#And he likes the scene in parasite where the housekeeper and her husband are like slowly dancing in the sunlight

[maryabmurphy]

Blog Post #2

For a very long time, I avoided watching American Psycho because I had seen the scene where Patrick Bateman murdered Paul Allen and I felt that through watching that singular scene, I’d already watched the movie. There were times when I wanted to get a sense of what the movie was about and I read the Wikipedia page about it, so I had already spoiled it for myself before actually watching it. Then there was the scene of Bateman talking in depth about Genesis (one of my all-time favorite bands) and I knew it was really good. 

The ending is a bit confusing in the sense that during the whole movie, it’s supposed to be apparent that Patrick Bateman is murdering all of these people but near the end, no one believes him. Not a single person. This is most notable when he goes to Paul Allen’s apartment to clean it out, I presume, but it’s empty and there is a real estate agent there trying to sell it. She tells Bateman that he “shouldn’t be there”, but that is the only person to somewhat acknowledge what he had done.

In an article by Cinema Blend, they describe the ending in such a way that when put into words, it really makes no sense. When Bateman presumingly kills Paul Allen, he makes sure to leave a voicemail saying that he went to London for business. He confesses to his lawyer about murdering him, but his lawyer refutes this by saying that he had seen Allen in London, while calling Bateman someone else’s name. Clearly this is confusing for all parties involved. It’s completely plausible that he killed all of those prostitutes but he most likely didn’t actually kill Paul Allen. It was all just a really vivid false reality; Bateman’s just imagining what he could do to Paul Allen.

The ending of Bong-Joon-Ho’s Parasite is almost as confusing as the ending of Mary Hatton’s film. Parasite tells the story of two families of totally different economic backgrounds, but they both consist of parents, one boy and one girl. 

The Kim family folds pizza boxes for a living and lives in a semi-basement. They use the smoke from the public fumigation as free disinfectant. Their luck seems to turn around when the son, Ki-woo, lands a job tutoring the daughter of the wealthy Park family (Vulture). The Kim family ten begins to infiltrate the household by pretending to only know each other through vague networks: Ki-jung becomes an art therapist for the boy Da-sung, Chung-sook the mother becomes the housekeeper, and Ki-taek the father as the driver. There’s another plot twist when it’s revealed that the original housekeeper for the Park family, Mun-kwang, was keeping her husband, Kun-sae, in the basement of the large house for four years. 

Some stuff goes down, and Kun-sae comes out of the basement during Da-sung’s birthday party and stabs Ki-jung, the boy faints and the parents demand that Ki-taek drive them to the hospital, even as their own daughter is bleeding to death. Their lives are still constrained by servitude, and that they work merely at the whims of their employer (Vulture). Ki-taek then stabs the wealthy Park patriarch and runs away. He hides in the bunker, the last place the police would look for him and a wealthy German family ends up buying the house. The particularities may have changed, but everyone’s station has remained the same. There would always be another wealthy person to live upstairs, just as there would be another poor person positioned beneath them.

These two movies are definitely worlds apart in terms of almost everything. They both have ambiguous endings and they involve murder, but other than that they don’t have much in common. The ambiguity of both ends definitely helps both movies because it allows for conversation people probably otherwise wouldn’t have.

Patrick Bateman is described as a materialistic, self-absorbed, wealthy playboy but underneath the surface, he is filled with violent impulses and insecurity (Course Hero). This is important to the ambiguity of the ending because although it was evident that he murdered all of these people, no one believes him because of his social status, so the viewer is forced to make assumptions for themselves; did Bateman actually kill those people?

Personally, movies like this never really interested me because psychological horror is my favorite movie genre, I don’t like confusing endings like this and mostly because I am horrible at reading between the lines. I always think too critically about the endings and would much prefer they would outright say what happened; but that’s what makes a movie a movie, audience speculation.

Parasite is a totally different beast in my eyes. While the ending was ambiguous, it was a whole lot more clearer than American Psycho in the sense that Ki-woo has a very clear idea on what he wants to do if he were not in the position he was in at the end of the movie. He wants to buy the Parks’ house so he can see his father again, but obviously that won’t happen after what Ki-taek did.

[treethymes]

notes on parasite

parasite is a portrait of capitalist ideology and how it has penetrated people's minds to the point where they can't or even refuse to imagine any alternative. this is clearly expressed through the kim family and the housekeeper + her husband complete lack of class consciousness. they can only think of competing with each other (to the death) for the limited access to the park family's wealth.

the wealthy family meanwhile is largely ignorant of the violence that is necessary to generate their wealth. the mother and children are depicted as innocents. only the father explicitly expresses the desire to maintain a "line that must not be crossed" between him and his employees---the distance necessary to comfortably dehumanize another human being and keep your relationship with them limited to the exchange of your money for their labor. even then, the father is ignorant of who is keeping the lights in his house running. the distinction between rich and poor that capitalism establishes entrenches itself ever deeper over time, with the rich increasingly losing touch with the experiences of the poor to the point where they no longer even need to be aware of extent of the ramifications of their exploitation. the parks are disgusted by the smell of the kims without ever having to consider how their wealth and the squalor the kims live in (which the parks never have to see) are connected. instead, their prejudice against the poor is only strengthened; the dehumanization that fuels exploitation is further normalized and justified. furthermore, it is suggested that this cognitive dissonance is necessary bc the rich could not live with themselves otherwise (the son fainting at the sight of the basement man, the mother fainting upon seeing her husband stabbed).

