Continued from page 12 Note that the u2018 best foreign- languageu2019 category has been renamed. u2018 Foreignu2019 replaced with u2018 internationalu2019. Xenophobia, or morbid fear of the foreigner, grips Trumpu2019s America, and so many parts of the world, including ours, where humans are being indiscriminately called illegal, based on their religion, or place of birth, while the same blood flows through all. Tcha, itu2019s a movies award; letu2019s talk movies. Was Bong Joon- ho, of all, the one to set record in the Oscarsu2019 92- year history? What about Bergman, Kurosawa, Fellini, Truffaut, Renoiru2026 What about whataboutery ( in general, in life)? Times theyu2019re a changinu2019. As they must. How about cheering for that ( always)? Sure Joon- ho is already Hollywood mainstream, with his last two films, Snowpiercer ( 2013), and Netflix original Okja ( 2017), essentially in English, starring Tilda Swinton, among other major American talents. The latter was globally pushed by the US streaming giant more than any film I know. Is Parasite squarely a win for South Korea then? As an Asian, tempted to believe so u2014 more so as an Indian whou2019s watched more Hindi films that were remakes of Korean movies than from any other language past couple of decades. So what exactly happened with Korean cinema in late u2019 90s that explains its progressive prominence? The government. Seriously! Post the 1997 East Asian financial crisis, the state stepped in to raise Koreau2019s self- esteem with direct, strong investments in its u2018 soft poweru2019 u2014 K- pop bands, upwards. No, really. Thatu2019s whatu2019s now resulted in Hullya ( Chinese term for u2018 Korean Waveu2019 in pop- culture). With movies, they banned censorship. They injected funds into a Korean Film Council, spent on film training at universities, and facilitated a fullon film- industry, pretty much from scratch. Joon- ho belongs to the generation that directly benefited from the Nobel Laureate President Kim Dae Jungu2019s ( 1998- 2003) staggeringly rare, liberal cultural vision, and state intervention. Which is to take away nothing from how universal, in its specificity, Parasite is. That half- basement could be in Bandrau2019s Chapel Road ( have seen one), and the beautiful house on Pali Hill, and nothing about the story would change. This isnu2019t always true for cinema from Seoul. Itu2019s not an easy society/ culture to penetrate. For all the Oscar gongs, the Academy couldnu2019t find one performance in Parasite worth a nomination. Iu2019d find it to hard to tell as well. Spotting good writing/ filmmaking is easier. Joonhou2019s Martin Scorsese quote at the Oscars podium was spot- on still: u201c The most personal is the most creative.u201d Shouldnu2019t matter where itu2019s from u2014 so long as you donu2019t fear those one- inch tall subtitles! And you accept u2018 the otheru2019. Good call, Academy. Better late than never. Great call, Academy! Team Parasite accept the award

Great call, Academy!

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Great call, Academy!

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