but it wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture. LOL. Middlebrow people are the worst.