the poor are also psychologically incapable of acknowledging the extent of the inhumanity of the capitalist system. in one scene, the family members assure each other that one of the employees they got fired must have found another job. their desperation makes them both ruthless and unable to reckon with the nature of their actions. the precarious conditions in which they live pressure them to prioritize short-term acquisition of money (through working within the bounds of the system in one way or another) over long-term anti-capitalist revolution. the notions of the nuclear family and the autonomous individual reinforce this idea. at the end of the film, the son of the kim family dreams of reuniting with his father (who ends up worshipping Mr. Park even after he just killed him) and achieving liberation from financial destitution for his family. he does not dream of the liberation of all people; his tunnel vision prioritizing only himself and his family is only strengthened in the fallout of their struggle with the park family. class consciousness is presented as an impossibility (notice how the only member of the kim family who suggests negotiating with the housekeeper is also the only member of the family that dies).

in parasite the idea of no longer having to engage in capitalist competition (the returning of the scholar's rock to the river) is not only but a fantasy, it is also a hopelessly self-absorbed fantasy---the dream of an individual young man for his individual family unit. i would say that snowpiercer and okja also end similarly with a tone of isolation. all of these movies appeal to our emotional experience and imagination of ourselves as individual victims of capitalism. as political critique, they express sharp-sighted outrage and always stop short of envisioning sustained collective action. as such, they are perhaps more cathartic than enlightening.

all in all, though, i liked it fine. a smart, slick movie.

#bong joon ho #parasite #on movies

[firelord-frowny]

itsmerandi replied to your post:I finally watched parasite and what the FUCK

Lol another mutual of mine is watching it tonight too! PLEASE I’d love to hear your thoughts!

@itsmerandi Okaysolike?????

literally WHERE do i even BEGIN omg!!! 

So, as far as lying to get well-paying jobs working for rich people, I wasn’t even remotely mad at the son or the sister. Like, the son was actually kinda qualified for the job, even though he didn’t have the credentials to prove it, so like, I ain’t mad at him for forging some documents and lying about his education lmao. The sister was a bit shadier, I guess, lying about being a psychologist, which like, that wasn’t necessary lmfao. But I still wasn’t too mad, bc hey, a girl’s gotta get paid. 

BUT THEN! When they framed the driver for being a perv??? And then got the housekeeper fired by triggering her allergies and then convincing Mrs. Park that she had fucking tuberculosis??? That was vile! Like gosh! It’s one thing to lie your way into a job, but it’s another thing entirely to GET ANOTHER WORKING CLASS PERSON FIRED so you can take their job!! Which like, I mean, I guess being broke can make people resort to hella unsavory things, but woooow. That was sooooo messy. 

But the whole time, I’m enjoying the wacky shenanigans of this family of con artists living it up in a mansion that isn’t theirs, getting drunk, making fun of the rich folks for not having a clue that they’re being duped, and I’m just having myself a grand ol’ time. 

BUT THEN OMFG WHEN THE OLD HOUSEKEEPER SHOWS UP TO GET HER FUCKING HUSBAND OUT OF THE BASEMENT???? WHAT??? LMFAO WHYYYYYY!!!! WHAT IS HE DOING THERE!!! AND WHY DOES HE SEEM TO HAVE A CREEPY OBSESSION WITH MR. PARK??? I literally just. Don’t even know what to say about that lmfao ew ew EW. 

But like wooooooow that scene where they were hiding under the table while Mr. and Mrs. Park were snuggling on the couch and like... Mr. Park starts talking about how the dad has a weird smell... he said he smells like a fucking boiled rag! A BOILED RAG, RANDI!!!! That’s! So MEAN! A boiled rag!!! Not just a rag, not even a dirty rag, but a BOILED rag. Boiled. BOILED. I can’t. I CANNOT!!! This poor man had to listen to someone say he smells like a BOILED RAG!!! I felt so sad for him omfg!! 

And then when they finally sneak out of the house and return home to find THEIR ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD FLOODED IN SEWAGE??? And they go in their lil home to try to salvage anything at all, but it’s just. Ruined and disgusting!! :( And like, jeez, the daughter broke my fucking heart with the way she so quickly resigned herself to abject apathy. Like. There is not one single thing she could do to make the situation even a little bit better. She’s helpless. She’s watching her home become a literal cesspool. Shit is exploding out of the toilet and she just fucking accepts it, and smokes a cigarette, and chills on the toilet while shit spews all around her. Like jeeeeeez. That scene Got To Me. That was the single saddest moment of the film for me. And the fact that after all of that happened they had to go back and work for this rich family??? Heartbreaking. You lose everything in the blink of an eye because you were too poor to be able to afford to live somewhere where there’s lower risk of a catastrophe happening, meanwhile you have to smile your way through working for filthy rich people who have probably never had a reason to even worry about losing their home.

AND THEN!!!!!!

The birthday party. The fucking birthday party. 

Randi. 

RANDI!!! 

what the FUCK!!! 

The sister! The poor sister!! She was kind of a shitty person, yeah, but damn! She didn’t deserve that! :( :( 

AND THEN THE DAD STABS THE OTHER DAD all because he saw him pinch his nose shut at the smell of the crazy basement man! But tbh I lowkey felt like I would have wanted to do the same thing lmao like jeez, you classist lil shit, your son’s birthday party just turned into a Mass Knifing, and you still have the presence of mind to pinch your nose at someone’s stank???? 

But then again, i know i often feel like i would rather Literally Die than smell something stanky, so idk lmfao. 

But anyway,

Jeeeeeeeeeesus fucking christ! 

What! A fucking! Nightmare! 

