Winning four categories out of six nominations for Parasite, director Bong Joon Ho graced the Oscar stage four times throughout the night. Each time Bong came on stage, he was accompanied by translator Sharon Choi to help translate his speech from Korean to English for the audience.
Parasite didn’t just win the International Feature Film (formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film, but was changed this year just because of Parasite) category but also won in the Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture categories.
10 foreign language films have previously been nominated in Best Picture, including Roma, Amour and Life Is Beautiful but none of them won an Oscar making Parasite to be the first ever film to win this category in 92 years of the Academy history.
Sharon Choi, Bong’s interpreter has been previously praised for being articulate, professional and not letting her emotions take over on gracing the prestigious award stages with the director. Choi has been accompanying the Parasite cast at all the major international events. She is a 25-year-old Korean-American based in Seoul. She helps Bong Joon Ho and the film’s team only during interviews but also when they have to go up on stage to receive awards (which has been a lot of times all through award season given their massive wins).
At the Golden Globes this year, the hosts asked Sharon a question about herself catching her off-guard as she’s used to just being the translator for the Parasite team, not being asked much about herself. Choi admitted it’s embarrassing for her to talk about herself for a change and even revealed that although she seems composed all the time, she’s super anxious. Talking about Choi, Bong Joon Ho said, “She has a big fandom. She is perfect and we all depend on her. She’s also a great filmmaker,” to which Choi responded, “Yes, I want to direct”.