Parasite

Parasite is a 2019 South Korean black comedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho, who co-wrote the screenplay with Han Jin-won and co-produced. The film, starring Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin, Park Myung-hoon and Lee Jung-eun, follows a poor family who scheme to become employed by a wealthy family, infiltrating their household by posing as unrelated, highly qualified individuals. The script is based on Bong's source material from a play written in 2013. He later adapted it into a 15-page film draft, and it was split into three different drafts by Han. Bong stated that he was inspired by the 1960 Korean film The Housemaid, and by the Christine and Léa Papin incident in the 1930s. Filming began in May 2018 and finished that September. The project included cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo, film editor Yang Jin-mo, and composer Jung Jae-il. Darcy Paquet, an American film critic and author, provided English translations for the film's international release. Parasite premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2019, where it became the first Korean film to win its top prize, the Palme d'Or. It was released in South Korea by CJ Entertainment on 30 May, and was praised for Bong's direction and screenplay, and also for its editing and production design. It grossed over $263 million worldwide on a $15.5 million budget. Among its numerous accolades, Parasite won the leading four Academy Awards at the 92nd Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film, becoming the first non English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is the first South Korean film to receive any Academy Award recognition, and one of only three films overall to win both the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Picture, the first such achievement in over 60 years. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language, and became the first non English-language film to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. It has since been cited as among the best films of the 2010s, the 21st century, and of all time. A television series based on it is in early development.