And then goshhhh when the son decides to get rich and buy the house??? And the dad is just being a creep living in the basement?? That was some pathological shit omg. And it made me so saaaAAAAD like wow, there really are people out there who want so badly to be rich that it’s like a legit fairy-tale-like fantasy for them. Like, they just go and stare longingly at big houses. Which like. On the one hand, I can sorta imagine how poverty might make someone long for exorbitant wealth, buuuut personally, I can’t imagine legitimately wanting that kind of lifestyle, let alone longing for it and feeling depressed about not having it. I mean, I can see, at most, how it would be cool to spend a few nights in a luxury suite with room service and fancy showers and plush robes. But like. I don’t need to be wealthy for that lmao I just need to save up a few grand to treat myself to a lil fancy vacation maybe once every few years. It’s not at allllllll something I value enough that I would want it at my fingertips every day. Like, I really don’t feel even remotely envious of wealthy people beyond the fact that they don’t need to worry about the cost of food or housing or health care. Really, I’m more likely to pity them for various reasons that I’m currently too unfocused to articulate. But yeah like. The fact that people are so often and so intensely encouraged to aspire toward obscene wealth is sick and, especially when coupled with poverty that’s manufactured and built into a society, it can make people so spiritually/emotionally ill. :(

But oh oh!

Also??? I was surprised how much I appreciated the portrayal of the rich family??? I mean yeah they were a tiny bit elitist but they were mostly just a nice, normal family. In media that depicts dynamics between rich people and poo people, I’m so used to the rich people being portrayed as snobby and evil and selfish. But these folks weren’t any of those things. They were just normal people. Normal people who have a few personality flaws that stem from being accustomed to being able to have whatever they want exactly when they want it, but like. They were still nice, kind people for the most part. A loving husband and wife who are invested in using their affluence to make sure their children can thrive. 

Which I mean like, I don’t mean to suggest that ~oh wahhh, rich people are unfairly portrayed in the media~ or anything like that bc that would be dumb lmfao. But in this specific context, I liked that even though they weren’t ~good guys,~ they definitely were not villains. Just! Wealthy folks who are mostly just minding their own business and throwing their money around!

#itsmerandi

[th3okamid3mon]

Gisaengchung (Parasites) [SPOILERS]

A lovely tale on why you shouldn´t trust people!

Sinopsis: 

A family barely subsists in a basement they call home. Unemployed and at the border of misery, a job opportunity is presented to the older son Gi Woo, which consists on giving english classes to the daughter of a high class family. Step by step he gains the trust of the owner and begins to introduce his own family as workers in hopes of getting more money from them. 

Writing and characters (+some acting):

I am not very familiar of Korean movies, I´ve heard about some good movies but never actually watch any from the country. Now, I´ve heard about Bong Joon-Ho since I watch one of his previews works called Snowpiercer and even though that kind of movie is not exactly my favorite I have to admit it was really well written and the visuals were really creepy but pretty in some twisted way. 

Gisaenchung´s story is really well thought, all the details fit together like a puzzle of 500 pieces or more. It had to be meticulously written so to make some sort of sense and even then some things dont make so much sense, but Joon-Ho has a cover: this movies is a drama, suspense and dark humor movie. When you have a super dramatic rich family with their over the top reactions and mannerisms in an only drama movie it would be seen as a joke if they were trying to look serious or be taken seriously, in this case works perfectly since they are used as comic relief, specifically the rich mom being the most gullible and most dramatic of all. Their purpose is accomplish perfectly and the sheer dumb and naive nature of the mother works in favor of our bunch of vermin. 

It is a very understandable and digestible plot: you have a poor family of scammers, they get an opportunity to scam a family, they proceed to scam the rich family by pretending to be strangers to each other and working as a house keeper, a driver and 2 teachers, and then they get discovered. At the simplicity it doesnt sound that entertaining I suppose, everything in between is simple yet complex and then it goes into fucked up territory almost from 10 to 110 really quick. 

This family are assholes! Like... Complete assholes, the name of the movie is after them! They take advantage of a character that is super anxious about her children and is super naive and is really lonely because of his husband leaving for work a lot and completely destroy 2 lives in the process too! They get the husband´s driver fired by framing him as a sex addict with a kink and the housekeeper is fired by making her look like a tuberculosis patient. This people are awful! They are manipulative, dangerous, assholes! And yet... you kind of root for them? That´s how good the writing is. You know they are awful, you know they are manipulative. Hell, at the beginning they use manipulation to probably get someone fire and get money from a small pizza company they work for as box benders. AND THEY FUCKED UP AT LEAST A QUARTER OF THOSE BOXES! They are not good! 

...But who can blame them for being like that? They are living in a really bad situation, they are stealing wifi from a neighbor so they can check a WhatsApp to see if the pizza place send them a message. They were talented at sports, the daughter knows how to work with programs like photoshop and probably other types, the son is really smart reason why he was given the job as an english teacher and to be honest he is kind of good at it. They are not lazy people. The situation is not good for them and they can´t exactly get a good job due to not having a degree. It´s actually kind of sad to see their potential being wasted due to their economic situation. Of course anyone would survive in however manner they can, even if that makes them a bad person in the process. 

