By Brennan Atkins
Editorial Staff
By Noah Barnes
Editorial Staff
“Parasite” deserves all the recognition it got.
We don’t always agree with the Oscar nominations and winners, over the last couple of years, we’ve actually been somewhat disappointed by their decisions.
Whether it’s a Film that never got nominated we feel as if should’ve gotten recognition, such as “Waves” by Trey Edward Shults, or a Film we feel as if shouldn’t have won, such as “Bohemian Rhapsody” winning Best Editing, sometimes the Oscars leaves us wanting more.
However, one thing that we will never do is crawl to Twitter to vehemently attack other people’s opinions – If you enjoy a Film, you should be allowed to do so openly without people belittling your views.
Unfortunately, This seems to be the case all over Twitter and Youtube when it comes to Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite,” which got the Oscars’ for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Original Screenplay, and the main topic of debate – Best Picture.
Parasite is an excellent Film – We are aware that if the movie didn’t get as much attention with American audiences as it did, the Academy would have likely ignored it for Best Picture. But the proof is in the pudding, and it did extremely well in the American box office for a foreign Film, grossing at $35 million.
Boon Jong Ho got recognized at the Cannes International Film Festival with the Palme d’Or, a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, and won best international independent Film at the British independent Film awards. It’s even getting added to the Criterion Collection, which for many directors, is a dream come true.
So then why is Bong Joon Ho facing so much resistance for winning Best Picture at the Oscars.
Similar to how they ruin anything they touch, one huge problem emerging from Twitter are blatant racists. If you don’t want to read, sure, but it crosses the line of criticism when you legitimately say it’s less of a Film if it’s in a different language.
One viral tweet via @Millerstream writes “A man named Bong Joon Ho wins #Oscar for best original screenplay over Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and 1917. Acceptance speech was: ‘GREAT HONOR. THANK YOU.’ Then he proceeds to give the rest of his speech in Korean.
These people are the destruction of America.”
While he continued to backpedal after making that tweet, it created an outlet for many other racist comments to be circulated through the web via comments. We genuinely don’t understand why these people even watch the Oscars, as Film is becoming more progressive every single day.
Another reason people are unhappy with “Parasite” is the fact that it won both Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture. Some believe that if it’s the best foreign Film, it should be immediately disqualified from being nominated for best picture. While it’s true that a foreign Film has never won Best Picture, this is something that happens almost every year with other categories.
Take Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” for example, on top of winning Best Picture it also received the Oscars’ for Best Screenplay and Best supporting actor.
Why should some Films be restricted to certain accolades while others aren’t?
Film, like many other art forms, can be enjoyed universally. Even without subtitles, one can appreciate certain elements in Film such as cinematography, the actors’ physical acting, soundtracks and editing.
If you genuinely didn’t enjoy the writing from Boon Jong Ho, or the acting from Kang-ho Song, or any other element of the film, it’s absolutely fine to be dissapointed with it winning Best Picture. We wanted “The Lighthouse” to be nominated for Best Picture, and were surprised to see it only got nominated for Best Cinematography.
Admittedly, we were a bit upset by this – But we would never verbally attack someone for disagreeing with what we believe. If you like something that we reviewed as not particularly great, that doesn’t mean we think you’re wrong, we simply have different tastes.
Anyways, we couldn’t be happier that “Parasite” won, and it’s temporarily being brought back to theaters if you didn’t catch the chance to watch it.