Reproductive separation of the poor from the rich
Dogs have a very sensitive sense of smell, and they rely on smell to divide their territory. When it comes to the realm of people, different sites cause different smells, which in turn makes people sure that "we are not of the same race". Although the human nose does not distinguish many subtle odors like a dog, it is most sensitive to one odor. Children can smell it, and adults can smell it: the smell of the subway, the smell of rags, the smell of the basement, the smell of poverty.
When parents see their children in danger, can they forget the danger and desperately rescue them? However, even if he can overcome his fear, President Park is still nauseated and almost vomited by the smell of the lower class, which is the instinctive reaction of being a creature and the last straw that forces Ki-taek to kill. The rich and the poor have become de facto two races because of all the disparities brought about by wealth. This kind of barrier does not seem to be as strong as blood, but it always hurts the hearts of the humble. Because one partner is born with aphasia, they can only listen to rich people having sex in the dark (and their sexual fantasies are poor people's actions, or what they accuse poor people of doing: cheap underwear, car shocks, and drugs).
After the two people on the sofa fell asleep, the three people under the table wanted to escape, but instead of walking on tiptoes like thieves, they crawled on the ground with their hands and feet. When the couple was woken up and lay down again, Keizer slowly propped himself on the ground with his hands and rubbed forward, like a bug and like a dead man. They crawled silently back to their dirty homes like cockroaches. A rain just makes the rich give up camping, but for the poor it can ruin their homes. In the past, it represented the only hope, the space above the toilet where the WiFi could be rubbed, and now it is spraying other people's excrement. Keizer said that all plans are useless, which is the experience of poverty.
Appearance and reality are far apart
In the film, President Park is very good at control. When he first appeared, it was not difficult to see that he was the core of this wealthy family: people around him interrupted the gestures to greet him, a few dogs ran behind him, and his footsteps didn't stop much. moment. So what is his philosophy? boundary. Boundaries are important and should never be crossed. The so-called "do not seek their government without their position" and the so-called "does not match morality will inevitably lead to disasters", both of which are completely socialized and functionalized distinctions. And when the poor driver tried to establish a human-to-human connection with him, asked about his human side, and asked about love and family, this gentleman always showed a kind of refusal, the first time it was just prevarication, the second time it was color Change always wants to push the poor back into the hierarchal prison of social status.
It can be seen that they are so close on the surface and extremely distant on the inside. This is also reflected in the part of the family drinking and talking on the sofa: Dad said that we are living in this house now, isn't it? It's like a real-life version of the story of "the nanny looks at the sea with a dog every day". But the mother immediately predicted sharply, "As long as the lights are turned on, they will run away like cockroaches." They all occupy the same space to enjoy life, and the difference in identities makes the joy of the poor also dyed with anxiety.
One of the points that the son is very concerned about in the film is "matching". When a friend recommends a job, he doubts himself that he deserves the job. During the banquet, I looked at the bustling crowd below and asked the girl "Do I seem to belong to them?" Several of his fantasies include "admitted to university to make fake diplomas justifiable", "marry a rich girl and live here generously", "buy a house here and reunite with my father reasonably and legally", all of which are to get rid of The status of impostor, justifying yourself. What he said, "I will officially ask her when I am admitted to university", not only takes into account age and studies, but also at the bottom is that we are all college students, in a sense, we have separated from the poor and become equal. But the gap between this fantasy and reality is like a mansion in the sun and a basement in the dark night. Another point that denies his identity is the name: if you want to integrate into the upper circle, even though you are still you, you have to become Kevin. In fact, it is about the identity at the bottom. Kevin belongs to this place, not "I". So when the girl answered him that he belonged here, he said "I'm going further down".
Fight and kill to the death
In the well-designed three-story structure "floor-to-ceiling windows-semi-basement-basement", it seems that the lower two floors are closer together, and they can better understand each other's hardships, but they are the most fierce. Because the upper layer is too far away and too gentle, it is impossible for people to harm others. The man in the basement provides food and clothing to his parents, and the "sensor lights" and Respect that he knocks out every day are more like religious prayers and offerings: the upper floor is already a god to him. Wealth is like an iron, ironing out all kinds of problems in life. Without such luck, "poor mountains and bad waters make troublesome people" can only fight to the death to compete for a little soup that is leaked from the top.
For the lower class, this is a battle for survival, and the means must be used to the extreme. So there are all kinds of criminal tricks to get a job, and also kick the same kind back into the basement of despair. It will be a slave to survive, and it will also hold the "nuclear bomb launch button" (a tip to the upper layer) to make a fortune. Until both sides were red-eyed and wanted to kill others, tragedy happened, or it was destined to happen from the beginning. When the goblin is released from prison, his target is the same underclassmen. In the face of the upper-level people, he still shouted Respect hoarsely, and was kicked away again.
This is the essential error of the seemingly innocuous upper class: indifference to, and only rejection of, fellow human beings. The so-called boundaries and standards are completely snobbish, and "I don't care about diplomas" means that you have to have recommendations and be advanced enough. This is one of the absurdities of Meritocracy: it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Even as a referee and an athlete, the scribbles of their own children are also regarded as geniuses, and they are greatly counseled.
Another point of identity politics is the Indian culture that the rich are addicted to. It is more primitive and originally owned and lived on the land. The president and his wife are mostly imported goods, or imported from the United States. The implication is that the crime of the Americans (the upper class) to the Indians (the lower class) to conquer slavery and snatch has already been completed. They built beautiful houses on land that did not belong to them. Only children and Indian fantasies lived in the wild, but they also lived in tents imported from the United States.
And the knife that Keizer stabbed in the Indian headdress is the highlight moment in the film, because it is the only act of rebellion of the lower class against the upper class. The previous tricks, deception, and stealing food (or dog food) were not rebellion, but parasitism. In order to parasitize, the host must live well. And this is the only time that the parasite stabbed the host with a sharp knife, which is "the time is lost, and you are all dead". This knife seems illogical, and life that has not been exposed will collapse under this knife. This knife is inevitable: the flood can't make us equal, and it will incite even greater disasters. Life cannot be equal, let death make us equal. In the face of President Park's indifference to his wife and daughter's serious injuries and only caring about his son, Ki-taek stabs another person as one person, which is the most profound question and resentment:
Could it be that just because I am poor, it makes me unimportant, disqualified in the world, and a lower-class person?
Whether it’s the American dream of driving and eating hamburgers, or the Korean dream of going to college and living in a good house, they have all been structurally corrupted and made difficult for the poor to achieve. This kind of difficulty has no fixed entity that can be overcome, and there is no way to blame the wrong on one side. It's like the insecticide that hits your face at the beginning makes you breathless, the sprayer and the victim are completely isolated, and there is no way to trace who ordered the spraying. The answer to it in the film is a knife, stabbing a typical. In reality, if we do not solve it and adopt the same attitude of indifference, we will not accidentally become the one who wields the knife, or the one that the knife stabs.
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