You have a rich family that supports and loves their children, shown as getting both of them private ¨teachers¨ (not enough love I guess, due to not fucking checking this people up in the first place and only trusting the recommendations of a college student). They aren´t bad people, they treat their workers fairly and they respect them and when there´s reason to fire someone they try to do so respectfully as not to damage their reputation or shame them (so much). You should feel sorry for them because they are so nice and are being scammed but you can´t shake the feeling that they kind of deserve it for being so naive. Well, at least not the children, those kids have 0 control over who their parents choose. THE PARENTS ARE SO DAMN DUMB! The mother specially! So anxious about your children learning and exploiting their talents but not so anxious to get the first whoever that crosses your ears? You feel bad, for them and maybe you dont get angry, they antics are not anger inducing, they are hilarious because, as i explain before, they over react A LOT. I don´t know if that was a directors decision or if the actors did what they pleased, they fit too well in the scene to not be planned.

One thing that stood out to me were the dialogues, they made sense but they became a bit descriptive in certain points.There were really good silent scenes, there was a good balance between dialogues and silence, though I don´t know why I felt certain dialogues were too much? Maybe it was with their reactions as well, Korean and older Mexican movies have a thing in common and that´s a level of exaggeration. Sometimes it´s good, sometimes it gets the spotlight and not in a good sense. With the rich family there was no problem, it was with certain characters like the daughter of the scam family that overreact in one scene. Since they were drunk it kind of made sense but it there wasn´t exactly a follow up of his outburst. it passed relatively quick so it wasn´t much of a problem. 

Sound and music: 

The dialogues were well said, there was no difference in volumes and it had no noise. The silent parts had a good sound, whether it was background noises or music, it never felt out of place. The sounds were actually relaxing at some point, specially with the rain or water flowing. It had a good crispiness on them, they sounded natural and not manufacture with materials. The music wasn´t over used or overbearing, it was mostly in the background. It wasn´t almost present in certain scenes, you could hear it but it was very low. It didn´t had weird spikes and it was kind of nice. Not exactly the most memorable. 

Photography and art: 

First... Some examples:

I mean... WOW. The different lights, the shadows, the colors, the difference in lighting from each set. EVERYTHING IS GORGEOUS. Easily identifiable, with that I mean if you see this screenshots you would probably recognize them immediately. I don´t know how original the setting is from other movies but MAN is it gorgeous. The shots are most of the time open, details are hidden in the background (even when they can be a bit blurry, sometimes there something behind), the lighting is the first thing you´ll notice. There´s so much contrast between the highlights and shadows, even though most of them are not really strong. 

The colors schemes for each place are not entirely different, I think the reason is they wanted to portray that both families have certain similarities, mostly the only difference being the living situation. It´s really interesting how you can find warm colors in both families, they all love each other, both families support each other and their interests. The parents praise their children (even though the scam family probably shouldn´t praise illegality but, meh...at that point it can be consider too late)  

The art department went OFF with this one. You can feel the filthiness and close space they live in, their living situation is bad but they manage. The other family is clean and clear and it has to be perfect that way. I think there were 2 parts where they work even harder. 

(This is a kind of Spoiler for the end) When they use blood, it tends to look fake in some movies, in here it looks really, really red and dark. The makeup for the strangled neck also was a nice touch and look really good. 

The other part I think was really well accomplish and that also might have taken FOR EVER TO MAKE IT WORK, was the flood, because it not only involved flooding and ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD, it involved a toilet spewing black water out as if it was puking. How did they manage to do all that? HOW MUCH WAS THE BUDGET? Geez, How many TAKES TOOK TO ACCOMPLISH THAT?! It look hella gross and the way it was spewing water was very realistic. 

There´s an entire sequence where three members of the family gets out of the rich house and walks towards their home and each step they take they descend even more, but that´s not all, it is raining and water is flowing and pouring, it looks fantastic and the neighborhood gets flooded and there´s stuff out getting fucked over. The makeup and the art design were crazy here, I wish and hope and pray they got paid well because MY GOD this was hard work at its finest. 

Conclusion: 

I need to watch more of this foreign movies and so do you! If you haven´t seen any movie out of Hollywood, you should do so. Maybe this one is a bit too much though. It goes well but there are certain parts that are a bit slow and then it goes fast and then slow again, it can be a rollercoaster and I´d be lying if i wasn´t expecting the movie to finally end. It is entertaining and it isn´t that long (2:12 hours), it doesn´t have any popular references. This movie was thought to be seen by an international audience. If you as an USA Citizen (´cause I´m not calling you Americans, America isn´t a country and USA is not the center of it) feel uncomfortable to be shown or for your culture be mock, well TOO BAD GET USED TO IT! Nah, I´m kidding. The kid in the movie has an obsession with indians and the family acts like USA is like high standard but in a mocking kind of way? My brother actually thought it was a Get Out situation so... 

This movie has a perfect blend of suspense and humor, the drama is palpable, it is there, the suspense and dark humor are the spotlight though. The actors are really good and the dialogues are not complicated to follow. It is pretty funny, heartwhrenching at points (specially the end) and entertaining movie, if you want to start watching foreign films you could start with this one. 

The worst part of the story is that both sides are right to react the way they did, and it´s kind of sad. 

This is what I took from it:  Poor or rich, it doesn´t matter. People are humans and they all have needs. And those needs will be satisfied one way or another. When you have a family, You will do whatever it takes to make them happy and sometimes drastic measures will be used. 

Go watch it, you won´t regret it. 

-Sincerely creeped out, T.O.D 

#parasite #parasitos #parasites #gisaengchung #2020 #movies #peliculas #movie 2020 #pelicula 2020 #review #thoughts #opinion #critica #critica? #review? #kind of messy #messy review #messy #drama #suspense #suspenso #dark humor #humor negro #writing #write #tod write #tod writes

[alexsullivanjapanesenewwave]

Alexander Sullivan

COMM-261 001

Mike Delnero

29 April 2021

Class Within An Unforgiving and Relentless System

           Bong Joon Ho is a South Korean director born during the latter half of The Cold War into a well educated in prominent family he actively participated in protests in his college years defying the then Unitary State in favor of a democratic system. His upbringing and socioeconomic background is often the basis and inspiration for many of his films and cinematography. Bong displays these influences in both his films Snowpiercer (2013) and Parasite (2019). Even though these films were released nearly six years apart and deal with two very different fictional settings I believe they share the same common theme and subject matter that is greatly influenced by Bong’s background.

