Korean film director poongjin who has opened a new chapter in Korean cinema
with his highly acclaimed movie parasite from winning the prestigious Palme d'Or
award at gaen to six Oscar nominations the landmark film is now eyeing to end
its journey with a grand finale at the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony in February
today we dissect the factors that led to parasites astonishing and ongoing for
that matter long list of achievements an unprecedented moment in more than a
hundred years of Korean film history and the movie's significance at major global
movie awards for that dr. Jason B surveys movie critic and professor of
entertainment and arts management at Korea solution cyber University joins me
in the studio thank you so much for coming in today well thank you for
having me it's an absolute pleasure and honor so Korean cinema has not seen a
movie quite like parasite 100 years of history and it's also the first Asian
film to Oscar nomination since the famous Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in
2001 first off could you first tell us the significance the Academy Award or
simply known as the Oscar holds to the movie industry worldwide it's massive
you know it's the culmination of the award season you have a Golden Globes
you have various award shows that happen during this period and it's the climax
and you know to win an Oscar even to be nominated is a huge huge honor in terms
of box-office revenue for B users it's it's a very good thing especially for
Paris I you know it can be released in the UK in February and it's kind of the
release comes and just after BAFTA Awards and before the Oscars almost like
just after the Oscars and it's it's it's going to see an increase in its box
office sales and so commercially it's massive and the the awards season
stretches right from September or August you know right through to February so
it's a long period there's a vast some money pumped in to the award season
and it's the culmination of this and not to mention the the publicity that it
generates it's the kind of news that you wake up to in the morning like the top
headline you see news alerts on your phone and this is the only real occasion
during the year that that really happens you know even the Cannes Film Fest I
know that's something that it's a Korean film win something there is a big deal
here but generally speaking it doesn't generate the cuts the same kind of
publicity that the Oscars does in terms of the mainstream media you know in the
UK and the United States so it's a huge huge honor and just in terms of
publicity is just massive so we could say it is the epitome of the movie
awards yeah if you win an Oscar you're part of that very very exclusive club
the you're among the great so let's say if beomjin who does win you know Best
Director I certainly hope he does he's got a very very good chance he's going
to be in a group among the best film makers in the world that's that's a
group that you have before so we certainly look forward to that now what
was the position of Korean films on the global stage prior to parasite and how
our Korean films being observed now well the Korean film industry I think is it's
incredibly vibrant and I've been following it for close to two decades
now and you know in the early 2000s directors and producers were given a
great deal of autonomy to make these incredible films a Patou bond you know
Kim Joon and maybe these kind of masterpieces you know old boy was
released in 2003 same years memories of murder so that's that's kind of for me
the kind of a pinnacle of new Korean cinema and it's it's had its challenges
going forward and we're now we're in kind of the studio era where it's kind
of emulating the studio system in Hollywood and so the directors don't
have the creative control or suddenly the younger filmmakers don't have the
creative control that they're kind of the seniors had but it's still a very
healthy film industry I mean if 50% of tickets so offer Korean
films in terms of Hollywood movies as well they generate a huge amount of
revenue and that's what Hollywood sees careers as a major market you've got the
other neighbors or the other countries in Asia you got Japan you've got China
but they have their own challenges as well not least with censorship in China
and Korea is just it's just seen as a very vibrant very healthy film industry
and we're seeing kind of accumulation now of what is it what it's achieved and
hasn't received it hadn't received an Oscar nomination for so long in 90 years
not one single Austin or excuse me Oscar nomination and now you have seven in one
year it's a remarkable achievement and I think it just goes to show how far the
Korean film industry has come well as a Korean myself I'm very proud to hear
that now parasite has been nominated in six categories for the 2020 Academy
Awards and among the six of course much attention is being focused on whether it
will win Best Picture now what other nominees is parasyte
competing against well it's got the irishman of course once upon a time in
Hollywood's 1917 and these are the films you kind of need to look at I think in
terms of Best Picture the the film to be in the moments probably 1917 it won Best
Picture at at the Golden Bell the best film in a Drama category at the Golden
Globes and Sam Mendes also won Best Director the PGA's or the producer Guild
of America Awards they they take place on Saturday and that I think will give
us an indication of what film my twin if 1917 gets its it kind of came in much
later in the Oscar race it was released towards the end of the cell when it was
screened to critics and voters towards the end of December and it's it's and
it's also doing extremely well in the box office now in America and the UK and
so it's gathering a lot of momentum having won some of these awards and so I
think if it wins at the PGA's on Saturday I think that stands a very good
chance of winning Best Picture the Oscars in terms of Best Director and I
think he's function is very much up up against
Penton Tarantino performs upon a time in Hollywood and Sam Mendes for 1917 there
is the Irishman like I says but I mean it started the award season as a very
very strong formidable contender but it seems to have lost quite a bit of steam
I think it will receive Malta's received multiple nominations but it may end up
just winning one or two the Academy Awards are chosen by members of the u.s.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences comprising some 8,000 yes movie
directors if I'm right actors and filmmakers and we hear they're known to
be quite conservative could you tell yeah I mean this is one
of the reasons why I think 1917 could do well it's it's the kind of movie that
some of the older voters might like take a liking to it's also a British film
there's a lot of voters in the UK and British films have traditionally done
very well at the Oscars and British talent is very well up the Oscars as
certainly does very well at the Golden Globes and so there are this this is
kind of big contingent if you like older more conservative voters it is changing
and I think following some of the controversy that continues at the moment
and they're trying to expand that membership and trying to bring in voters
from different parts of the world from different different ethnic backgrounds
