2020 Oscar winner for Best Feature Film
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Thriller. Dir: Joon-ho Bong. Country: South Korea. English subtitles.
The Park Family are the picture of aspirational wealth. The Kim Family are rich in street smarts but not much else. When these two houses are brought together the Kims sense a golden opportunity. And the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist to the Parks, while the Parks give them a way out of their shabby circumstances. But soon greed and class prejudice threaten to upend the Kims’ newfound comfort. A masterpiece of storytelling and cinema.
BLACK & WHITE VERSION:
“Cinema was black and white in the very beginning. There was a time when films were only in black and white, even throughout the 40s and 60s when colour films came into the picture, there were numerous films still in black and white. Black and white is the origin of cinema. Although I became a filmmaker in the 2000s, I idealise the beautiful black and white films by Renoir, Fellini, Kurosawa, John Ford, and the beautiful cinematography of Gregg Toland. I always had this desire to create and black and white film which shared by my cinematographer Hong Kyung Pyo. I’m extremely happy to present PARASITE in black and white and have it play on the big screen. It will be fascinating to see how the viewing experience changes when an identical film is presented in black and white. I watched the black and white version twice now, and at time the film felt more like a fable and gave me the strange sense that I was watching a story from old time. The second time I watched it, the film felt more realistic and sharp as if I was being cut by a blade. It also further highlighted the actors’ performances and seemed to revolve more around the characters. I had many fleeting impressions of this new version, but I do not wish to define them before it is presented. I hope everyone in the audience can compare their own experiences from the colour version and find their own path the Parasite in black and white.” – Director Bong Joon Ho.