Movie Parasite That Won Academy Award (spoilers)

[harllee]

The movie Parasite won the Academy Award for Best Picture last year and several other awards. I usually try to watch the Best Picture honoree so I got on the list to get it from my public library. I finally got it last week and watched it. Yikes! I just don't know what to say--I think it was probably the worst movie I have ever seen. The movie was made in S. Korea and has captions--but that is not the problem. The acting is OK and the filming is Ok but it is about the worst story line I have ever seen. How in the world could this movie win the Academy Award

Has anyone else seen this movie and what did you think?

Maybe I am just out of touch.

[stepford]

Lots of entertainment is of the "love it or hate it" variety. While I did find portions of Parasite difficult to watch I guess I liked that it challenged me a bit, rather than just feeding me the safe standard Hollywood happy ending formula.

[6miths]

Yes DW and I didn't really see it as Academy Award nominee let alone winner. But we are not Members of the Academy so what do we know?

[aja8888]

It's the movie industry, what else?

[Montecfo]

I can see why people might not like it. I did like it.

I wanted to see it because of the great reviews on Metacritic.

I did like the movie. But I would be hesitant to recommend it.

[mckittri2000]

The movie industry loved it because it was all about class warfare between rich and poor. I watched it and at best it was a 2 star (out of 5) for me. Personally, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone to watch.

[Midpack]

I don’t care for about 2/3rds of the movies the academy awards best picture, so I’m not surprised. The worst movie (and most hyped) I’ve ever seen didn’t win, but it was nominated for best picture in 2011 - The Tree of Life. I guess we’re too stupid to ‘get it.’

We used to go see the Best Picture winner every year, but we haven’t paid much attention to winners for many years.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478304/?ref_=ttawd_awd_tt

[chilkoot]

The Academy’s desire to virtue-signal by choosing a foreign film reached a tipping point last year. “Parasite” was just the handiest example.

[Dtail]

FWIW, DW and I liked it. A little corny, but liked the couple of twists.

[Amethyst]

I would not consider it Terrence Malick's best. Sometimes I love his movies, and sometimes they are a bit beyond me. I did not love Tree of Life, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midpack The worst movie (and most hyped) I’ve ever seen didn’t win, but it was nominated for best picture in 2011 - The Tree of Life. I guess we’re too stupid to ‘get it.’

[Rocket Man]

This thread is actually the first time I have heard of this movie. DW and I see about one movie per year in the theaters and none on Netflix, etc.. That is about the number of really good movies made per year. The academy awards nowadays boil down to what Hollywood sees as politically correct.

[Amethyst]

It was one of 4 movies I watched on a very long flight. I thought it was a pretty effective horror movie.

The movie is so grounded in Korean culture, though, that it probably helps to be Korean to appreciate some of the levels of meaning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by harllee The movie Parasite won the Academy Award for Best Picture last year and several other awards. I usually try to watch the Best Picture honoree so I got on the list to get it from my public library. I finally got it last week and watched it. Yikes! I just don't know what to say--I think it was probably the worst movie I have ever seen. The movie was made in S. Korea and has captions--but that is not the problem. The acting is OK and the filming is Ok but it is about the worst story line I have ever seen. How in the world could this movie win the Academy Award Has anyone else seen this movie and what did you think? Maybe I am just out of touch.

[stepford]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rocket Man The academy awards nowadays boil down to what Hollywood sees as politically correct.

Maybe just in the last year, but I doubt Green Book would have won in 2019 if this was really true.

[harllee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amethyst It was one of 4 movies I watched on a very long flight. I thought it was a pretty effective horror movie. The movie is so grounded in Korean culture, though, that it probably helps to be Korean to appreciate some of the levels of meaning.

So you thought it was a horror movie? Maybe that is my problem--I did not realize it was a horror movie. I just thought it was a movie about awful psychotic people. The worst thing to me was that there were no good guys. I thought every single character was an awful person, even the little kid.

I generally like movies about class differences but people of all classes in this movie were so awful I did not like any of them.

As DH said "well, there was 2 hours of my life I will never get back."

Another problem with the movie was it gave me nightmares--and I never have
nightmares--so maybe it was a horror movie.

[harley]

I tried to watch it. It certainly didn't stand up well against it's predecessor. A true classic that introduced a major talent, Demi Moore. My first 3D movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGnTUz_4EZE

[Mr. Tightwad]

Me and DGF liked it a lot. Can't say the storyline was unoriginal.

Hulu has it in the comedy/drama category, no mention of horror.

[Katsmeow]

I loved this movie. I knew really nothing about it before watching it. My son wanted to watch it on his birthday so we did. When the movie takes that turn in the middle of it, I was totally shocked.

The movie is a social commentary. If you think of the 3 families in the movie each one is reacting to their circumstances. The huge difference between the wealthy family and the two families who work for them is very stark. They live in different worlds.

I think this movie deserved every award that it won.

[Amethyst]

LOL the director may or may not have meant it that way, but it certainly has that effect, doesn't it?

I could also view it as a parable about selfishness. "Here is what can happen, when people think only of their own advantage."

And yes, literally everyone was selfish and awful. A movie does not have to have heroes, does it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by harllee So you thought it was a horror movie? Maybe that is my problem--I did not realize it was a horror movie. .

[bltkmt]

I thought it was pretty great.

[neihn]

Hmm, you folks make me want to see it :-)