The first film which made it to the Oscar’s in the South Korean film industry this year is Parasite. It’s not only the first non-English film to win Best Picture, but it is also the first South Korean film to win an Oscar.
Other awards like Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best International Film, were also scooped by it at the Oscars of 2020.
Best international film Parasite is directed by Bong Joon – Ho and his genre-mixing work had received fame many years before his dark comedy thriller received critical acclaim, though. From the movie named monster to the Host and to Okja on Netflix in 2017, his previous work is worth delving if you came across the director’s work for the first time.
Yes, the story where a low-income family strategizes against the super-rich family and employes them. Before this gets viral to the audience, watch it during this quarantine period.
Where can I watch Parasite?
Oscar-winning film, Parasite, is streaming online with English subtitles on Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube, and Vudu. Hulu also has this film in its streaming library till April 8th. Viewers can watch this film on Amazon Prime Video right now on rent at a very affordable price, which is $3.99. If one does not have a Hulu subscription but wants to watch Parasite, do not worry, this service is available on Hulu at the price of $5.99 with ads. And it will cost $11.99 monthly if you want to enjoy it without any commercials. Apart from this, the streamer is also offering a free one-month trial for its new customers.
Best Foreign Language Film Parasite can also be rented or owned through the following digital platforms. Besides this, other Bong Joon’s movies such as Okja and Snowpiercer can also be watched on Netflix by fans.
Amazon Prime Video: $15 to buy, $3.99 to rent.
YouTube: $15 to buy, $4 to rent
Redbox: $15 to buy
Apple TV: $15 to buy, $4 to rent
FandangoNow: $15 to buy, $6 to rent
Google Play: $15 to buy, $4 to rent
Vudu: $15 to buy, $6 to rent
What is the Plot of Parasite?
The Kims – mother and father Chung-sook and Ki-taek, and their young adult offspring, son Ki-woo and daughter Ki-jung – are a poor family living in a shabby and cramped half basement apartment in a busy lower working class commercial district of Seoul. Without even knowing it, they, especially Mr. and Mrs. Kim, literally smell of poverty. Often as a collective, they perpetrate minor scams to get by, and even when they have jobs, they do the minimum work required. Ki-woo is the one who has dreams of getting out of poverty by one day going to university.
Despite not having that university education, Ki-woo is chosen by his university student friend Min, who is leaving to go to school, to take over his tutoring job to Park Da-hye, who Min plans to date once he returns to Seoul and she herself is in university. The Parks are a wealthy family who for four years have lived in their modernistic house designed by and the former residence of famed architect Namgoong.
While Mr. and Mrs. Park are all about status, Mrs. Park has a flighty, simpleminded mentality and temperament, which Min tells Ki-woo to feel comfortable in lying to her about his education to get the job. In getting the job, Ki-woo further learns that Mrs. Park is looking for an art therapist for the Parks’ adolescent son, Da-song, Ki-woo quickly recommending his professional art therapist friend “Jessica”, really Ki-jung who he knows can pull off the scam in being the easiest liar of the four Kims.
In Ki-woo also falling for Da-hye, he begins to envision himself in that house, and thus the Kims as a collective start a plan for all the Kims, like Ki-jung using assumed names, to replace existing servants in the Parks’ employ in orchestrating reasons for them to be fired. The most difficult to get rid of may be Moon-gwang, the Parks’ housekeeper who literally came with the house – she Namgoong’s housekeeper when he lived there – and thus knows all the little nooks and crannies of it better than the Parks themselves. T
he question then becomes how far the Kims can take this scam in their quest to become their version of the Parks. Do watch the movie and remain in safe amid lockdown.
