Since "Parasite" won four Oscars, including Best Picture, South Korea has been in a frenzy of national celebration. A number of South Korean cinema chains, including CGV and Rakuten, began re-screening the film this week – the film began to be released throughout South Korea on May 30 last year, with a cumulative audience of about 10 million. As a result, the results were still gratifying after the re-screening, and the number of admissions on the day was generally in the top five of the box office list. Although the DVD of the film has long been released in South Korea, and although the shadow of the new crown pneumonia has not dissipated, a large number of people have gleefully walked into the theater wearing masks to celebrate the historic moment when "Parasite" rewrote the history of Korean cinema by watching it off the big screen.
On February 26, the black-and-white version of "Parasite" will also start screening in some theaters in South Korea, and it is expected that there will be many fans who will enter the second, third and even fourth brushes. At the same time, the film's cumulative box office in North America has now reached $36.7 million, second only to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Beautiful Life and Hero among foreign language films. In the United Kingdom, the film did not be released until February 7, but it coincided with the peak of its popularity, so it received a score of 1.4 million pounds, which has set a record for the opening of a foreign language film in the country. In addition, "Parasite" has set a record for the box office of foreign language films or Korean films in Italy, Spain, Indonesia, Vietnam and other places.
The Zixiamen Tunnel in the film
This week, the Seoul Municipal Tourism Bureau also launched a "Parasite" fan punch-in route on its official website, which currently includes four locations and is expected to launch a guided tour service next month. "Several of the film's locations have long been a pilgrimage destination for fans from all over South Korea and around the world." A spokesman for the Seoul Tourism Bureau said, "Following the two K-pop and Korean dramas, Parasite shows that Korean cinema has also set off a new trend, and we hope that this will further promote the tourism industry in South Korea." At the same time, Goyang City, located in the central and western part of Gyeonggi Province, also announced that the scene in "Parasite" that made a big splash was actually filmed locally. Next, they hope to protect the area and develop it into a tourist attraction.
At a higher level, the Oscar triumph of "Parasite" has also caused a lot of shock in South Korean politics. On the day of the Oscar results, South Korean President Moon Jae-in posted a message on social platforms congratulating director Bong Joon-ho and all the crew members for touching the global audience with the most Korean stories and proving to the world the power of Korean cinema. On the other hand, the Liberal Korea Party, a conservative South Korean party that is an opposition party, has also made frequent moves, and its spokesman has publicly stated: "Parasite has written a new history and made great achievements in spreading the power of Korean film and culture around the world." Those familiar with Bong Joon-ho's director and his people and the intricate relationship between South Korean politicians and filmmakers may be somewhat surprised by the free Korean Party's public praise.
In the past, during the reigns of Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, two party representatives of the Liberal Korea Party, it was not uncommon to crack down on progressive forces in the South Korean film industry, both overt and covert, including not granting government grants for such films or requiring television stations to broadcast as few such works as possible. Not only was director Bong Joon-ho blacklisted by them, but Lee Mi-kyung, the head of CJ Entertainment, the investor in "Parasite" (the lady who was the last to stand up and speak in English at the Oscars), was also forced overseas by Park Geun-hye and her men because their work was too left-leaning. In the past, Bong Joon-ho's "Memories of Killing" and "The Monster of the Han River", although they won unanimous recognition from the media and South Korean audiences, were often criticized by right-wing conservative forces in South Korea, on the grounds that they deliberately showed "the incompetence of the government" and spread "anti-American" and "left-leaning" messages.
Born on September 14, 1969 in Daegu, South Korea, Bong Joon-ho's inner "left-leaning" seed seems to have been planted early on by his grandfather, whom he had never met. Bong Joon-ho's grandfather, Park Tae-won, was a well-known North Korean novelist and translator in the 1930s. After the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, he resolutely went up against the current, from Seoul to Pyongyang, where he died in 1986. When Bong Joon-ho was a child, the novels written by his grandfather had long been banned in South Korea, but his grandfather's gene of loving literature and art and not following the currents flowed in Bong Joon-ho's blood. According to his relatives, Bong Joon-ho has been very concerned about the problem of inequality in Korean society since he was a child, and often likes to invite his poor elementary school classmates to his home for dinner. In the third grade of elementary school, he moved with his family from Daegu to Seoul. In middle school, Bong Joon-ho fell in love with movies and aspired to become a director in the future. However, at the request of his parents, he was admitted to the Sociology Department of Seoul Yonsei University. During his time at the school, he co-founded a film club, organized regular film screenings, and tried to shoot student works himself. With pocket money from selling donuts in a campus café, he bought his first camera. "Sometimes, I go to sleep with that Hitachi camera." He once recalled.
