Everything You Need to Know About Best Picture Winner 'Parasite,' Which Is Now on Hulu
Parasite won Best Picture at the 92nd Academy Awards.
It also won Best Director for Bong Joon-ho, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film.
Now streaming exclusively on Hulu, it's unquestionably a movie worth your time.
When he won Best Director during the 92nd Academy Awards, Bong Joon-ho relayed a message to the millions watching the Oscars: he thought he was done for the night. It turns out, he was wrong—and wrong again, as his movie, Parasite, went home with the night's grand prize. Parasite, as a result, became the first non-english language film to ever win Best Picture.
Now, just about two months later, the movie is more accessible to audiences than ever before—it's streaming exclusively on Hulu, thanks to a deal between the streaming service and Parasite's United States ditributor, NEON Films. Anyone who didn't get a chance to see the Best Picture winner in theaters or on demand now has even less of an excuse—the movie is right there on one of the most popular streaming platforms. Did we mention that it's freaking fantastic?
Oscar Night was a big one for Parasite, which not only won Best Director (for Bong) and Best Picture, but also took home Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature. It comes on the heels of a long award season that also saw the Parasite cast win the Best Ensemble at the S.A.G. Awards, and Bong winning Best International Feature at the Golden Globes as well. In that speech, he relayed a message to viewers: read more.
No, the director of one of 2019's most acclaimed films (currently sitting at 99% on Rotten Tomatoes) wasn't suggesting audiences get off the line of their local movie theater on a Friday night, but rather that they expand their set of cinematic options to include not online films made in their native tongue, but films of all languages. "Once you overcome the one inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films," he said through his translator.
Really, it's not that much of an ask. Think about it. If you're willing to watch Star Wars (Last month's Rise of Skywalker is up to $900 million, so...), where lines are frequently subtitled and spoken in fictional languages (Huttese!), you've got literally no excuse. Take this as an opportunity to immerse yourself in another culture that values film just as much as we do.
Somehow still not convinced? Weird, but OK. Keep reading—here's exactly why you should give Parasite the 132 minutes it's asking for.
First, what is Parasite about?
The Parasite movie focuses on a low-income family looking for different ways to get by each month. When a scenario presents itself that allows the family a bit of stability, it puts them and some of their contemporaries in a situation that will alter lives forever.
Who's in the Parasite cast?
Even for the most subtitle-averse moviegoer, it's near impossible to ignore the quality of the performances in Parasite. South Korean actors Sun-kyun Lee, Yeo-jeong Jo, Woo-sik Choi, So-dam Park, Jeong-eun Lee, and Hye-jin Jang are all parts of the movie's excellent ensemble cast, but the true standout is Song Kang-ho, who plays the family's patriarch.
Parasite marks Song's fourth appearance in a film directed by Bong; most recently, he shined when sharing the screen with Chris Evans in the post-apocalyptic Snowpiercer (which, we should add, is currently available on Netflix and also stars Tilda Swinton and Octavia Spencer). If Bong's closest parallel is a director like Jordan Peele, Song's would be some combination of actors Russell Crowe and Christian Bale; an amazing, intense performer just as willing to take an unglamorous role as a heroic one.
Do I need to know anything before seeing Parasite?
I got to see Parasite a pair of times in theaters; the first time, I went in knowing actually zero of what the movie was all about. I had heard that the movie was exceptional, and seen some headlines and/or Tweets about how the movie compared to another visually-striking and stunningly-written 2019 film that made audiences think: Jordan Peele's Us. From the opening moments of the film, when the title card hits the screen, accompanied by Jung Jaeil's score, you'll be compelled and transported to the all-too-real world of Bong's Parasite.
There's more good news, too: even after you've taken the Parasite ride once, there's major rewatchability; things will click on repeated viewings that you never would've noticed the first time around. Everything in the movie is done deliberately—that much is clear.
And the best news? The movie is available to stream right now.
How many awards did Parasite win?
A lot! At the Oscars alone, Parasite cleaned up, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature. In total, according to IMDB the movie won 259 awards and was nominated for 221 more.
Parasite also notably took home the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Ensemble Cast (that show's top prize), along with Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes, and the Palme D'or, which is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. By winning for Best Picture, it became the first Palme D'or winner to do so since Marty, which came out way back in 1955.
Why should I care about Parasite?
Well, if you clicked on this story, obviously that means you're at least a little bit curious, and it probably means you're a fan of good movies. Thusly, my main thesis: Parasite is an extremely good movie. If you haven't seen any movies by director Bong before (after Snowpiercer, he directed 2017's Okja, with Paul Dano and Jake Gyllenhaal), it's important to share that he's a filmmaker who exists entirely in his own silo; his movies a style entirely of his own making.
If you had to compare the style of Parasite, though, the best comparison would probably be to Peele (Get Out, Us) or, in certain ways, The Coen Brothers (some of their darker work like No Country for Old Men or Inside Llewyn Davis). These are movies that not only cover the cinematic bases of stunning visuals, a compelling story, and top-notch acting, but do so while adding a distinct underlying message, and a splash of humor for good measure.
What are people saying about Parasite?
People freaking love Parasite. In addition to the overwhelming adulation from both critics and audiences (check out that Rotten Tomatoes score one more time), people on social media looooove this movie. Just look at a few of the recent tweets (and memes):
What other movies has Bong Joon-ho directed?
Bong has been the hit of awards season thus far, and for good reason. A New York Times story discussed how everyone wants to hang out with Bong, and while Parasite is great, it's likely that a lot of these fans aren't new fans.
His first South Korean feature film, in 2000, was Barking Dogs Don't Bite, followed by Memories of Murder in 2003, The Host in 2006, and Mother in 2009. In 2013, Bong made his first english-language film, the aforementioned Snowpiercer; Snowpiercer was a runaway hit for Netflix once it hit the streaming service, which led the company to order his next film, 2017's Okja. That leads us to Parasite, which came out last November.
There's good news about all of this, too: all of these movies are available to stream whenever you so wish.
In addition to his seven feature films, he also directed a segment of Tokyo, a movie made up of three short films (the other two are directed by Holy Motors director Leos Carax, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry).
At the end of the day, you know what to do.
See. Parasite. You won't regret it.
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