NEON To Screen Bong Joon-Ho's Black & White 'Parasite' In Theaters

While many are already making their predictions for which films will score the trophies at next month’s Oscars ceremony, there’s still time for studios to make efforts to promote their nominated works. And in the case of NEON, that means presenting the six-time nominee “Parasite” in black and white.

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According to the studio, not only is filmmaker Bong Joon-ho working on a black and white version of his 2019 masterpiece, but it’s going to get a small theatrical run in New York City and Los Angeles before the Academy Awards.

For Bong, this marks an opportunity to change his already-acclaimed film and present it in a way that might alter audiences’ perceptions of “Parasite.”

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“Black and white is the origin of cinema,” he said. “It will be fascinating to see how the viewing experience changes when an identical film is presented in black and white. I watched the black and white version twice now, and at times the film felt more like a fable and gave me the strange sense that I was watching a story from old times. The second time I watched it, the film felt more realistic and sharp as if I was being cut by a blade. It also further highlighted the actors’ performances and seemed to revolve more around the characters.”

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The new black and white “Parasite” will play in Los Angeles in the American Cinematheque where it will screen at the Egyptian Theater on Friday, January 31. In New York City, the alternate version will be presented by Film at Lincoln Center at the Walter Reade Theater on January 30, and subsequently January 31 to February 6 at the Francesca Beale Theater.

Here’s Bong’s full statement:

“Cinema was black and white in the very beginning. There was a time when films were only in black and white, and even throughout the 40s and 60s when color films came into the picture, there were numerous films still in black and white. Black and white is the origin of cinema. Although I became a filmmaker in the 2000s, I idealize the beautiful black and white films by Renoir, Fellini, Kurosawa, John Ford, and the beautiful cinematography of Gregg Toland. I always had this desire to create a black and white film which was shared by my cinematographer Hong Kyung Pyo; so for the first time, we digitally changed my film MOTHER into black and white after it was completed and released. Thankfully, it doesn’t require a huge budget to do so in this digital age, so the cinematographer re-filtered the entire film into black and white, meticulously adjusting the contrast and density for every shot with my help.

I’m extremely happy to present PARASITE in black and white and have it play on the big screen. It will be fascinating to see how the viewing experience changes when an identical film is presented in black and white. I watched the black and white version twice now, and at times the film felt more like a fable and gave me the strange sense that I was watching a story from old times. The second time I watched it, the film felt more realistic and sharp as if I was being cut by a blade. It also further highlighted the actors’ performances and seemed to revolve more around the characters. I had many fleeting impressions of this new version, but I do not wish to define them before it is presented. I hope everyone in the audience can compare their own experiences from the color version and find their own path to PARASITE in black and white.”