A One-Inch Tall Barrier
Image courtesy of Variety
By LYNN YUAN ‘21
The 2019 film season has brought us many well-directed foreign films, such as Weathering With You by famous director Makoto Shinkai and Parasite, directed by Bong Joon Ho. Yet, despite the vast foreign market, there are still many issues prevalent with foreign film appreciation in the U. S.
“Once you overcome the 1-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films,” said Bong Joon Ho as he victoriously received his award at the Golden Globes (Los Angeles Times).
Bong Joon Ho’s overwhelmingly successful foreign-language movie, Parasite, has arguably broken a previously impenetrable border for this category of film, and it introduced new possibilities for foreign language films to reach a level of global success. Having earned more than $143 million in box offices worldwide (IMDB), and having multiple globally acclaimed awards such as the Palme d’Or under its belt (Los Angeles Times), Parasite’s being nominated for the Oscars was not a possibility, but an expectation.
“This is a very rare and precious event to happen to Asian and Korean film,” Bong Joon Ho explained in an interview with the Los Angeles Times on his Oscar nominations. “I hope this serves as an inspiration for young filmmakers in Korea. I think it’s great that a film I created for personal reasons ends up contributing to the entire industry.”
Yet, while Bong Joon Ho’s film has certainly overcome many barriers that foreign language films face in becoming critically acclaimed, the film industry still has a long way to go before it becomes open to diversity in general in the ways of award-giving. Only two out of twenty actor and actress nominations were people of color for the 2020 Oscars, and no female directors were nominated at all (CNBC). In a year of record-breaking diversity for the American film industry, the lack of nominations for female directors, actors, and actresses of color has righteously induced outrage within the community. An example is the case of critically acclaimed movie “The Farewell,” starring rising Asian-American star Awkwafina, which lacked a nomination in any category at the Oscars. With the movie being directed by Lulu Wang—who, along with director of “Little Women” Greta Gerwig, lacked a well deserved nomination in the directors category—“The Farewell” is a diverse movie both in terms of gender and racial equity. While Awkwafina remains graceful about her snub from the Oscars, she claims that “we can’t ignore movies that women have helmed, including mine” (Explore Entertainment).
This year, some of the top-grossing foreign films, such as “Ne Zha,” China’s vastly popular animated film which earned $700 million worldwide (IMDB), were also snubbed by acclaimed awards due to a lack of understanding of foreign culture. “Ne Zha” is a character in traditional Chinese mythology, and the 2019 movie excelled in bringing a beautiful coming-of-age story to life. Yet, this highly original, well-animated, and well-directed story lost its place in nominations in the Oscars to predictable, sequel films such as “How to Train Your Dragon, the Hidden World,” and “Toy Story 4,” which I guarantee do not deserve the award more than “Ne Zha” does.
With five out of ten most anticipated films in 2020 being directed by women, and centered around female leads (CNBC), and with the upcoming James Bond Movie “No Time to Die” featuring a female 007, we can only hope that the Oscar nominations next year will be less of a disappointment than this year’s. But maybe the solution to celebrating diversity is much simpler than we think—perhaps we should just learn to value awards decided by committees of old, white, men less.