and this is something that should have happened a long long time ago but didn't
and so in theory we're going to see the fruition of this although this year the
acting categories very very little in the way of diversity there and that's
something that needs to change but yeah you have this you have 7,000 voters it's
there's a lot of math involved but essentially there's kind of a
preferential vote and there's the the films or the act or the actors or the
the composers or whatever it may be but get the most votes in the number one
slot then or they reach this kind of so-called magic number they then are
then nominated but there's there's also a lot of math and math involved in terms
of you know the second and third and fourth
he's parasite has scooped up nearly all best foreign language film awards of the
year it looks quite certain to win the Best International Film at the Oscars as
far as I know not a single movie has won both Best Picture and Best International
Film at the Oscars right you gave the possibility of parasite winning both the
awards yeah that would be quite a moment and that's why I'm kind of skeptical
whether it will win best picture as well I mean I love it too but like I said
ninety seventeen seems to be the film that's generating the most momentum at
the moment although that could change and there are always surprises as well
and come Oscar night who knows they may open that envelope and it says parasite
and just be an incredible moment but yeah into non-english language films are
still a barrier there as bong Janeiro's mentioned in his accepts acceptance
speeches and I think Hollywood is still very much centered around you know
english-speaking cinema mainstream films and I think that's one of the reasons
why parasite is done so well is because it is different its innovative and
Hollywood is so dependent on the franchises the spin-offs the sequels and
with parasite you see something so different and as long as it's
mind-blowing its unpredictable and I think there's a real opportunity here
for for Korean cinema to to reach different corners of the globe that it
hasn't already and I think it's also an opportunity for like streaming Giants to
to spend more money on securing not just Korean content but content from across
Asia and they have been doing that but there's a real opportunity for
distributors as well to be able to distribute movies in theaters in
theaters you know Korean films non-english language movies at the
Golden Globes director poems you know during his acceptance speech for winning
Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film he said once you overcome the 1
inch tall barrier of subtitles you'll be open to so many more amazing films
now I think his common he had in mind how moviegoers in North America dis tend
to dislike subtitled movies but what do you think worth some of the factors that
led to such phenomenal popularity in North America I think there was several
I mean I've mentioned how it's you know it's very different compared to like the
mainstream Hollywood movies I think there's a Teague out there certainly for
me as much as I you know I like some of the Marvel films they have becoming
quite tiresome and you know all trends I mean Marvel seems to continue and it
seems to be never never-ending and relentless but I you know they will come
a point where people are tired of these movies and I think parasyte just came at
the right time I think also politically and socially I think it touches on many
themes that resonate here and they resonate in the states too in the UK and
we've seen the kind of the rise of far-right politics and politicians and
you know social inequality is a real problem and not just in Korea but in the
UK where I'm from but in the United States and across the whole globe and
it's the kind of theme that resonates and it's infuriating and that you know
we do have this disparity and I think also the film is incredibly enjoyable
and bombed you know makes his films very very entertaining and I think there's a
stigma attached with non English language cinema and its kind of high art
cinema and that it's it's for the intellectuals it's difficult to
understand it's boring you know parasite is anything but those it's incredibly
stimulating but at the same time it's incredibly enjoyable and beomjin who
knows his audience he wants to entertain them he's incredibly well versed in
cinema he plays around with genre and I think it's a real opportunity here for
viewers to to explore more Korean films and there are loads of Korean films out
there that do what maybe not to the same extent the bong as you know does but so
is able to do but certainly play around with the notion of genre a Korean
documentary in the absence which depicts the tragedy of South Korea's soul though
very shocking was also nominated at the Oscars and the
Best Documentary Short subject category how do you see this well as she just
watched it before I came on here on the show it's it's a very powerful
documentary I think one of the most for me one of the excites most exciting
areas of Korean sin or independent Korean cinema is the documentaries and
it has been for the last few years dream of I and is a great example this is a
fantastic documentary just exceptionally made well made and this documentary -
it's very polished it's very comprehensive it I think it's about 28
minutes long but it covers the tragic sinking and the events and the kind of
the hours leading up to that right through to the sinking and also the
aftermath and the investigations that followed and it's just it's just it's
polished but it is comprehensive but there's also a kind of a very it's it's
very it's holding a very simple but very very effective way and as a result it's
incredibly incredibly powerful and I hope it does go on to win an Oscar that
would be one life for Korean cinema just to go on and if Paris like wins and this
documentary as well I think you just be truly an incredible moment now before I
let you go one last question for you what would you say are the remaining
challenges for the Korean movie industry I think it's to try and give young
directors more autonomy I think the studio system does have its advantages
it has money and the film's here are very sophisticated and there's a lot of
talent out there but I think it is a struggle for younger filmmakers to get
the kind of creative freedom though you know filmmakers like Pancho had I'm
bummed you know and that's something I'd like to see it's also challenging for
the independent film industry because the studio's essentially control the
system and so it's very difficult for filmmakers who make a film outside the
system to get a film made distributed and exhibited a lot of these studios do
have kind of these distribution arms that focus on independent cinema and the
cinemas themselves will have special screens for kind of independent movies
but it still remains a big challenge going it has for those who are not able
to get within this system and obviously it's a commercial system and so if your
film is not seen as commercial enough it's it's it's difficult for filmmakers
to get films made and then distributed and exhibited all right thank you so
much dr. Besser Vaes for your insights tonight thank you for having me