             To start let’s begin with talking about South Korea Bong Joon Ho’s homeland. In South Korea there is a stark class divide with little to know class mobility. Nikkei Asia’s Hiroshi Minegishi explains, “The top 20% earns the equivalent of around $8,400 a month on average” and “The bottom 20% only makes about $1,100 a month”. In the same article Minegishi explains much of South Korean society is based around familial ties and status. To put it simply you can not progress through society and the workforce unless you have connections even regarding schooling there is a strict bias towards the wealthy and their families. Though he was born into a middle-class family who could afford to send him to school and live comfortably the environment and stark divide around him greatly influenced Bong Joon-ho’s creative style and films. Born youngest of four to a designer/ professor at Yeungnam University he was surrounded by artistic people and influences while also being subject to the rapidly changing South Korean socioeconomic environment that came as a result of the Korean war the country has been riddled with political scandal for years with the rich and affluent seeming suppressing the lower castes and abusing their privilege in order to benefit them and their families. Bong channeled these scandals and immoralities into his films as seen in Snowpiercer and Parasite.

             Snowpiercer released in 2013 is a film depicting a dystopian future where in an attempt to, reverse global warming scientist unintentionally created an ice age that is inhospitable to humans. The remnants of humanity live on board a futuristic train that is nearly self-sufficient that is circling the globe. The passengers of said train are divided into cars depending on their class with the richest being farther forward and enjoying on the luxuries and pleasures of the train and the poorest being in the rearmost cars subject to processed scraps and crowded living conditions. Fed up with their subjugation and poor treatment the people of the rear cars attempt a coup by violently making their way from the rear of the train to the front in order to eradicate the hierarchal society oppressing them. Losing many along the way when they final come face to face with the pinnacle of the whole system the inventor/ conductor of the train Wilford the main character and leader of the resistance Curtis realizes the futility of the situation. Wilford explains that their resistance was an anticipated event that he orchestrated in order to cull the population and keep it at a maintainable level and that in the end those who Curtis sought to liberate were killed or would have no real gain in terms of class or status. That is when another character denotates a bomb and derails the train bringing the entire system to its end and presumably killing all if not most of the passengers.

           Parasite is also a fictional film but, it is set in modern day South Korea, It follows the Kim family which consists the mother, father and their adult two children a daughter and son. The Kim family is very poor and all work odd jobs in order to get by dwelling in a slum like area in a semi underground basement with a plethora of issues and nuisances. Through lucky circumstances and deception, the son of the Kim family comes into a position of employment for a rich and affluent upper-class family as a tutor this is the Park family. The Park’s are very kind and wealthy people who keep a small staff to help them with their daily activities. The son of the Kim family uses his position and cunning on order to deceive the Parks and get them to fire their staff one by one and replace them with his family masquerading as people who have never met each other. Though this deception comes back to haunt them when the old house keeper returns to the Park home while the Kim’s are housesitting and discovers their secret a scuffle ensues resulting in the death of the housekeeper and the hiding of her body in the basement. Through a series of more unfortunate events the former housekeepers husband avenges her by killing the daughter of the Kim family at a Park family birthday party. This murder is witnessed by all the affluent friends of the Park family as well as, the Kim’s. Fed up with the lack of Apathy shown by Mr. Park’s for the death of his daughter Mr. Kim murders him in cold blood Infront of everyone and flees. This results in the ousting of their lies and the eventual return of the Kim family back to their original situation this time worsened by the loss of their daughter and the financial situation they’ve been but in. In the end all their efforts got them nowhere.

             Both these films share a lot of aspects both visually and thematically. For instance, the establishing shot of both movies serves to hammer in just how disparaged the main character and his compatriots /family are allowing the viewer to empathize/ pity them. Similarly, both of these films show systemic oppression of lower classes/ castes who start life at a disadvantage due to their lineage. While Parasite is a direct depiction of South Korean socioeconomic environment Snowpiercer also takes many key issues from the South Korean plights and depicts them all be it in a less direct way than Parasite. One film shows people trying to attain freedom and equality via direct violence and rebellion while the other shows it in a more roundabout way with the Park family using cunning and their wits to try to gain power wealth and luxuries. Yet both films end up in the same way with the main characters right back where they started without gaining anything and sacrificing so much they did not change class or gain anything socially or economically. Both of these films directed by Bong nearly six years apart show the impossibility of class mobility that is so prevalent in modern South Korea all be it in two very different scenarios. This is how Bong chose to channel his environment directly into his films using themes and important influences form his own life and environment to make critical and prevalent points on society and inequalities within class based systems. Both Parasite and Snowpiercer also share many visual similarities. When comparing setting like the interior/ rear cars of the train to the Kim family home and the areas where that represent the lower castes in Parasite you see a lot of cramped dilapidated places with colorful characters who are struggling to survive and monotone colors. Lastly, you can see the similarities in Parasite and Snowpiercer when looking at the final scenes in Snowpiercer it ends with the entire train and system along with it being destroyed and a young girl and a child looking out  into the seemingly inhabitable artic wasteland displaying a sense of hope for the future. Parasite ends with Kim Ki-Wu (The Kim family son) dreaming of and explaining a plan that will regain the status and lifestyle that he briefly tasted through legitimate and organic means again providing a sense of hope for the future and their chances of climbing out of their socio-economic class. That is how Bong Joon-Ho commented on class and the lack of mobility between classes within his films and how the similarities between these two films specifically emphasize his themes and messages.

