We’ve been waiting for this movie for a long, long time. It starts on May 26th.
Yes, the first Palme d’Or in Korean film history – “Parasite”.
From May to August, “Parasite” traveled through the Korean territory, from France, Australia, Hong Kong and many other countries and regions.
Creating new myths along the way.
Korea: the number of moviegoers exceeded 10 million (about 1 in 5 Koreans have seen it); France, Vietnam, Australia, all broke the record for the highest grossing Korean film in the region.
Hong Kong, China: surpassed “Farewell My Concubine” to become the first Palme d’Or at the box office in history.
Finally, it was our turn.
The Parasite
기생충
The Parasite,” a fascinating story.
A friend introduces Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo-sik), the son of an unemployed homeless man, to Park Dong-ik (Lee Sun-kyun), a big business owner, who applies for a job as a tutor.
This is a great opportunity for him to climb up the social ladder.
As a matter of fact, after Ki-woo enters the Park household, his sister Ki-jung (Park So-tan), his poor father Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) and his mother Chung-sook (Jang Hyejin) move in unexpectedly. ……
In short, it’s a tale of a turtledove’s nest.
But. This natural race of things, as the main character is replaced by a human being, flashes of a higher level of cunning and treachery everywhere.
It’s the maneuvering between rich and poor. The rest of the story, I won’t spoil it for you!
But it can also be seen that the Parasite wants to explore the theme of rich and poor.
This theme, in fact, is an expansion of Tilda Swinton’s line about class in Snowpiercer’s Train.
But Bong Joon-ho does not want to incite the confrontation between rich and poor at all.
He does not accuse anyone, nor does he deny anyone.
In his words – this is a comedy without clowns, a tragedy without villains, and what is good and what is bad can no longer be determined by the results alone in this modern society.
Like Memories of Murder, Parasite has a sense of powerlessness running through it from beginning to end.
This powerlessness comes from the story, but also from reality. Korea alone.
Since the 1997 Asian financial crisis (IMF crisis), a voice of “as long as I and my family survive” has been heard in Korean society.
In the movie “The Day of National Bankruptcy,” the factory owner played by Junho Heo is a representative of this.
His inspirational chicken soup was changed from “help each other” to “just care about yourself and don’t think about others”.
After the IMF crisis, more people’s motto became, “Please become rich”.
The problem is that in this ambitious and bloody competition, some people’s lives just don’t get better, no matter how hard they try.
Because the 1% upper class controls 90% of the wealth and power.
It’s still a hereditary system.
The last words of a Seoul National University student who committed suicide.
“What affects your life today is not your intelligence or wisdom, but the amount of wealth your parents have.”
According to a questionnaire survey conducted by Korea Broadcasting Service (KBS) on the topic of “wealth inequality” in early January this year, 75% of respondents thought that “wealth inequality in Korea is very serious,” while only 3% thought that it was “not serious at all.
The Saigon News.
And is this only happening in Korea?
Rather than saying that Bong Joon-ho is confused in Korea, he sees a problem all over the world.
The poor are poorer, the rich are richer, the rich are innocent and the rich are guilty, the tear is the unresolved and universal pain of this era.
The Parasite is a continuation of Bong Joon-ho’s long-standing compassion for small people struggling with power and class, as well as the anger that Korean cinema has felt for years towards society and history in its persistent pursuit of better.
How do you eliminate parasites?
Please don’t blame the movie for not being able to give a clear and correct answer.
Nor should the answer be given by the filmmaker.
The filmmaker can only give the unique conditions of life of people called “parasites”.
They have humble desires and passionate dreams.
They are overwhelmed by authority, but they also have the dignity to stand up to it.
Do you want to destroy them?
How are they different from you?
I’ve brushed up on Parasite four times and remember this line best.
The rich man’s father, with a smile on his face, described the poor people in this way…
Yeah, everyone who rides the subway has that “smell.”
The lethality of this line is comparable to the last scene of Memories of Murder.
The shot of Song Kang-ho looking at the audience.
Parasites are not only for families in the screen.
You, me, him-.
Suppose one admits to this chain of despised hierarchy.
Suppose we succumbed to the absurdity and righteousness of this world.
Then we would all be parasites, without even knowing it.
／End.
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