It took 92 Oscar ceremonies for a movie not written in English to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, so it was gonna take something special to do it. Luckily, the movie that broke that historic hoodoo, Parasite, is one-of-a-kind.
The man behind that feat was South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho who wrote and directed Parasite (winning Best Director and Best Screenplay too), which currently sits at an incredible 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. If you missed your chance to catch it in cinemas in 2020 (understandable considering global events) then you'll be pleased to know that it will be coming to Netflix this week on November 2 (US movie buffs should try Max). That should keep any snobby friends off your back for a while.
With a unique premise and more than its fair share of dark humour, you're unlikely to have seen anything like Parasite before. People can get stuffy about foreign language movies but this is the one to take a chance on.
The movie is a tale of two families living in Seoul, one rich (the Park family) and one struggling for money (the Kim family). After the Kim's son Ki-Woo manages to con his way into tutoring the Park's wealthy daughter, it's not long until the whole family find themselves using whatever means necessary to get similar jobs amongst the house's staff. Even through the language barrier, there's something universal about wealth and jealousy that makes for a compelling story.
Saying much more would spoil some of the most iconic movie moments in the 21st Century but it's pretty much essential viewing for movie buffs. If you've seen it before, it's well worth a re-watch, especially with a planned TV spin-off reportedly in development.
This is a very tension-filled movie, but if you're after a traditional horror flick, why not check out the acclaimed horror movie with 94% on Rotten Tomatoes added recently for a fantastic Halloween? Or a host of Horror movies playing across the best streaming services.
