K-Drama

Parasite takes “best picture” at the 2020 Oscars

Parasite takes “best picture” at the 2020 Oscars

The Korean movie, Parasite swept the Academy Awards last night with four Oscar wins, including Best Original Screenplay, Best International Film, Best Director, and for the first time in the 92 years of the Academy Awards, Parasite, a foreign film, won Best Picture.

A foreign film taking so many awards is another indication of how globally aware moviegoers and movie media have become in recent years. However, for a Korean film to snag so many coveted titles is truly remarkable, as Korean is not one of the most commonly spoken languages.

The language barrier didn’t seem to stop moviegoers and home-streamers from identifying well with the story, as the movie had a growing base of fans before the Oscar nominations.

Congratulations to the cast, crew, writers, director, and producers of Parasite for a job well done and well-deserved wins!

Below are the four categories that Parasite received awards in, including the list of nominees for those awards:

Best Picture – Parasite  (Kwak Sin Ae and Bong Joon Ho, Producers)

Ford v Ferrari, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Little Women, Marriage Story, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Parasite

Best Director – Bong Joon Ho, Parasite

Martin Scorsese, The Irishman; Todd Phillips, Joker; Sam Mendes, 1917; Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; Bong Joon Ho, Parasite

Best International Feature Film – Parasite (South Korea)

Corpus Christi, Honeyland, Les Misérables, Pain and Glory, Parasite

Best Original Screenplay – Parasite (Screenplay by Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin Won, Story by Bong Joon Ho)

Knives Out, Marriage Story, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Parasite

 

 

K-addiction – “How the heck did this happen?”

K-addiction – “How the heck did this happen?”

In 2014 a friend talked me into watching the first two episodes of a Korean drama called Boys Over Flowers. I really wasn’t interested, didn’t know a thing about Korea or Kdrama. But she was persistent, so I decided to humor her for two episodes before I told her it just wasn’t my thing. But then, a life-changing thing happened. I couldn’t stop watching. The next thing I knew, Kdrama was our main topic of conversation. We binged our way through Boys Over Flowers, Faith, Lie to Me, Playful Kiss and the list went on, and on, and on… Every week we had Kdrama night where we would watch as many episodes as we could manage while nibbling cheese and crackers and trying out different brands of soju. (By the way, soju is freaking AWESOME! Unless you drink too much…) We started learning Korean words, were excited when we understood one-word dialogue, and began to crush on Lee Min Ho and Kim Hyun Joong. Days got shorter and nights got longer as I watched into the wee hours, binging drama all night, catching the sunrise and then and then spending the day bleary-eyed and puffy, hiding from the real world. And that was only the beginning…
So, we were watching a drama called Iris one night, and there was this steamin’ hot killer guy who I said looked like a mean girl. He was breathtakingly beautiful, scary AF and sexy all at the same time, and it turned out he was Choi Seung Hyun, known as T.O.P, a member of a boy band called BigBang/The Kings of Kpop. More research happened, and we were next binging on YouTube. First was the Fantastic Baby video, then One of a Kind, Crooked, Good Boy… We were suddenly BigBang VIPs and couldn’t get enough. Life became focused on which one was singing in which songs at a given time, what the songs meant, how we would get tickets to the next concert tour. Nearly six years and many in-the-pit-front-of-stage concerts later, we’re both shameless Kdrama and Kpop fans, and I have joined the BTS ARMY, as well. What direction will this Kpop and Kdrama blog take? I’m not 100% sure myself, but I am sure that the addiction isn’t going away with time, so I plan on sharing it with the world. What got you into Kpop and Kdrama? I’d love to hear about it.
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