Pro-North Korea daily praises Oscar-winning ‘Parasite’ for ‘exposing’ South Korea’s reality

SEOUL (Reuters) – A pro-North Korea daily praised Academy Awards best picture-winning South Korean movie “Parasite” on Friday, calling it a masterpiece that “starkly exposed the reality” of the rich-poor gap in South Korea.

“Parasite” became the first foreign-language film to win best picture in the 92-year history of the Academy Awards on Feb 9. It won a total of four Oscars, including best director and original screenplay for Director Bong Joon-ho and best international feature film.

“A masterpiece that has artfully and sharply cut through the reality of a handful of loan sharks living well while ruling over an overwhelming majority, who they consider as dogs or pigs, has been recognised as No. 1 in the U.S.- and Caucasian-centric film industry,” the Japan-based Choson Sinbo newspaper said.

The film is a tale of two South Korean families – the wealthy Parks and the poor Kims – that mirrors the deepening disparities in Asia’s fourth-largest economy and has struck a chord with global audiences.

In June 2019, less than a month after “Parasite” began showing in South Korea, North Korean propaganda website DPRK Today had said that the movie was “making people realise again that the capitalist system is a rotten, sick society with a malignant tumor of rich-becoming-richer and poor-becoming-poorer, a society with no hope or future.”

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Kim Coghill)