South Korean movie Parasite emerged as the first foreign language movie to win the best picture awards at the Oscars. The critically acclaimed movie questions deep-seated capitalism. The story revolves around a family that seeks to integrate itself with the affluent class. While the movie has been appreciated widely, netizens feel it is a rip-off version of an old Tamil film — Minsara Kanna — released in 1999.
Twitteratis made a reference to the plot to argue that Bong Joon-ho’s award-winning movie is just a pale imitation of the Tamil movie starring Vijay and Khushboo Sundar.
Soon the microblogging site was awash with comments over Parasite . Twitteratis shared their reactions under the #minsarakanna. However, fans of the movie Parasite begged to differ.
A Tamil movie buff tweeted: “On 1 angle, both these films speak on #RichvsPoor! Both were drama(tic) on their own! In Parasite, until 01:02:41 (a doorbell rings by former housemaid) I can connect a lot of things with a Tamil film called #MinsaraKanna! I know it's a bit heavy to digest, but that's de truth!”
Another user wrote, “People will say I am making this up - But #Parasite was inspired by our very own #Thalapathy's #Minsarakanna. Oscar nayakan #ThalapathyVijay . #OscarAwards”
Some users did not support the view that Parasite was inspired by Minsara Kanna . A user wrote: “Parasite - speaks about class discrimination and fate of the greedy people with an intense screenplay.
#MinsaraKanna - speaks about how to impress girlfriend's mother to let him marry her and faking their own richness into poverty. With some commercial elements. they differ.”
Another tweet read, “Also just hit me that Minsara Kanna( Vijay Padam) is the same storyline/plot as Parasite... just diff kind of twists & turns.”
Parasite received four Academy Awards, including the award for Best Director, Best International Film, and Best Original Screenplay.
The film won awards at various film festivals. including the BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards. The film’s 50-year-old director, Bong Joon-ho, became the first South Korean to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes, France, for Parasite.
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