The South Korean 'Parasite' triumphs at the Oscars

The film won four awards, including the most coveted, for best film. New triumph for the Korean entertainment industry. A human story in a country increasingly torn by social divisions.

Los Angeles (AsiaNews / Agencies) - "Parasite", the film by South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, triumphed at the 92nd night of the Oscars in Los Angeles bringing home four statuettes: best film, international film, direction and screenplay.

It is the first time in the history of the US film festival that a non-English language film has won the most coveted award. And it is the first time since 1955 that a director has been awarded for the same film at both the Oscars and the Cannes Film Festival. 

The victory of "Parasite" marks another great success for the South Korean entertainment industry, already consecrated by the planetary boom of K-pop, Korean "pop" music.

Upon accepting the best director statuette, Bong stated that he had dreamed of this day since he was 12 years old, and that he had studied the cinema of Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, the big losers of the evening.

The South Korean director made his mark internationally in 2003 with the film "Memories of Murder", winning the Torino Film Festival. In 2006, his "The Host" hit the national box office and in 2011 he presided over the jury at the Cannes Film Festival.

"Parasite" is his seventh work. A crude satirical comedy that contrasts the lives of two families in Seoul: a wealthy and a poor one. The gap between social classes is an issue that is emerging strongly in the national debate of the rich Asian country. According to a recent study by the Hankyoreh newspaper, young South Koreans in the province find it more difficult to establish themselves socially and economically than their peers in the cities.