The long-awaited “Parasite” has finally arrived, and it does live up to the previous expectations, and people are excited to watch it! The internet has been uploaded to the internet before, but after seeing the names of Song Kang-ho and Bong Jun-ho, I think this time it is stable and will be enlarged. Song Kang-ho is one of my favorite Korean actors, and his acting skills have become so good that he can only worship. And Bong Joon-ho’s “Memories of Murder” is also too classic, will still think of the last scene will still feel tingling. Of course, the other characters in the film are also not to mention here.
The film begins with a view from a semi-basement, where the street scene outside is above, while people live in the dark and old below. The protagonist’s family is poor even WiFi to rub, no work four people rely on folding pizza boxes to live, the background is quickly explained clearly. This is when the need to change the status quo of the lead appeared, friends abroad so the tutoring job to Ki-woo, forged certificates to enter the home of the rich, and then one after another will continue to trick family members one by one into working in it, can really be described as a fraudulent family. This reminds me of last year’s Palme d’Or “Family of Thieves”, the same Asian film, the first half of which can be seen as a “fraudulent family”, rich people are really kind and simple ah! When Ki-woo finds the rich district with the fake paperwork, I was reminded of “Burning” in which the hero stalks a playboy in a Porsche in Gangnam district, which is similar to the ramp corner in the picture. I liked both works very much, but Lee Chang-dong’s “Burning” seemed to have a little more backbone and a little more metaphor.
When they got rid of the female helper who was the heartthrob, it seemed that there was no more conflict, but unbeknownst to them, she came back to kill, opening up another level of the plot, and the basement finally appeared. In order to avoid debt husband for many years living in the dark basement, and there are secret doors and organs, the host family unaware. With this as the boundary, the latter part of the film development seems to have reached a climactic stage, a wave pushed by a wave, until the murder scene appears to end. The final climax cannot be analyzed without the mountain and water stone sent by a friend, which is a blessing and a curse, and finally can only be put back into nature again. Is this really because of the class conflict? In order to get rid of the poor situation and become a parasite, it is inevitable to end up with a violent conflict, completing the cycle of old and new in the basement.
Many people have discovered the smell as a sign of revealing class identity, the smell of people living in semi-basements, the smell only for those who squeeze the subway every day, nothing to do with laundry detergent soap. Not only do children smell it, but bosses who live in villas also smell it, just as relatives from the countryside can smell different from the city. This recurring detail finally crushes the inferior and the proud, who don’t seem to be from the same world, but have to live together under the same roof. Are the rich guilty? Are the poor guilty? They have suffered a lot. No one can answer this question, it has always existed, only now it seems to have worsened.
The end, though seemingly open, ultimately feels pessimistic. Can one move from a half-basement to a luxury villa through the efforts of a generation, and if so, then why discuss class entrenchment? The poor kid can get a better job by going to college and then become a passable average person with a more harmonious and happy family, which is already a better ending in reality. The real situation may be to accumulate capital and ability step by step with the efforts of several generations, and eventually become what everyone calls “rich”, and become the middle class rather than the upper class of society.
“Man is born free, but he is always in chains. He who thinks he is the master of everything else is more of a slave than everything else”. Rousseau’s famous words are not outdated today, and human nature does not seem to change. Of course people are equal, but also imaginary, in front of money and status, where there is equality, where there are high and low. The poor family’s house was washed away in a heavy rain, but the rich man’s children camped out in a tent in the yard, and then the next day saw news reports of flooding in the slums, and then went back to work to make money. Korean films are not only wonderfully made, but the social issues they focus on are often similar to ours. Isn’t it a little unfair that East Asian countries work so hard and have such a difficult time finding employment, but people in Northern Europe and South Australia can work easily and enjoy life? Some things are so unfair, but no solution can be found, only helpless.
This Korean film, which is both commercial and artistic, has reached the highest level in all aspects and has lived up to the expectations of getting the Palme d’Or. The film is also in line with the aesthetic tastes of the country, the ups and downs of the plot, no redundancy, just as a viewing is already a great enjoyment, not to mention the social thinking and criticism behind it! I hope there will be more such excellent films from Korea in the future, and I hope that domestic films will learn from its strengths and produce more good works for the audience.
