First of all, to be clear, "I Am Not the God of Medicine" is not completely without positive feedback abroad. It doesn't have a low rating on IMDB and it won the Best Screenplay Award at the Montreal International Film Festival. In East Asia, it also won the Best Original Screenplay Award at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards and the Best Cross-Strait Chinese Film Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Although it has relatively little recognition in the Oscars and the four major European film festivals, it does have a relatively limited degree of recognition in the Western world compared to "Parasite".
The reasons for this result are, of course, complex. First of all, "I Am Not the God of Medicine" still has logical problems in the thematic narrative, which is an objective factor. In addition, another important reason why the works cannot be recognized in the West is the contextual differences caused by "Chinese localization". Compared with "I Am Not the God of Medicine", Western practitioners are more likely to accept the expression theme of "Parasite".
An individual's evaluation of the depth of a movie is subjective. While I personally think that "I Am Not the God of Medicine" has more depth than "Parasite", this is entirely based on my subjective experience. Every viewer's viewing experience is different, so I can't justify that "I Am Not the God of Medicine" has more depth than movies like "Parasite" or "Joker" from a personal point of view.
Judging from the quality of a movie, it will seem too simple from the perspective of the script alone. International professional evaluation films will be evaluated from different dimensions, such as the use of lighting, the use of color, photography and editing, lines and actors' performance tension. These have an important place in the international professional evaluation and discussion.
Even from the perspective of the script plot and the narrative of the theme, "I Am Not the God of Medicine" is still an excellent movie, but it is not impossible to surpass or become a masterpiece, nor can it lead the top level of international films. Compared with "I Am Not the God of Medicine", the American movie "Dallas Buyers Club" is also a work that reflects social themes and similar stories, with a Douban score of 88 points, and the movie was released 5 years before "I Am Not the God of Medicine". Therefore, "I Am Not the God of Medicine" is not a pioneer in the narrative theme of the contradiction between system and life, although this does not affect it to be an excellent film, but it has not yet reached the top level of leading international films.
I Am Not the God of Medicine also has some clichés in some of the film's discussions, such as some clichés that do not conform to the actual situation, the fact that it does not show the actual situation of Novartis Pharmaceutical, which makes Glenin drugs, and the inaccurate depiction of Novartis' application to crack down on counterfeit drugs and arrest people. In addition, Novartis' Glenin patent expired in April 2013, and three domestic generic drugs have since been approved for production. Although "I Am Not the God of Medicine" has its shortcomings, it is still an excellent movie. From the point of view of the level of objectivity and the balance of censorship, it is a good realistic film that perfectly reflects the reality of China. It is precisely because of its overly Chinese characteristics that it cannot be deeply recognized by the "non-Chinese" Western world.
However, for a Chinese realist film, this depth of recognition may not be so important.