By Bianca Reyes, Center Spread Editor
The past few months have provided a majority of the population with an abundance of free time. Most chose to occupy this free time with their typical pastimes pre-quarantine, but baking treats and watching TikToks can only keep one’s boredom at bay for so long. Soon, the activities turned mundane and people began the endless search of new ways to occupy themselves, and for some, this meant turning to international media—more specifically, foreign films and K-Pop.
Foreign films aren’t a new concept, but the recent move towards appreciating these movies is. Before, there had always been a certain stigma towards films that weren’t in English. Whether it be rooted in laziness or flat-out xenophobia, this stigma prevented people from being exposed to an overflowing amount of movies that are just as good, if not better than films originally made in English. For a while, the stigma persisted, but in October of 2019, a shift was made with the release of the Korean film, Parasite.
Parasite’s initial popularity rose through showings at Indie film festivals like Sundance, where it gained immense acclaim from both critics and audiences alike. From there, the film swept through categories at awards ceremonies, accumulating a total of 43 awards by the time awards season had ended. The most memorable award that the film won was at the 2020 Oscars, where it made history for being the first foreign film to win the category for Best Picture. This win came as a surprise, not because it was undeserving of the win, but because foreign films are rarely ever noticed at American award ceremonies, much less do they win in the category for Best Picture at the Oscars. As Director Bong Joon Ho aptly put it in his acceptance speech, “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”
And that’s exactly what people did! Although the movie was released in the fall of last year, quarantine allowed people to finally watch the foreign films that were added to their watchlists as a result of Parasite’s success. For example, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a French period piece that was dubbed “the best romance for our socially-distant time,” began streaming on Hulu in late March and quickly became one of the most streamed movies on the platform.
The acceptance towards international media didn’t end there, though, as quarantine led people to expand their music taste to Korean Pop, or K-Pop for short. Although this, too, was stigmatized before March, many K-Pop groups have found more international success than ever—with the groups BTS and Blackpink coming out on top of the charts. Despite both being widely popular long before quarantine started, it seems that their fame only skyrocketed when quarantine began, whether that be due to BTS’s comeback featuring their first fully English song or Blackpink’s release of their first album, both groups dominated the charts. BTS, for example, made history by becoming the first foreign act to ever top the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the U.S.
The change towards the acceptance of international media is a welcomed change. Regardless of what the exact reason for turning towards international forms of entertainment is, it’s nice to see that people are overcoming that “one-inch barrier” and expanding their horizons. There’s a whole world of entertainment outside of English media waiting for you!
