In Defense of "Parasite" Winning Best Picture

In Defense of "Parasite" Winning Best Picture

In the 92 years of the Academy Awards, only twelve foreign language films have been nominated for Best Picture - "Grand Illusion" (1938), "Z" (1969), "The Emigrants" (1972), "Cries and Whispers" (1973), "The Postman (Il Postino)" (1995), "Life is Beautiful" (1998), "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000), "Letters From Iwo Jima" (2006), "Babel" (2006), "Amour" (2012), "Roma" (2018), and "Parasite" (2019).  While "Letters From Iwo Jima" and "Babel" were American-made foreign films, all the others originated from countries outside the US, but none have ever won the coveted Best Picture statue - until "Parasite," making history by becoming the first foreign film to win Best Picture.

Hailing from South Korea, the film is a critical and commercial success, a movie that masterfully blends genres while it tells a powerful, timeless tale about the social class struggle not just in South Korea, but all around the world.  The film centers on two families: one rich, one poor.  The poor man's son's friend gets him a job with the rich family as a tutor for their daughter, and he in turn manages to wiggle in his sister for a job as an art therapist, then she gets their father in as the new limo driver for the father, and together they get the long-serving maid fired so they can bring in the mother as the new maid - all the while playing the rich family by acting like they don't know one another.  Yet this is just the start of what spirals downward into a dizzying, complex world of social class structure and intense suspense that follows you long after the film ends.

When "Parasite" was listed along with eight other well-deserving films for the Best Picture nomination, it was one of the few I hadn't seen yet.  By the time the Oscars rolled around, however, I had managed to see not just that but all the nominated films, and while I went with the general consensus that the eventual winner would be Sam Mendes's World War I "1917," I was secretly hoping for a "Parasite" upset - upset because, as I said before, no foreign language film ever won Best Picture (even though it did make history by winning the Screen Actors' Guild equivalent).  To me, "Parasite" was on a whole different level than the other films, a movie that's timely, thought-provoking, and completely unnerving in every aspect, and when it actually made history by winning, I was overjoyed, and figured that it was easily the most deserving Best Picture winner.

Then shortly after the awards my friend texted me and asked if it was wrong for "Parasite" to have won Best Picture since it won the Best International Feature Film category earlier (he wasn't disagreeing that it deserved to win, he was having a debate with another friend of his about it).  I never thought that it wouldn't have deserved it, and replied that the International Feature Film category only showcases international films but not American, while Best Picture encompasses all films everywhere, and mentioned that other foreign films like "Crouching Tiger," "Amour," and "Roma" were nominated for both categories, along with animated movies like "Beauty and the Beast," "Up," and "Toy Story 3" being nominated for Best Animated Feature as well as Best Picture.

His follow-up question was "why have a separate 'Foreign Film' category if there's not separate 'American Film' category?'"  I replied that it would be redundant to have an American Film category along with Foreign Film category because most - if not all - those nominees would also be Best Picture nominees as well, and would diminish the caliber of the film talent.  Also the Oscars themselves are all-encompassing, celebrating cinema throughout the world and not just relegated to America - if they had an American Film category then the Foreign Film category should also be split to Best French Film, Best Spanish Film, and so on.  Also categories like Best Animated Film and Best Documentary Film are unique (along with Foreign Film) in that they can include different genres and celebrates unique film making. 

After the Oscars I had a lot of friends asking me if "Parasite" is really worth watching, and my reply was always an enthusiastic "YES!," but most of my friends were put off by the fact that it wasn't in English and there was subtitles.  I highly encouraged them to forego their lack of desire to read and actually watch it, because of its potency and the way it burrows itself into your soul - much like its namesake.  Yet I couldn't help but feel this is why films like "The Fast and the Furious," "The Avengers," and the like do extremely well in theaters (and I'm not knocking them either, I think many of those films are fantastic in their own right) - people go to movies to escape reality, to be able to sit back and enjoy some mind-numbing entertainment and take themselves to a whole new place.  That's not wrong at all, but just limiting yourself to those types of movies also limits your mind to where it can really go.

So almost a month since the Oscars, I felt that things were going back to normal, and then there was news that President Trump slammed "Parasite" winning the Oscar.  "How bad were the Academy Awards this year, did you see?  And the winner is: a movie from South Korea.  What the hell was that all about?  We've got enough problems with South Korea with trade, on top of it they give them the best movie of the year?  Was it good?  I don't know.  I'm looking for like, let's get 'Gone With the Wind' - can we get like 'Gone With the Wind' back, please?  'Sunset Boulevard,' so many great movies.  The winner is from South Korea.  I thought it was Best Foreign Film, Best Foreign Movie - no, it was the best.  Did this ever happen before?"

I'm not going to discuss politics, because doing so in today's climate is like talking to a wall filled with spikes as it slowly advances toward you, but I will say that "Parasite" undoubtedly did deserve the Best Picture win against the other well-deserving nominees.  Not only did the film tell a timely message that transcends countries, but it did so exquisitely, pulling the audience into the story by weaving different genres together and gifting us with well-rounded, highly developed, deeply flawed characters that we still can't help but root for and love despite their negative leanings, because ultimately they just want what everyone else wants - prosperity. 

Just because it didn't originate in America doesn't mean it doesn't deserve the Best Picture win, because the Best Picture category itself encompasses all Pictures, not just American - otherwise it would be called Best American Picture.  Since the Academy Awards holds that the language of cinema is universal, then any film that's deemed worthy should be considered - and should win - the coveted trophy.  We all have our personal thoughts on who should win (I personally have found some previous winners not as deserving), but to me, "Parasite" clearly deserved the win and just because it's subtitled and foreign doesn't make it any less deserving.