let's get a critics view on the astonishing success of parasite at the
Academy Awards from Pierce Conran a film critic based mostly in Seoul and a
strong supporter of South Korean cinema he kindly agreed to join us on skype
this morning to share his thoughts so you must have been up late celebrating
parasite winning a remarkable 4 out of 6 Oscar nominations including the two big
ones Best Picture and Best Director were you surprised it did so well especially
considering the movie and bong joon-ho were facing some really stiff
competition in both of those categories oh absolutely it's been it was it was an
extraordinary morning for us and night over there and the competition at the
Oscars this year was was as you say incredibly fierce there was a new film
by Quentin Tarantino by Martin Scorsese and of course the presumed frontrunner
Sam Mendes is 1917 and I think you know in the this award seasons kind of has
mutated over the months and weeks and parasyte looked like a very interesting
Dark Horse but it was really just at the very end the last couple of weeks that
it started to break away in certain categories but even then you know while
we could expect it to win Best International Film and maybe Best
Original Screenplay certainly the Best Director award was a complete shock and
I think Victor Bond himself seems a pretty shell-shocked when he heard his
name called out and then once that happened I think all the pundits and a
lot of people watching the award ceremony myself included sir I'd to
think could it go all the way and well here we are and it did yeah you could
certainly feel the hype building and building in the weeks prior to the
Oscars and especially like I say when it won the first Oscar of the night you
kind of felt something special was in the air but in his acceptance speech for
best director bong paid tribute to his fellow nominees legends like Martin
Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino and as he touched upon Sam Mendes and said that
he'd like to share the Oscar with all four nominees if possible Bourne is now
in the big leagues there's no doubt about
that in your view how does bong measure up to genius filmmakers like Martin
Scorsese and Tarantino well purely speaking from a subjective standpoint
I've been a huge admirer of going to notes for years and it would not be
unfair to say that he's my favorite filmmaker so for me it's a bit like the
world is catching up to how I feel about him but certainly I'm not the only
person who feels that way and a lot of people consider him to be one of the
greatest living filmmakers and it's wonderful to see this this recognition
and this means more people will be aware of just how great he is and will seek
out his cinema but of course we can't forget that a lot of the greatest
Directors in cinema never got any awards that the Academy Awards names like like
Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick would never got the big prize so I guess
don't you know a bit of a leg up on them now well it's amazing to think that
Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick never won an Oscar considering how
amazing they were as filmmakers but how much stock do you put in parasite being
the first South Korean film to win an Oscar let alone for it will clearly do
wonders for the film's box-office takings but when you look at Korean
cinema right now do you see anyone aside from bong who has the ability to
captivate global audiences like they have been with bongs parasite well
certainly I think there are already some filmmakers that are at bones level and
and reached that 11 before him directors like Patrick of course whose films whose
film old boy was the the first Korean film to really kind of get people
excited about Korean cinema around the world particularly in the West and of
course each angong who last year almost became the first director to to be
nominated at the Academy Awards when burning was the first one to be
shortlisted for the best international film prize beyond that there's a there's
names like Na Hong Jin or Kim Jun again and a contemporary of director bones and
there are a number of great new filmmakers coming out all the time and I
certainly hope also a number of woman filmmakers were coming up and
doing very impressive work like the the director of kimchi on born 1982 which
was a big sensation a few months ago so BOMs no success is wonderful and he's a
great filmmaker and I hope it opens it allows people to discover some of the
other great filmmakers that Korean cinema has been turning out for years
and continues to do so now well there's no doubt that lots of people are going
to be checking out South Korean movies on the back of this wind by parasite but
one last question for you piers before we let you go Hollywood executives are
going to be swirling around bong more than ever now let's face facts what do
you think his next step should be he's ventured into Hollywood star movies in
the past with snowpiercer and up jaw but his global success came with parasite
would you suggest that he shunned the big hollywood offers that will no doubt
be coming his way and stick to making korean films I I kind of think he's
gonna end up doing doing both over time the way he's already done but he's also
someone who prepares a long time ahead of time so the next film that he does
it's not the next two films I'm sure I've already been germinating for
several years I believe he does have two projects already in the works so and I
kind of I don't know what'll go first but I know he's got there is something
he wants to do in the West there is something he wants to do in Korea so
it's it remains to be seen which one that will be but perhaps there'll there
will be a lot of let's say influence thrown at him to do that perhaps the
American one at the stage well regardless the world will be waiting
with bated breath to see what he comes up with next Pierce will let you get
some rest I assume you're going to be swamped with people wanting to talk to
you over the coming days thank you ever so much for joining us at this early
hour thanks very much for having me