It received almost universal critical acclaim, particularly for its sense of unease, ambiguous narrative, and performances. It was selected as the South Korean entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards; although it was not nominated, it became the first Korean film to make it to the final nine-film shortlist; another South Korean film, "Parasite" (2019), won that award at the following year's ceremony. It received numerous other accolades, and was included on several critics' "top ten" lists for the year 2018, notably those of "The New York Times", "Los Angeles Times", and the Associated Press. It has been widely regarded by several critics to be one of the best films of the 21st century, among its voted the all-time best Korean films by Korean Screen, with over 150 critics from 28 countries.