Hulu Shuts Down Twitter Trolls Complaining About ‘Parasite’ Subtitles
Zack Sharf
Hulu isn’t going to let social media trolls get away with trashing “Parasite.” Bong Joon Ho’s four-time Oscar winner became available to stream exclusively on Hulu starting April 8. The company marked the occasion with a Twitter video celebrating the streaming debut of the movie, but some followers decided to throw some shade by criticizing “Parasite.” One person responded to Hulu by calling “Parasite” a pathetic movie, to which the streamer responded, “It won…four Oscars.” The streamer went viral for shutting down another follower who took issue with “Parasite” being a foreign-language film.
“It’s not in English, no one wants to watch a movie that they literally have to read to understand what’s going on,” one person wrote to Hulu. “Sound is such a huge part of movies and it being in a different language is so [weird].”
Hulu issued the perfect response: “If you don’t want to read subtitles, you can always learn Korean!”
“Parasite” was the favorite to win the Oscar for Best International Feature Film ever since it won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, but many in the film industry wondered if a non-English language drama could take the Academy’s biggest prize for Best Picture. No foreign language film had ever won Best Picture in the 92 years of the Oscars. Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” got close in 2019 but lost to “Green Book.” “Parasite” broke the glass ceiling, becoming not just the first foreign language Best Picture winner but also the first South Korean film to land Oscar noms. “Parasite” also took home trophies for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
Bong’s Oscar winner arrives on streaming after an unprecedented run at the global box office. “Parasite” is Bong’s first movie to crack $100 million worldwide, and it finished its theatrical run with $254 million worldwide. At the U.S. box office, “Parasite” surpassed $50 million to become one of the top five foreign language releases in domestic history (unadjusted for inflation and not counting that there wasn’t tracking like there is today for earlier hits such as “La Dolce Vita”). Distributor Neon previously used Neon to launch the streaming debut of Celina Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” Both films are now available to stream on the platform.
it won…. four oscars……
— Hulu (@hulu) April 8, 2020
if you don’t want to read subtitles, you can always learn Korean!
— Hulu (@hulu) April 8, 2020
