Jo Yeo Jeong wins Best ActressWith the SAG Awards approaching TOMORROW NIGHT and our hopes not high for an all-Korean win for "Outstanding Cast" (even though Parasite features an absolute dream of an ensemble performance), we've been thinking about whether the cast has been truly undervalued or whether we've just got American blinkers on. So let's take a look at the prizes and nominations that the cast has actually won.

At Korea’s two big awards ceremony, the Blue Dragon Film Awards and the Buil Film Awars, Parasite was the big winner. The best part of its dominance at both was that some of the actors won prizes. The winners of those two awards shows and a few other accolades for Parasite after the jump...  

BLUE DRAGON AWARDS
40th annual. This is the big awards show but it restricts itself to popular films only (we don't know what the exact criteria is), about 40 films make a finalist list before the nominations. 

The winning quartet of actors this season

Best Film: “Parasite”
Best Director: Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”)
Best Actor: Jung Woo Sung (“Innocent Witness”). Song Kang Ho, who so wonderfully plays Mr Kim, the patriarch of the unemployed family in Parasite, was nominated in this category.
Best Actress: Jo Yeo Jeong (“Parasite”) who plays rich Mrs. Park - we've written about her brilliance right here.
Best Supporting Actor: Jo Woo Jin (“Default”) Park Myeong Hoon (who plays the husband of the original housekeeper in Parasite) was nominated in this category.
Best Supporting Actress: Lee Jung Eun (“Parasite”) who plays the Park's original housekeeper won the prize but Park So Dam ("Jessica" Kim) was also nominated.

Best New Actor: Park Hae Soo (“By Quantum Physics: A Nightlife Venture”)
Best New Actress: Kim Hye Joon (“Another Child”)
Best New Director: Lee Sang Geun (“Exit”)
Popular Star Award: (No nominees just winners...) Lee Kwang Soo ("Inseparable Bros"), Honey Lee (Extreme Job), Park Hyung Sik (The Juror), Im Yoon Ah (Exit)
Audience Choice Award for Most Popular Film: “Extreme Job”
Best Screenplay: Kim Bo Ra (“House of Hummingbird”)
Best Cinematography—Lighting: Kim Ji Yong, Jo Kyu Young (“Swing Kids”)
Best Editing: Nam Na Young (“Swing Kids”)
Best Music: Kim Tae Sung (“Svaha: The Sixth Finger”)
Best Art Direction: Lee Ha Joon (“Parasite”)
Technical Award: Yoon Jin Yool, Kwon Ji Hoon (“EXIT” stunts)
Best Short Film: Jang Yoo Jin — “Milk”

BUIL FILM AWARDS
28th annual. This was the original South Korean film awards, beginning in 1958, but they were on hiatus for three decades starting in the mid 70s when the South Korean film industry began to wane but they started up again 12 years ago just after "New Korean Cinema" took off and won global interest. It's held as part of the Busan International Film Festival. 

Park Myeong Hoon (barely recognizable as the malnourished hidden man in Parasite) won. So did "New" star Sung Yu Bin.

Best Film: “Parasite”
Best Director: Kim Tae-gyun ("Dark Figure of Crime") -- a rare director nomination that Bong Joon Ho lost this year. 
Best Actor: Gi Ju Bong ("Hotel by the River") Interestingly enough, Song Kang Ho was not nominated for this prize. Instad Choi Woo Sik who plays his son was the lead nominee. We think everyone in Parasite is "supporting" actually, a true ensemble film like Gosford Park and Nashville and the like. But if someone has to be designatd as "lead,' we agree that it's Choi Woo Sik who the film essentially begins with due to his stroke of luck and ends with due to the results of the drama. 

We have to take a break from the Parasite love to express excitemeent that Jeon Do Yeon is still winning prizes. We wish her films wouild always come to the states. She's one of the greatest Korean actresses (see SECRET SUNSHINE and THE HOUSEMAID immediately) but we don't see her enough in our theaters.

Best Actress: Jeon Do Yeon ("Birthday"). Jo Yeo Jeong, Mrs Park, again, was nominated but lost.
Best Supporting Actor / Best Supporting Actress: Park Myeong Hoon and Lee Jung Eun ("Parasite") were both winners so that's a big score for the bottom rung of Parasite's metaphoric take on class warfare. Jang Hye-Jin (Mrs. Kim, the new cook/housekeeper) was also nominated in the Supporting Actress category. 
New Director Kim Ui Seok ("After My Death")
Film Arts Award: Jung Sung Il ("Night and Fog in Zona")
New Actor: Sung Yu-Bin ("Last Child")
New Actress: Jeon Yeo-been ("After My Death")
Popular Actress Award: Honey Lee ("Extreme Job")
Popular Actor Award: Do Kyoung Soo ("Swing Kids")
Best Screenplay: Bong Joon-Ho and Jin Won Han (“Parasite”)
Best Cinematography: Hong Kyung Pyo ("Parasite")
Best Art Direction: Park Il Hyun ("Swing Kids") won this prize, his second consecuutive win at the Buil Awards beating Parasite which was at least nominated for its incredible house. 
Best Music: Jung Jae-il ("Parasite") 

For those of you who are curious about South Korean cinema, a lot of their movies come to the States thanks to specialty distributors. Not all of course. Parasite and  Extreme Job were the #1 and #24 highest grossing foreign-language films in North America this past year. Swing Kids, not a remake of the Christian Bale / Robert Sean Leonard movie but a movie about a tap dancing prisoner of war, was the #46 highest grossing foreign language film in 2018. 

Park Myeong-Hoon - nominatd by Chunsa Film Art
Ensemble - nominated by BSFC, BFCA, COFCA, DFCS, GFCA, MCFCA, OAFFC, WAFCA

Winners Not Named Yet but Nominated

-Jo Yeo Jeong, Best Actress
- Park Myeong-Hoon, Supporting Actor
-Lee Jeung Eun, Supporting Actress