To say that the biggest news in the film industry this month is naturally a series of achievements of "Parasite". At the 92nd Academy Awards just this past, it won four awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Film! Strength deduction to get the award to the soft!
Subsequently, South Korean President Moon Jae-in sent a congratulatory message to the "Parasite" crew, and said that in the future, the South Korean government will further provide an environment for filmmakers to use their imagination and make movies with confidence and boldness.
Last week, South Korea's president also invited director Bong Joon-ho and his lead actors to have lunch at the Blue House. The South Korean government is taking positive steps to improve the lives of low-income families because of Parasite and has pledged to provide financial support to 1,500 families living in semi-basement apartments.
As of yesterday, "Parasite" has grossed $72 million in South Korea, and the global box office has exceeded $235 million, surpassing Pulp Fiction ($214 million) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ($213 million) to become the highest-grossing Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Palme d'Or film ever. The film grossed more than 3.06 billion yen (about 190 million yuan) in Japan and mobilized more than 2.2 million viewers. This achievement also made "Parasite" surpass "The Eraser in My Brain" (3 billion yen) and become the highest-grossing Korean film in Japan.
"Parasite" won the "Four Oscars" after winning the Palme d'Or, the highest award at the Cannes International Film Festival last year, becoming the first foreign-language film in Oscar history to win Best Picture. As Moon Jae-in put it: "This is the result of the efforts of all the people who have made our films over the past 100 years." Korean cinema is on par with world cinema, starting a new century of Korean cinema. ”
In recent years, the Korean film and television industry has developed vigorously, and the box office has also reached a record high, according to a report by the Korean Film Commission, last year, South Korean local films accounted for 51% of the market share, which is the ninth consecutive year that South Korea has maintained a larger market share than foreign distribution. Last year, south Koreans watched 4.37 movies per capita, the most watched movie in the world.
Since the 21st century, in the past 20 years, Korean films have been steady and steady, constantly improving the standards of the film industry, while taking into account the expression of humanistic feelings, and finally realizing the blossoming of art and commerce, and completing a beautiful relay race, which has attracted the attention of the world film industry. Since 2003, when Park Chan-wook's "Old Boys" won the Grand Jury Prize in Cannes, since then, the West and even the world have begun to pay attention to Korean films, and Korean films have officially become the focus of domestic film fans. The ensuing "Memories of Killing", "Mother", "Melting Pot", "Defender", "Suyuan", "Monster of the Han River", "Yellow Sea", "Busan Trip" and a series of acclaimed masterpieces have become a must-have for domestic film fans.
Although affected by the "Korean restriction order" policy, Korean movies have not been screened in domestic theaters in recent years, but in the Internet era, it does not affect the viewing of Korean film fanatics. The following figure douban last year's most popular Korean film TOP10, has been watched by more than 1.52 million fans to score.
Recently, Peter Bradshaw, chief film critic of the British "Guardian", selected 20 Korean film masterpieces, and the works of directors such as Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, Lee Cang-dong, And Hong Sang-so were selected, some of which are classics that we are familiar with, but there are also some niche tastes in film history, and several are unpopular masterpieces of international film festivals.
Based on the above list of films, I would also like to recommend a few Korean movies to you, let's take a look at what has made today's "Parasite" and Korean movies.
01
Mints
Director: Li Cangdong
Writers: Li Cangdong
Starring: Xue Jingqiu / Wen Suli / Jin Ruzhen / Xu Qing / Kim In-kwon
Genre: Drama
Release Date: 1999-10-14 (Busan Film Festival) / 2000-01-01 (Korea)
Runtime: 130 minutes
The film premiered at the Busan Film Festival in October 1999 and was released in Korean theaters on New Year's Day in 2000, becoming an indelible classic in the minds of a generation of Korean audiences. The reason why I put this film in the first place, in addition to its release time, which just represents the starting point of The glory of Korean films in the past 20 years, is that the director of this film, Lee Cangdong, is my favorite Korean director. His most recent work, Burning, was also one of the most vocal of the Palme d'Or that year.
"Mints" adopts a narrative approach of "flashbacks" (similar narrative methods: Ou Rong's "Love Appreciation Period", Gaspar No's "Irrevocable"), the whole article is divided into 7 fragments, following the protagonist Jin Yonghao (Xue Jingqiu) from 1999, 1994, 1987, 1984, 1980 to 1978, through the first love (Wen Suli) and "Mint Candy" this point of the epistle, observing Jin Yonghao's 20 years.
