Parasite director Bong Joon Ho credits six Oscar nods to streaming services, social media

Director Bong Joon Ho says Parasite ’s six Oscar nominations feel like a dream from Inception and he is afraid he will soon wake up from it. The film is a dark comedy about the vast gap between the rich and poor in South Korea. Parasite, which has had a great international journey since it won the Palme d’Ore at the Cannes Film Festival, scripted history by becoming the first South Korean film to bag a best picture Oscar nomination . [caption id=“attachment_7904941” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Bong Joon Ho. Image from Facebook[/caption] It has earned nods for the best director for Bong, best international film and best original screenplay for Bong and co-writer Jin Won Han. The film has also earned nods for editing and production design. “I feel it’s like Inception. Soon I’m going to wake up and realize this was all a dream, I’m still in the middle of Parasite and all the equipment is malfunctioning. I see the catering truck on fire and I’m wailing. But right now, everything is great and I’m so happy,” Bong told Deadline through his translator and filmmaker Sharon Choi. The director, who first burst on the international cinema scene with Memories of Murder and has directed acclaimed titles such as Mother, The Host, Snowpiercer and Okja, said they did not expect this kind of love when they set out to make the film, a class satire set in South Korea. “When I was creating this film, I didn’t intend or aim for any of these things to happen. Everything that’s happened from Cannes to now, our intention was to really create a delicate and meticulous craft piece like a luxury Swiss watch.” “We can say that thanks to the internet, social media and these streaming services, the entire society is experiencing less of these language barriers and perhaps Parasite benefited from that global trend,” he said. “This is very rare for Asia and Korea for a movie to be nominated for categories like Best Picture and Best Director. We never expected any of this and I think all of this is thanks to the pure passion that all our great actors and crew members had in their pursuit to create a high-quality film and take on new challenges. I think the Academy members really recognised that as fellow filmmakers,” the filmmaker told the publication. The world of Parasite is getting expanded with a limited HBO series for which Bong is collaborating with Succession producer Adam McKay. “I really liked Adam McKay’s The Big Short and I loved his sense of humour, and the sharp satire he conveyed about the current American politics. “With Parasite, while I was writing the script I had so many more ideas I couldn’t convey into the two-hour running time of the film. I knew that if I had a longer running time, I would be able to tell these stories, and that’s what I plan to talk about with Adam pretty soon,” he said. (With inputs from agencies)