No Korean film in history had even been nominated in the foreign language category, let alone for the biggest award of them all. If Parasite wins best picture it will be overdue recognition for the creative hothouse that is South Korean cinema. Its bone-crunching violence and dark plot put it in the “extreme Asian” cinema bracket that was already readily exportable. But Oldboy – and the other films in the director’s Vengeance trilogy – had more going on than that. They featured a peculiar blend of tones, absurdist comedy clattering straight into vaulting tragedy, that seemed uniquely Korean.

Source: The Guardian February 01, 2020 07:01 UTC