Oscar-Winning ‘Parasite’ Cast Parties Until 5 in the Morning at LA Koreatown Restaurant

South Korean film Parasite won Best Picture and three other coveted Oscars at the 92nd Academy Awards in Hollywood last night, cementing many firsts for director Bong Joon-ho’s cinematic masterpiece. The cast, producers, and screenwriters celebrated late into the evening at various after parties, including Soho House and the Vanity Fair Oscar party —but the best afterparty last night goes to LA restaurant Soban in Koreatown. The scene was a zoo last night with upwards of 50 cast members and crew crammed into the tiny 30-seat restaurant, who celebrated from 2:45 a.m. until 5 a.m.

In fact, Soban owner Jennifer Pak, who opened up the restaurant to mark the momentous night, tells Eater that director Bong Joon-ho hadn’t eaten anything all day and was so famished that the restaurant cooked up galbi jjim (braised short ribs), eundaegu jorim (braised spicy black cod), galbi (grilled short ribs), bibimbap, and seafood tofu pancakes for him and the cast.

Lead actors Song Kang-ho (who plays in numerous Bong Joon Ho films from The Host and Snowpiercer to Memories of Murder, as well as the Kim father in Parasite), and Cho Yeo-jeong (who plays Choi Yeon-gyo, mother of the Park family) also celebrated birthdays last night with cakes. As if winning four Oscars and being the toast of Hollywood wasn’t enough.

The early morning celebration wasn’t a fluke: Pak says that Bong Joon-ho had been visiting Soban over the past month, coming for everything from the restaurant’s signature raw marinated crab (ganjang gejang) to the incredible banchan — especially the kimchi.

It was a night of historic firsts for the Academy Awards, which awarded Parasite Best Picture, Best International Feature Film, Best Director (for Bong Joon Ho), and Best Original Screenplay (for Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won). Parasite was the first film in a non-English language to win Best Picture, and the first International Feature Film to also win Best Picture. Bong Joon-ho was the first South Korean to win Best Director. And Parasite was just the second film since Marty in 1955 to win both the Palme d’Or at Cannes and Best Picture at the Oscars.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the Parasite cast and crew celebrated with sushi, crab legs, and boba parfait at a party immediately after the awards at the official Governor’s Ball after party. The cast and crew then held court at a Soho House party sponsored by the film’s distributor, Neon, where K-pop group ACE performed. The Times reported a special after-after party in Koreatown was rumored to the destination once the VIPs left Soho House around 1:30 a.m. Now we know that special destination was Soban. Whether Bong Joon-ho was “drinking until the next morning,” at Soban is unclear, but who needs more champagne soju when there’s galbi jjim on the table?

Update: the embedded Instagram photo has been changed.

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