People can’t get enough of Parasite. The Bong Joon-Ho-directed South Korean tragicomedy, which has won the prestigious Palme d’Or and the Golden Globe for best foreign film, was given a standing ovation at the Screen Actors’ Guild Awards in LA last night, where it took home the award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture. It’s the first film in a language other than English to win the award.
Though the entire cast of the film didn’t attend the ceremony, Parasite’s win, which was decided, impressively, by peer vote, was shared among Chang Hyae-jin, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Jung Hyeon-jun, Jung Ji-so, Lee Jung-eun, Lee Sun-kyun, Park Myung-hoon, Park So-dam, and Song Kang-ko.
“I think today what’s truly important is that these actors were acknowledged by fellow peers, acknowledged as the best ensemble cast of this year, and that’s the greatest joy of this night,” Bong said in a post-awards interview, speaking via translator.
“To be honored with a best ensemble award, it occurs to me that maybe we haven’t created such a bad movie,” said Song in the cast’s acceptance speech, also speaking via translator.
Parasite is a social satire based around class, involving a working class family scamming themselves into a rich family to fund their existence, with deadly consequences.
Aside from torpedoing its way around the film festival circuit (its next stop is the Oscars, where it’s nominated for best picture), the film’s been subject to an intense bidding war between Netflix and HBO to the rights to an English-language limited series.
Bong has also told Dazed that he’d “definitely say yes” to a British remake of the film, saying: “If a British writer or director requests to do a remake with British actors, I would definitely say yes, because, in providing commentary on modern capitalism, Britain has directors like Ken Loach and Mike Leigh who bring such realistic textures. It would be interesting to see a Parasite set in London.”