Huge posters were hung in his alma mater, Yonsei University
Bong Joon-ho entered the university in 1988, at a time of great changes in Korean society, and various student movements on campus were rising and falling. Although Bong Joon-ho is not an activist, he has more or less participated, and he has drawn many cartoons for campus newspapers praising the student protest movement, and his outlook on life and world outlook has become more and more left-leaning. In 2000, Bong Joon-ho's feature film debut "Kidnapping the Dog at the Door" was officially released, but only about 100,000 movie tickets were sold, and the box office was quite bad. Just three years later, he completely turned around with "Memories of Killing" and became a household name in South Korea. Throughout Bong Joon-ho's entire work, all under the surface of genre films, there are various serious social criticisms, and as a result, they have been resisted by Korean conservative forces and regarded as "political propaganda films" with "left-leaning consciousness".
This time, "Parasite", in fact, even after winning the palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, did not win the favor of these conservative politicians. Some people simply denigrated it as a "funny movie" and publicly stated that "Parasite is not worth watching". However, such public opinion disappeared completely after the film won the Oscars. Today, many conservative politicians from Bong Joon-ho's hometown of Daegu have even proposed that a street in the city be renamed Bong Joon-ho Street, a statue be erected for him, and a Bong Joon-ho Film Museum be built in recognition of the great achievements of the son of Daegu.
Of course, not all South Koreans are caught up in this "Parasite Mania". Wu Yongjin, a senior chief writer of South Korea's veteran English-language newspaper "Korea Times", recently wrote an article questioning: "Did the success of "Parasite" make South Korea overreact? ”
He said: "The Oscars are just an American film festival run by Hollywood, which represents the world's largest film market, and it is certainly gratifying to be recognized there, but we are now acting, like winning the Oscars, it means that South Korea is already the best in the world, and it has changed the national fortunes." I think there is still a sense of insecurity behind this, and we always need affirmation from others. Perhaps this is a feature of small countries that rely on exports to make ends meet – we make things that are of good quality enough for consumers in other countries to buy with confidence. ”
In Wu Yongjin's view, Bong Joon-ho has long become the most international Korean director after the two films "Snow Country Train" and "Yuzi", and the success of "Parasite" lies in the globality of its story and theme, with a universal appeal, it is difficult to say how many distinctive Korean characteristics are left. "It's certainly right to applaud Parasite, but it would be irrational to take it exclusively to us and see it as a new source of national pride. The ideal way to cope is to see Parasite as a gift to the world, so that we ourselves can become more mature and confident. ”
Attached: "Parasite" fan punch card route launched by the Seoul Municipal Tourism Bureau
Woori Supermarket
Shortly after the film begins, a friend comes to Kim Ki-woo's house with a culture stone and recommends him a tutoring job. The scene in which the two were chatting took place at the entrance of this small supermarket called Youli. In the film, where the two people are located in the big umbrella, the store usually places a refrigerator.
Yuli Supermarket in the movie
Yuli supermarket real scene
Address: Mapo-gu, Seoul (32, Songijeong-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul)
Phone: 02-393-5806
Transportation: Metro Line 2 or Line 5 Zhongzheng Road Station Exit 6, about 10 minutes on foot.
Mapo-gu Terrace
A section of stairs located not far from the protagonist Kim Ki-taek's home is also the section of road that her daughter Kim Ki-ting walked after buying peaches. It is very close to The Yuli Supermarket, which seems unremarkable, but it has also welcomed many "Parasite" fans in recent days.
Terraced view of Mapo District
Address: Mapo-gu, Seoul (3, Songijeong-ro 6-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul)
Zixiamen Tunnel
The president's family unexpectedly returned early, and Kim Ki-taek, played by Song Kang-ho, and his family had to flee the mansion in the pouring rain. At this time, they passed through the Zixiamen Tunnel, and the staircase at the end of the tunnel is also extremely important symbolic in the film.
The staircase outside the Zixiamen Tunnel in the film
Stairs at the exit of the Zixiamen Tunnel
Address: Seoul Jongno-gu (219, Jahamun-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul)
Transportation: Metro Line 3 Gyeongbokgung Station Exit 2, about 10 minutes on foot.
Sky Pizza
Although the pizzeria does not appear directly in the film, it appears several times in the form of a pizza box. In the film, the pizza box bears the name "Pizza Times," but the 17-year-old family workshop, which is actually open in Seoul's Luliangjin district, is called "Sky Pizza" and has only ten seats. It is said that it was Song Kanghao, the 65-year-old owner Yan Hanji, who taught them how to fold pizza boxes. In an interview with the media, she said that orders for small shops have been doubling recently, and the ovens were all overwhelmed and went on strike the other day.
In the film, the family initially earns living expenses by folding pizza boxes
Sky Pizza hostess and director Bong Joon-ho
Address: Tongjak-gu, Seoul (86, Noryangjin-ro 6-gil, Dongjak-gu, Seoul)
Phone: +82-2-822-3082
Transportation: Metro Line 1 or Line 9 Luliangjin Station Exit 6, about 10 minutes on foot.