Earlier this month, the South Korean motion picture Parasite swept the Academy Awards. It won four Oscars, including Best Director for Bong Joon Ho and Best Picture. When I heard it won, my thoughts could be summarized by “The Academy got it right for once.”

Some people were not so enthused.

The argument I’ve seen made against Parasite more than any other is that of “It shouldn’t have won because it’s not in English.” There is a large number of people who would have you believe that because the characters spoke in Korean (or Chinese, as one particularly astute Amazon review said) it should not have even been in the running for the Best Picture race. Because it is a foreign film it should only be able to win in the Best Foreign Film category.

I swear I’ve tried to present this argument objectively up until now. I seem to be unable to, however, due to its inherent stupidity. So, if I may be so bold as to venture entirely into my bias: grow up, for God’s sake.

If you really believe that a movie cannot be as good as another purely because of the language in which it was written, I do not know what to say to you. I guess I’ll give Mark Twain’s advice when he said, “Never argue with stupid people.”

The only area in which I give this any credence is the Best Original Screenplay category, which Parasite won as well. Because this is wholly dependent on how good a film’s writing is, I don’t know that a panel of nearly exclusively English-speaking voters can make a decision on whether or not dialogue they cannot understand is well-written.

There is more than dialogue that goes into this decision, though; story and structure are a huge part, so I cannot say that the decision was entirely unfounded.

But in every other category, this argument is unfounded, xenophobic, and racist, and those who take no interest in film 51 weeks of the year have no right to criticize a decision because they won’t watch a movie with subtitles.

So, in the interest of expanding the horizons of those interested, here are two other Asian movies I recommend:

Oldboy: Another fantastic film from South Korea, and my personal favorite foreign film of all time. Just please don’t make the mistake of watching the Spike Lee version. If you see a white person, stop watching.

Princess Mononoke: Studio Ghibli’s best work. There is a dub option, but you should watch it in Japanese. It’s so atmospheric and the Japanese dialogue has a rhythm and tambor to it that the English translation doesn’t match.

In summation, my response to those who make this argument is: “Learn how to read or forget how to speak.”

Article written by Jacob Maher.