How Parasite (2019) Changed the Oscars

By: Stuart Adelberg

Last month, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented the 2020 Academy Awards – known to most as the Oscars. The Avon Theatre Film Center celebrated the evening with a well-attended “Oscar Night” event complete with our own red carpet! Our guests enjoyed food generously provided by area restaurants and viewed the ceremony live via satellite on the historic Avon Theatre’s 25 foot screen. We’re grateful to all who shared the evening with us and helped to raise some much-needed funds in support of our non-profit independent cinema.

Though the Oscars recognize every aspect of cinematic excellence with a multitude of awards, audiences tend to focus on just a few that they consider to be the most important. Nine extraordinary films were nominated for the evening’s biggest prize – the Oscar for “Best Picture.” History was made this year with the Oscar going to PARASITE, a film made in South Korea and presented in Korean with subtitles. The success of Parasite made a talented young filmmaker, Bong Joon-ho, the recipient of four awards – Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Feature Film, and Best Original Screenplay. The crowd at the Avon was elated – many recognizing that this was an independent film that played to crowds at the Avon for a record-breaking 17 weeks and was the most successful foreign language film in our theater’s history. When the Avon boasts of presenting the best of independent cinema – we mean it!!

I won’t ruin PARASITE for those who haven’t yet seen it, but I will say that it is a social satire that focuses on the issue of economic inequality. The film doesn’t preach but presents a picture of South Korean society from two extremes – an ultra-wealthy family contrasted with an extremely poor one. It is the interaction between these two families that forms the basis of the story – but you will have to see it for yourself to learn anything more than that about the film.

I state with no equivocation that PARASITE is a well written, directed, acted and produced film. But this alone is not the reason for its success. Studios are sadly littered with thousands of very well-made films that don’t succeed in movie houses. PARASITE spoke to American audiences, even though it was presented in another language and told a story about another culture, because the circumstances and the people on the screen were completely relatable. Early in the film we become so absorbed by the story that we forget that we’re reading as opposed to listening to the dialogue. We realize that what is amusing in Korea is amusing here in the U.S. What is disturbing in Seoul would disturb us in New York. And though the characters in PARASITE certainly act in ways that are different from what you or I might do, seeing this film reminds us that people are people, regardless of where they live or the language they speak.

One of the great things I have learned through my tenure here at the Avon is how effective foreign films can be as windows to the world. I was not previously a fan of films with subtitles, but I have now learned that this was a mistake. Well-made foreign films can expose us to people, places and stories that seem very different from our own existence. The greatest benefit is an enhanced understanding that the things we have in common are far more numerous than our differences. This point was really brought home to me watching the Oscars. Though I doubt that anyone at the Avon’s “Oscar Night” could understand what Bong Joon-ho was saying as he accepted his historic Academy Awards in Korean, we had absolutely no problem recognizing, feeling and sharing in his delight.