Film The Parks did nothing wrong
If this film is meant to be a critique of capitalism, it fails miserably. The message I got from is that "the poor are shitty people, and they 100% deserve to live in squalor."
The Kims are a resourceful bunch, and we're never shown any reason they couldn't improve their situation through moral means. Instead they lie and cheat their way to victory over their fellow working men.
Meanwhile, the Parks don't do anything that justifies the Kims' actions towards them. Being offended by people who don't shower is not "classist." Talking behind someone's back is a dick move, but does not justify murder. Not being aware of a flood (which is common in Korea) is not callousness. And for fuck's sake, in what way is their marriage "loveless?" Asian cultures tend to be more reserved; holding hands in public is practically a PDA. People married for twenty years do not need to be constantly smiling and looking into each other's eyes. Nevertheless, we're shown the passion has in no way faded from their relationship.
Ki-Taek is such an Ungrateful Bastard. Dong-Ik hired his whole family, but apparently getting called smelly is so much of an insult that it justifies murder. Is this man five? And no, you cannot blame "muh socio-economic factors." None of his family have a stench. How could Da-Hye be into Ki-Woo if that were the case?
If Bong Joon-Ho hates capitalism so much, there just so happens to be a country right above his, where they've instituted his favorite economic system. Maybe he should go there and fucking stay there.
Film Deserved the oscar
It's surprising that a movie about economic equality can be this profound, and entertaining at the same time.
I expected this movie to be an anvilicious work about Eat the Rich, and while it feels like that at times, the movie is very mature about the subject matter, this is not your typical tale of "poor people good, rich people bad", is way deeper than that.
Sociopolitical themes aside, the movie is just fun to watch, the characters, while simple, are entertaining, and have enough depth for you to care about them, the plot develops in a very natural way, seeing the Kim’s plan get increasingly complicated, only for it to bite them in the ass is great, and the halfway genre switch feels earned and impactful.
The movie is also symbolic and subtle, something that is very rare to see nowadays, especially on stories that tackle political themes.
Overall, this movie does something that a lot of writers forget, stories are entertainment; if they want us to care about their messages, they need to present it in a way that is entertaining to watch, and that doesn't feel handfisted.
Film It's A Good'n!
Try as a might, but I've never been able to convince my own brother to watch the 2019 horror film Us. Fortunately he's a Korean film buff, and with Parasite I can finally meet the guy half way. Bong Joon-Ho's bleakly comic depiction of class conflict via duelling families seems like a naturally companion piece, sharing a lot of the ideas and visual metaphors of the American film.
The story is that of the impecunious Kim family. They struggle to make ends meet as they live out their days in a shabby basement flat that acts as the public lavatory for street drunks. When the son gets offered a chance at acting as an English language tutor for a rich family, he and the rest of the family use it as an an opportunity to con their way into service. The Kims are out and out villains, but you can't help but feel sorry for their circumstances even as they're horribly exploiting a gullible, sheltered, yet utterly blameless family.
Its one of those movies where things are clearly going far too well, and you are waiting for some kind of horrible revelation to come forward and doom everything. Not helping matters is that the movie leaves an arsenal of obvious looking Chekhov's guns lying around for you to mull over, all the while distracting you from the ones that really matter. I'm impressed that it all ends up going in a direction that was not only a complete surprise, but also very appropriate for the themes of the movie. The film is also crammed with impressive imagery and direction, and manages to get a lot of mileage out of visuals as mundane as "people ascending a set of stairs", turning them into an unsettling and potent metaphor.
I've no hesitation recommending Parasite. As of writing this, I'm glad to see the movie has just cleaned up at the Oscars. It feels very much deserved, and I hope it only helps see wider distribution of yet more foreign language films.
Film
Try as a might, but I've never been able to convince my own brother to watch the 2019 horror film Us. Fortunately he's a Korean film buff, and with Parasite I can finally meet the guy half way. Bong Joon-Ho's bleakly comic depiction of class conflict of duelling families seems like a naturally companion piece, sharing a lot of the ideas and visual metaphors.
The story is that an impecunious Kim family, struggling to make ends meet as they live out their days in a shabby basement flat that acts as a public lavatory for street drunks. When the son gets offered a chance at acting as an English language tutor for a rich family, he and the rest of the family use it as an an opportunity to con their way into service. The Kims are out and out villains, but you can't help but feel sorry for their circumstances even as they're horribly exploiting a gullible, sheltered, yet utterly blameless family.
Its one of those movies where things are clearly going far too well, and you are waiting for some kind of horrible revelation to come forward and doom everything. Not helping matters is that the movie leaves an arsenal of obvious looking Chekhov's guns lying around for you to mull over, all the while distracting you from the ones that really matter. I'm impressed that it all ends up going in a direction that was not only a complete surprise, but also very appropriate for the themes of the movie. The film is also crammed with impressive imagery and direction, and manages to get a lot of mileage out of visuals as mundane as "people ascending a set of stairs", turning them into something unsettling.
I've no hesitation recommending Parasite. As of writing this, I'm glad to see the movie has just cleaned up at the Oscars. It feels very much deserved, and I hope it only helps see wider distribution of yet more foreign language films.
Film Nobody knows the trouble I've seen...
I have uncertain feelings about Parasite due to the digital age. I first convinced my siblings to watch it despite my more upbeat brother's concerns, and we found it to be a gripping comedy/drama/thriller with an intriguing story and characters. Then I came to the Internet and found many, including the director himself and this very wiki, all saying it's about "capitalism." This movie doesn't contain discussion of economic theory nor the word "capitalism," so I could review it independent of political topics or the opinions of others. But human experiences don't really work like that, so mention them I shall.
At the least, the movie does feature a poor vs. rich conflict. The Kims are a very poor South Korean family, who discover opportunity to exploit the wealthy and gullible Park family to elevate their position. A recurring symbol of their relative positions is the Park father, Dong-ik, reacting in disgust to the smell of the Kim father Ki-taek. The Kims' desperate poverty contrasted with the Parks' sheltered ignorance, idleness, and condescension can make it easy to root for the Kims' success.
But the Kims also engage in cruelty which might not be excused by their circumstances. Ki-woo deceives and seduces his underage student, and later interpretably tries to murder a man. Chung-sook tries to have a woman even more desperate than herself arrested, and later assaults and accidentally kills her. A drunken Ki-taek physically threatens his wife and frightens his children when she affronts his pride before laughing it off as a joke, and later murders Dong-ik after a series of shocking, lethal events. Attributing their actions exclusively to their poverty strikes me as hasty. Lust, pride, and wrath are hardly unique to the poor.
However, this is also why I find the film so interesting. It's the very nature of injustice to have both victims and offenders, but in various ways, everyone is both. The Kims are certainly victims of destitution, but they're also victims of their own decisions. There are points in the story where a simple act of kindness either towards or from the Kims may have drastically altered the outcome. Sometimes the movie leaves characters' motives and intentions up to interpretation, which I found stimulating.
But is it really about "capitalism"? Well... depends on your views? As a Californian whose main experience with poverty is the many homeless at my local downtown and my church soup kitchen, and who thinks "capitalism" is a widely ill-defined and misused term in contemporary debate, I see Parasite as a cautionary tale to be empathetic to the struggles of the poor and mindful of one's own possessions and privileges, but also to be vigilant of others' motives. I've unfortunately experienced both in California.
But as for others... I don't know. What do you think? Let me know in the comments! Seriously, I'm cautiously curious.