             All in all it is clear that Bong Joon-Ho’s environment and upbringing greatly influenced the subject matter of his filmography. As seen with my synopsis of the two aforementioned films there are a lot of similarities both thematically and visually even though they were released nearly six years apart and when taken at face value are based on two entirely different subject matters. They both expertly explain a problem specifically the inequalities and difficulties of a heavily corrupted and bias class based system without being to on the nose. Bong greatly shows hos expertise and feelings for the theme through in both films in the similarities that he draws to modern day South Korea in the world of Snowpiercer as well as his fictional version of South Korea.  That is how I believe Bong Joon-ho’s films specifically Snowpiercer (2013) and Parasite (2019) expertly display a deeper meaning in the form of Bong Joon ho’s depiction of corrupt class based societies that discourage and don’t allow for ascension through the classes or equal opportunities as well as, how these thematical choices were greatly influenced by his background and upbringing within post Korean War South Korea and its political and economic system which are a direct example of the aforementioned flaws and discrepancies.

      Work Cited

Baum, Seth D. “Film Review: Snowpiercer.” SethBaum.com, Journal of Sustainability Education, 7 Dec. 2014, sethbaum.com/ac/2014_Snowpiercer.pdf.

Bong, Joon-ho, director. Parasite, Barunson E&A, 30 May 2019.

Bong, Joon-ho, director. Snowpiercer, Moho Film Opus Pictures Union Investment Partners Stillking Films, 29 July 2013.

Film Is Just Moving Pictures, director. Understanding Classism in Parasite. YouTube, YouTube, 11 Sept. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGy2vRrLjps&ab_channel=FilmisjustMovingPictures.

FilmAgent, director. Parasite 2019 Ending Scene - Dad Today I Made a Plan - Sad. YouTube, YouTube, 1 May 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU7nz8f0_00&ab_channel=FilmAgent.

FLORESMIRANDA, Author ANGEL. “The Social Class Analysis of Snow Piercer and Its Deeper Political Messages.” English 2100 x 90 Fall 2020, Baruch College, 7 Oct. 2020, blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/writing210090/?p=450.

Gabilondo, Joseba. “Bong Joon Ho's Parasite and Post-2008 Revolts: From the Discourses of the Master to the Destituent Power of the Real.” International Journal of Žižek Studies, 1 Nov. 2020, zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1158.

MINEGISHI, HIROSHI. “'Parasite' Offers Glimpse of South Korea's Class Divide.” Nikkei Asia, Nikkei Asia, 18 Feb. 2020, asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Parasite-offers-glimpse-of-South-Korea-s-class-divide.

“Parasite.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 30 May 2019, www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/.

Raup, Jordan. Bong Joon Ho on Family and Class IN Parasite, Collecting Films, and Memories of Murder. 19 Nov. 2019, www.filmlinc.org/daily/bong-joon-ho-on-family-and-class-in-parasite-collecting-films-and-memories-of-murder/.

“Snowpiercer.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 1 Aug. 2013, www.imdb.com/title/tt1706620/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3.

Walsong Contents, director. 🔥🔥🔥Snowpiercer Final Scene 🔥🔥🔥. YouTube, YouTube, 23 Jan. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeSXj5dpOaA&ab_channel=WalsongContents.

[angiewang19]

thoughts on Parasite

It was way more anxiety than I signed up for. Regardless, the movie was a masterpiece. It was incredibly well executed, and every moment was riveting. More often that I’d like to admit, I was either 1) on my feet, jumping up and down or 2) squirming out of visceral discomfort and anxiety. 

After a while, I came to terms with the fact that I was just going to have no idea what was going to happen next. I think this kind of unpredictability is a recurring theme in the movie: having a plan is everything, yet it is also nothing. In particular, a scene that is seared into my memory is when the son and dad are sleeping in the gym after their apartment is flooded. The son asks his dad to explain the “plan” he mentioned earlier in the Parks’ basement, and the dad responds by saying that his plan is to have no plan at all: “You can't go wrong with no plans. We don't need to make a plan for anything.” 

Update after second viewing. This time around, I noticed that the poor family wrestling with their conscience, feeling guilty after their actions. We see this when the family is sitting in the living room, drinking. The dad inquires about Yoon, his predecessor, and wishes him well, and immediately after, the daughter becomes defensive. And after the dad deals with the ex-housekeeper and her husband in the basement, the three of them run away, and they are sleeping on the gym floor, the dad’s no-plan attitude is mechanism to absolve himself of guilt. Without a plan, no action can be considered deliberate (it just happens), so there is no need to feel guilty. In other words, everything is just an accident and so everything can be justified. 

Update after second viewing. I picked up on a lot more foreshadowing. When the family is drinking in the living room, they’re bantering about being rich and nice (by the way, I totally agree with the mom’s statement “she’s nice because she’s rich”). The mom also says that her husband is like a cockroach. When there’s light, it will run away and disappear immediately. That is exactly what happened after the birthday party (the metaphorical “light”). 

