By Jean H. Lee

For the first time in Academy Awards history, a South Korean film, Parasite, was nominated for Best Picture in 2020. I didn’t want to jinx it by organizing or attending an Oscars viewing party. The odds were against Parasite, after all: Never before in the Academy’s 92-year history had a non-English-language film won Best Picture. So I watched from home while doing the dishes.

By the end of the evening, I wished I were out with Korean friends, drinking soju and gobbling down instant ramen noodles. How fatalistically Korean of me to assume the worst by staying in on the biggest night in history for Korean cinema: That little subtitled sleeper movie from Seoul defied the odds and won. Four times.

And in the process, Parasite made Oscar history: First South Korean feature film to win an Academy Award. First non-English-language film to win Best Picture. Director Bong Joon-ho made his own history: He tied the legendary Walt Disney’s record for most Oscar wins in one season with his four statuettes, an amazing feat for a Hollywood outsider. His response: “I’m ready to drink tonight — until next morning.” How I wish I were at karaoke with the Parasite cast.

I’m not South Korean. But regardless of citizenship, I suspect every ethnic Korean is celebrating this win, from the great Korean-Canadian actor Sandra Oh to elites with internet access in North Korea. And it’s not just Koreans: Cinephiles around the world were rooting for this film because, simply put, its stellar filmmaking.

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PYONGYANG, North Korea -- Middle school students work on a computer in front of a poster of North Korea's rockets and satellites behind them in this photo taken in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Oct. 24, 2011. (Photo credit: Jean H. Lee)

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