The most classic scene in the film is when the protagonist shouts at the oncoming train: "I want to go back!" ”
02
Kidnapping the Dog at the Door
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Writers: Sun Tae-hung / Bong Joon-ho
Starring: Lee Sung-jae / Bae Doo-na / Kim Seok-ho / Bian Hee-bong / Ko So-hee
Genre: Comedy
Release: 2000-02-19 (South Korea)
Runtime: 110 minutes
As Bong Joon-ho's feature film debut, the box office of this film was not ideal that year, and even led to the embarrassing situation of "Memories of Killing" being withdrawn at the beginning of the project. But looking at it now, the status of this debut work is definitely underestimated.
Inspired by a people's livelihood news seen by Bong Joon-ho, the film takes place in an apartment building, revolving around a series of interlocking stories caused by the "kidnapping of dogs" caused by the promotion of a university lecturer and his nagging wife, a female secretary eager to be on TV, a security guard who drives a small stove, and a homeless man hiding in the basement.
The director's cleverness lies in the use of dogs to talk about people, and the characters brought out through the dog incident are all sentient beings in this fiercely competitive modern society, each with its own tragic situation. Are people kidnapping dogs or are people like dogs? Behind the absurd comedy is the powerlessness and sadness of the low-level characters in South Korea.
03
"Common Security Zone"
Director: Park Chan-wook
Writers: Lee Woo-young / Kim Hyun-seok / Park Chan-wook / Park Sang-yan
Starring: Lee Young-ae / Song Kang-ho / Lee Byung-hyun / Shin Ha-kyun / Kim Tae-woo
Genre: Drama / War
Release: 2000-09-09 (Korea)
The recent hot Korean drama "The Forced Landing of Love" has recently come to an end. In the play, the North Korean officer played by Hyun Bin harvests the hearts of a number of female fans, and even the wife of the South Korean president is a fan of Oba.
The story background of this "Common Garrison Area" also originates from North and South Korea, and the North Korean officer in the film is played by the kind "Uncle Cake" Song Kanghao.
The film tells the story of a North Korean soldier killed one day in the inter-Korean joint security zone on the border of Panmunjom, which brought mutual suspicion and triggered a gun battle between the two sides. In order to resolve this headless case, the North and the South agreed that a neutral country would coordinate the investigation. Sophie (Lee Young-ae), a Swiss-Korean girl, is sent to investigate the incident, and gradually Sophie discovers that the matter is hidden.
The climax of this film is the gun-to-gun confrontation scene at the end, the camera scheduling and design convey the relationship between the characters, not to lose Du Qifeng's gangster film. Add to that nostalgic black-and-white photo at the end, which is a shame.
04
"The Day the Pig Fell into the Well"
Director: Hong Sang-so Writer: Hong Sang-so Starring: Kim Yoe-sung / Cho Young-sook / Lee Young-kyung / Fang Yin-hee / Song Kang-ho Genre: Drama / Love Release Date: 1996-05-04 (South Korea) Length: 115 minutes
The 60-year-old Hong Sang-so is known as the first Korean writer to make a film, and is currently the most experimental independent film director in South Korea. His creations are amazing, and basically every year there are new films produced. The latest film, "The Woman Who Ran Away", has just premiered at the 70th Berlin Film Festival, and the reputation is good.
The reason why I chose to recommend his debut film "The Day the Pig Fell into the Well" is because from this film, you can see some of the themes or elements that his works love. Usually it is the love between men and women, the scene is a restaurant, coffee shop, bookstore, and the characters in the movie also seem to be living in the city like living a daily life, shooting the dialogue between the characters in a long shot.
05
The Chaser
Director: Luo Hongyi
Writers: Luo Hongyi
Starring: Ha Jeong-woo / Kim Yoon-seok / Seo Young-hee / Kim Woo-jeong / Jung In-ki
Genre: Drama / Thriller / Crime
Release: 2008-02-14 (South Korea)
Runtime: 125 minutes
This film, as Luo Hongyi's feature film debut, is said to have been inspired by his solo walk one night. Those who have seen it will also think of the serial murderer "Liu Yingzhe Case" in 2004.
As a crime genre film, this film has achieved anti-genre and anti-climactic, and the murderer appears at the beginning and confesses guilt and is arrested, but he can still be attracted to it, and the story goes unexpectedly. Ha Zhengyu's villain role is too successful and will make the audience hate it to the bone.