What does Parasite mean for cinema?

I've been spoiled for choice when choosing what films to write about over the last couple of weeks.

There's only so many hours in a day and it really does feel like we're in a cinema re-insurgence at the moment. Big, bold, fascinating and thought-provoking film work is eclipsing the popularity of big budget TV which has taken a back seat since the finale of Game of Thrones in my opinion.

Not only have we been seeing much more diverse and provocative content on the big screen recently but also a rise in popularity for films which not long ago would have been snubbed as artsy or indie. You only have to look at the popularity of films like Parasite and The Lighthouse to see that outside the mainstream is the new mainstream.

There are a few reasons why I didn't want to do a normal review for this film. Partly in an effort to give nothing away. The less you know going in, the more you will enjoy this film. I could have just done a review or an analysis with a big spoiler warning like I did for 1917 but I highly doubt there is much more unpacking of the film that I could do that couldn't and hasn't been done more adeptly by someone else.

Plus, as with most films like this, discovering the hidden details and coming to your own conclusions is far more fun than having it all pointed out for you... And I'm saving myself for a big, fat analysis of The Lighthouse to do all that...

In this blog post I'm not going to review the film but instead shed a light upon its popularity and critical acclaim. How did it get here? Why did it resonate with such wide audiences? What does this mean for the future of not only how we consume films but from who we consume them from, on what platforms and with what mindset going in?

1. A Brief History of Korean Film

Until researching for this piece I knew nothing at all about Korean Cinema.

Turns out I've been missing out and it looks like a lot of the film world has been too. What's particularly fascinating about the Korean film industry compared to those of other countries is just how much it has had to go through to gain a sense of artistic freedom.

Until 1945 Korea was colonized by Japan and Japanese rule came with its own strict censorship. Police would sit in on film screenings and several films were destroyed before they even reached an audience. While a few anti-Japanese political pieces managed to slip the net during the late 20's early 30's, the growth of Korean film was forcefully stunted during this period. In 1942 Korean language films were banned altogether.

Interestingly, one of the most praised Korean film of the 1920's is about an unstable man who kills the son of a wealthy land-owner... and that isn't the only class based thriller that would draw significant audiences throughout the next 100 years.

Due to the censorship laws a lot of early Korean cinema is very metaphorical. This is referenced as a running gag in Parasite where metaphorical symbols are pointed out bluntly by Ki-woo.

Even after Korea gained independence from Japan its film industry faced a number of obstacles. The Korean war is an obvious one, national division, authoritative military governments, strict censorship and then in the 1980's Hollywood set up branch offices in Korea and now an already fragile industry had to compete with films from America and Hong Kong. In 1993 Korean films made up only 16% of cinema attendance figures in Korea. That's a bit nuts when you think about it!

More recently Korean media has become more prevalent in western culture. K-pop and K-drama (Korean pop music and Korean TV shows) now have worldwide fan bases. Foreign film in general is increasing in popularity with audiences hungry for alternate views to the oversaturated western market. Thanks to the internet, Korean filmmaking is more accessible than ever and while Korean film has been well received at film festivals and awards in the past it's now reaching a new level of popularity. A level where audiences know about the film before it's nominated for best foreign film at the Oscars.

2. Where Parasite Lives

What's so interesting about Parasite is how it takes the expressionistic and highly politicised filmmaking of the past and blends it seamlessly with the comedy and contemporary style of modern day filmmaking. There are noticeable influences from Hitchcock and other American filmmakers in the piece but it hits a previously un-reached place of being both fundamentally Korean in tone and theme and noticeably European/american in the way it chooses to express them. I don't necessarily think this was a conscience decision on the directors part. I feel like this is a natural blending of styles and influences that has come about through the different cultures exposure to one another throughout the 80's and 90's.

This makes Parasite part of a new and very exciting group of international films. The further they reach, the more they will influence future filmmakers and the more jumbled the culture soup of each film becomes. While Parasite is undoubtedly a Korean film it reaches universal truths that are relevant to international audiences in ways they haven't been previously. Put some early Korean film on and the symbolism and political meaning may be lost but through the universal film language that filmmakers have developed over the last century, foreign language films are more accessible to audiences than ever before.

Which is very exciting!

3. The Future

While it's impossible to predict, I think Parasite will begin a mainstream trend for not only Korean film but foreign language films in general. Our own films will start to take influences and stories from outside our culture consciously and subconsciously. There will be an influx of foreign filmmaking available to western audiences on streaming sites like Netflix and Amazon. To a degree a lot of this is already happening but I feel like it's going to happen more in a big way over the next few years.

There are other ways Parasite will inspire drastic changes. Most notably in marketing and turning the viewing of a film into an event. Event films are traditionally reserved for box office giants like Lord of the Rings and the Avengers series. Parasite shows a way for other stories to create an atmosphere and buzz around themselves.

I'd love for more films to reveal less in their trailers and create a sense of mystery and tension before you even sit down to see it and I can see the success of Parasite pushing it in that direction.

While all this may sound very hopeful and idealistic I truly do believe that this is the way cinema is heading. The industry is looking for ways to fill the holes in a rusty, overworked machine and Parasite fills that place rather nicely.

If your interest in Korean film has been spiked (mine certainly has) then here is an article which is a good groundwork for beginning to look into it. https://www.koreanfilm.org/history.html

If you have not yet seen Parasite then I can not recommend it highly enough. 11/10 if you want a rating and definitely a film that benefits from multiple viewings. I hope that the Oscars recognises how significant this film could be in our evolving film industry and for possibly being the catalyst to a golden age of foreign film.