Nothing "foreign" about it

Rating: 10/10 (17 April 2020)

Hollywood's "foreign" classifications should be immediately done away with. What does the designation tell us about this extraordinary movie to call it "foreign"? Foreign to whom and in what way? Yep, I get it, not made in America (Hollywood) and not in English. That designation means nothing used for a movie of such universal themes so easily accessible to the viewer. The director has observed the Kurosawa principle about balancing all the elements of the film's language, in addition to keeping to his own approach of keeping the narrative and dramatic aspects simple. Even with subtitles I was laughing out loud at the humorous bits. Can western movies claim that when they're subtitled in other languages? This sublime simplicity results in a movie so finely calibrated that it wipes out in one fell swoop the tiresome arthouse talking head cinematic tradition of the west. The South Korean film isn't "foreign", it's smack in the middle of a filmmaking tradition that respects the story, the viewer and the very medium of film. Think Kurosawa, again. How sublime in their simplicity are his movies? Critics carry in about what genre it is? What political and sociological commentary the director is trying out. None of that matters when a movie is so tonally pitch perfect. The "change" of pace about half way through is so seamless, one gasps long after the last frame that it couldn't possibly have gone any other way. It's the power of the impeccable story telling via the medium of film that elevates this movie above the fray.
Editing, acting, cinematography are all pitch perfect. Hollywood, go cry in your pretzels, with your endless commercial blockbusters and franchises. The centre of gravity has shifted and you are now the "foreigner" while the South Korean holds court in the center of the global cinematic universe. Thank you for giving it the "best" picture award full stop. It is one of the greatest films of all time in its tone, seamlessness, simplicity, and both the humour and tragedy of the human story it depicts. A great, great, great cinematic experience. Ten stars barely begins to convey the greatness.