The movie’s most obvious commentary is about class/social inequality, a consequence of capitalism. The poor family’s immoral, fraudulent actions are driven by a desperate desire to survive. Obviously, this motivation to make enough money to improve their shitty living conditions evolves into ruthless greed. It’s fascinating because the film explores this issue in the context of these very poor people getting intimately involved in the lives of an extremely wealthy family. Nowadays, the growing divide between the “haves” and “have-nots” is not just in terms of money, but it is also in terms of physical space. So for the poor family to be laying underneath a table adjacent to a couch where the Parks are having sex (an uncomfortably close encounter between the poor and the rich here!) is an unexplored plot and a relatively novel concept, which is one way this film is incredibly innovative and thought-provoking. 

I also thought it was interesting that Bong Joon-ho mentioned that while audiences typically view the poor family as the metaphorical Parasites, the wealthy Parks are Parasites as well. They depend on their poor counterparts to get from place to place, to eat, and to learn because they literally don’t know how to do anything. And so because both parties are Parasites, they end up eating each other alive. 

I also think that beyond the obvious commentary about wealth disparity, the film also hints at some sexism in our society. Mrs. Park and Mr. Park have a stiff dynamic. On one hand, Mrs. Park manages everything in their safe bubble and loves her children (perhaps so much that it blinds her from having an accurate perception of reality). She’s a dutiful wife and to some extent, is scared of her husband. On the other hand, Mr. Park leaves the bubble more often to make money but doesn’t feel strongly towards his family. Perhaps, settling down, getting married, and having children is the socially acceptable thing to do for someone of his status, but it is clear that he doesn’t care much about that (as evidenced by when the dad/chauffeur asks him whether he loves his wife, and he hesitates and says that it can be called “love”). There are lots of red flags before everything blows up, but Mrs. Park fails to see them because she sees money as the solution to all of her problems in her bubble. Thus, I wonder if Mrs. Park was more open to her husband about everything that was happening, rather than creating the facade that she had everything at home “taken care of.” At that point, perhaps they would have been able to put their brains together and figure out what was going on. I think in particular her belief that she hired a housekeeper with tuberculosis could have easily been debunked by someone who had a slightly clearer view of the fact that the family was on a weird, domino-like hiring streak. What ifs and what could be in analyses always bother me, but I feel like this is a reasonable argument, given that Mr. Park seemed to have some buried, unexplored suspicions, especially with the dad’s stench. This discussion suggests that their alpha-male dynamic is a part of their downfall, as the Parks most definitely do not come out of this unscathed. 

The symbols were also quite interesting. 

The rain (starting from the first driver offering to drop the sister off at her home, rather than the train station, since it was “going to rain”) foreshadowed the shitshow to come. It is clear that camping doesn’t make sense in the rain, so the Parks would be coming home sooner, rather than later. My dad also believes that rain represents the purging of all that is horrible, so it also foreshadows the bloody fight between the ex-housekeeper/her husband and the poor family. It’s also interesting to note that before the birthday party, Mrs. Park says that there is no pollution that day, since the rain washed it out the night before. Little did she know... (perhaps, we can interpret this as the rain, which represents human vices like vengeance and anger, falling from the sky/heavens to the earth that mortals inhabit) 

I didn’t notice the staircase motif, but my dad sure did. It represents ascent and descent of the social/class hierarchy. The poor family lives in a basement, while the Parks live on a hill. And even within the Parks’ home, there are lots of staircases. 

The Parks’ little boy’s obsession with Native Americans. It probably has something to do with when he thought he saw a ghost when he was six, and indigenous people are known for their beliefs in the supernatural. But it’s also pretty fascinating that he was blatantly appropriating their culture, living in a teepee and wearing headdresses. Bong Joon-ho said that this was commentary on how easily cultures can be examined simplistically. 

The character setup is also interesting. The Park family consists of Mrs. Park, Mr. Park, daughter, and son. The poor family consists of mom, dad, daughter, son. They are mirrors of each other. And then we have ex-housekeeper and her husband, who ultimately blow up the conflict that has been suppressed for so long. 

And the stone... still mysterious. Why did he let it tumble down the stairs? Lots of symbolism to unpack there. 

Update after second viewing. I think the stone is a typical superstitious, good luck token. In the epilogue, as he puts the stone back in the water, he says that he “has a plan.” He transitions from believing in superstition (fate) to gaining agency, in the form of a plan. 

Mr. Park always says that he likes servants who “don’t cross the line.” Lines are a common motif throughout the movie. When Mr. and Mrs. Park are having sex and the poor family is under the table, it is shot so that the table is the line between the rich and the poor. 

Also, I love that the movie forces the audience to empathize with everyone. In the beginning, we’re rooting for the poor family. We want them to eke out a better living, and while their means to do so are problematic, anything to reduce their squalor seems like a big win. But once we realize that they’re asking for too much, we pity the Parks and are frustrated by the fact that they’re being manipulated. In particular, I find the first housekeeper to be a fascinating character (her expression as she walks down the street after she’s fired is worth a thousand words). It was such a shocker that she was sneaking food to her husband down in the bunker -- I did not see that one coming. She and her husband are poor and stressed, and her husband is interesting since he was ripped off by loan sharks... yet she puts up such a facade. She was the first person we (the audience) met when we enter the estate for the first time, and she’s fiercely loyal (to both the Parks and her husband), but she’s also cunning and secretive in way that feels deeply uncomfortable. Thinking about this more, every character in the movie is leading a double life, including all of the Parks. 

Looking forward to watching this again to catch more interesting gems. 

