Parasite (2019 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Parasite is a 2019 South Korean tragicomedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Han Jin-won. It stars Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, and Jang Hye-jin and follows the members of a poor family who scheme to become employed by a wealthy family by infiltrating their household and posing as unrelated, highly qualified individuals.
The film premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2019, where it became the first South Korean film to win the Palme d'Or and the first film to win with a unanimous vote since Blue Is the Warmest Colour at the 2013 Festival. It was then released in South Korea by CJ Entertainment on 30 May 2019. The film received critical acclaim and has featured in listings of the best films of the 2010s. It has grossed over $204 million worldwide on a production budget of about $11 million, becoming one of South Korea's highest-grossing films.
Among its numerous accolades, Parasite won a leading four awards at the 92nd Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film. It became the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award recognition, as well as the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture.
Although Parasite was the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars, it is not to be confused with the first foreign film (produced by a company of a country that does not have English as its primary language) to win Best Picture, which was achieved by The Artist in 2012. The French-produced film was largely silent with French intertitles and contained a few spoken lines in English.