[hippopotamuscollege]

Parasite (기생충)

“Brilliant and deeply unsettling,” the New York Times (2019) calls it. Nominated for six Academy Awards and winning Four of them (Oscar Nominees, n.d.), including Best Picture, the South-Korean film entitled Parasite has become the first non-English language film in Oscar history to take home the top award of the night. The film’s co-writer and director, Bong Joon-ho, describes it as “a comedy without clowns, a tragedy without villains.” The film circles around the poverty-struck Kim clan and their infiltration of the wealthy Park family’s household by posing as their service personnel. From the carefully structured scenes to an enthralling screenplay, this 132-minute film has the audience gripped from the first frame to the last. 

Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) and his wife Chung-sook (Jang hye-jin) live with their son, Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik), and their daughter, Ki-jung (Park So-dam), in a small, semi-basement apartment in Seoul that barely has any signal or ventilation. Both parents are unemployed, and the family recently picked up a job of folding pizza boxes for a local chain to make ends meet. The family’s luck changes, however, when Ki-woo’s friend, Min-hyuk (Park Seo-joon), offers him a tutoring job for Da-hye (Jeong Ji-so), the daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur, Nathan Park (Lee Sun-kyun). With the help of his sister, Ki-woo fakes his credentials to get accepted for the job. Eventually, all the members of the Kim family land a position in the Park household by also faking their resumés. Ki-jung is the art therapist for the hyperactive son, Da-song (Jeong Hyun-joon); Ki-taek is the family driver, and Chung-sook replaced the longtime and well-liked household help. At this point, the audience would assume that would be the end of it— the Kim family would continue to con the Park family, who has not suspected anything. Just as the audience thought they had predicted what would happen in the end, the second act of the film unexpectedly switches to a darker theme with the resurgence of the first housekeeper and the shocking revelation of her husband’s whereabouts. For this reason, the viewers already expect that there will be bloodshed; it is only a matter of whose and when. 

With his love for hopping genres, Bong connects one scene to the next with effortless and ingenious precision that the viewer would not even notice that the film has taken a darker path. Bong Joon-ho is a director who is obsessed with precision, attention to detail, and rhythm; it shows in the editing, sound design, camerawork, and cinematography. The result of this obsession is a very enticing viewing experience. Almost halfway through the film, Ki-woo, Ki-jung, and Ki-taek have successfully infiltrated the Park household; now, they are attempting to bring in Chung-Sook, and replace the current and well-established housekeeper. At this point, they have already executed three successful dupes, with the tempo slowly building in each one. Bong accomplishes the final con through a montage to bring that rising tempo into a crescendo. In the film’s carefully calibrated montage, accompanied by George Handel’s Spietati io vi giurai (Salazar, 2019), Bong gets from the moment Ki-Woo learns about the housekeeper’s severe allergy to peaches to the moment he poisons her with the fruit’s fuzz in eight shots. These eight shots are the kind of conciseness that matches the acclaimed filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock’s directing style. The structure of this montage tells us of Bong’s control of his craft. In the film, this also tells us about the Kim family— their ability to take control and infiltrate the Park household is at its peak. Their plan was just as perfect and just as smooth as the sequence. However, as the viewers and the Kim family quickly discover, even the most carefully curated plans are vulnerable to catastrophe. Success often holds the seeds of an inevitable downfall, more so when there was no integrity.

Just as cinematography, architecture, camera movements, and dialogue each play critical roles in the film, there is one element that the viewer must not overlook, especially in a Bong Joon Ho film— the power of symbols. It is one of the, if not the most significant element. According to Lessons from the Screenplay (2020), “These [symbols] are tools that can transcend culture and language, directing our focus to the film’s exploration of wealth versus poverty, again and again.” There are multiple symbols shown in the film, such as the contrast between up and down, used for class representation in a capitalist-driven world; the location where the two families reside shows this concept. In the opening scene, the camera pans down from up, introducing the viewers to the Kim family’s semi-basement apartment. We then soon learn that the wealthy Park family’s residence is located at one of the highest points in town. Another symbol is during the climax of the film; the Kims head back to their apartment through a long flight of stairs, only to find out that their home has flooded. The stairs, and what seems to be like a long journey downward, are used in showing the reality they cannot escape. The storm, however, reminds us that the two families are at opposite ends of the spectrum of class and society, which makes them polar— another symbol in the film. The heavy rain sequence sketches contrasting definitions; bringing loss for one end, and bringing the blessing of a clear sky in the other. Another scene that depicts opposites in the film is the hopping of genres. Parasite starts as a dark comedy then switches to a thriller in the 2nd act. In addition to multiple depictions of class structure displayed, the scholar’s stone given by Ki-Woo’s friend, Min-hyuk, symbolizes the vigor that emerges in Ki-woo to climb up the ladder of society. In the beginning, the arrival of the stone would represent a turning point for the Kims. The stone arrives, and their luck starts to get better. When the stone reappears, floating in the flood that ravaged their home, in front of Ki-woo, it is clear that it is hollow. From that realization, it would mean that the stone would symbolize the empty promises that exist when one attempts to climb the social ladder in a capitalist society.

The film’s title carries a certain ambiguity. Indeed, the Kims have become the evident parasites when they have successfully taken over the Park household without making them suspect that something is wrong. Nevertheless, the Parks are also, to an extent, parasitic, probably even long before the Kims have acquired that mentality. They use the household help to fill their emotional and physical shortcomings. The Parks are too dependent on their service personnel, and in return, the Kims depend on the salary that is given to them to make ends meet; it has become a relationship where both ends of the socio-economic spectrum leech on each other. This kind of status quo that is present in the capitalist world makes it a zero-sum game. With this in mind, it is up to us, the viewers, to debate about who the real parasites are.

#parasite #movie #review #bong joon ho