The men and women at the top of the Tower of Babita looked at the rain falling outside the window, and the world was already flooded.
After watching the new work of Korean director Bong Joon-ho (Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer), my mind fell into a deep depression, I was lost in the ups and downs, and it took a long time to integrate the emotions that were like riding a roller coaster. If I were only going to write one review this year, I would review this work.
It's definitely one of the best films of the year, and I'm pretty confident that by the end of the year, I'll be able to remove one of this.
This is a group movie without a clear protagonist. A similar movie that comes to mind at once is "Three Billboards". What is the theme of the same "Parasite", what type of film it is, can't be explained in a few sentences. This film is definitely Feng Junhao's subversive work, and in my opinion, it is comparable to "Memories of Murder".
This is a rich and poor, class black humor, thriller movie, this is a movie that can be criticized and worth talking about.
"Memories of Murder" gives the actors more expressive power. At the end, the protagonist's dialogue staring at the camera and facing the audience is so powerful. In contrast, "Parasite" is less powerful at the end (referring to "Memories of Murder"), making the whole The movie lacks a turn at the end. But this movie is like an apocalypse scene in the middle, and it gave me goosebumps all over my body when I watched it, and even when I was writing a review, I couldn't help my heart palpitate in retrospect.
In addition, there are many Korean localization stalks in the film. As a foreign audience, some scenes are disconnected from the whole film. This is not the director's fault, but as a foreign audience, you need to understand the background to appreciate it better. It's like "Alive" or "Farewell My Concubine." You have a completely different feeling for a Hong Kong audience to watch him. My example is also full of metaphors like this movie.
The spoiler starts below, if you haven't seen this movie, please watch it anyway
The spoiler starts below, if you haven't seen the movie yet, please watch it anyway.
did you see it yet?
Did you really see it?
Well, I tried my best.
Now that you've seen the movie, I'm not going to repeat it. Let me tell you a few Korean details about the movie. This video comes from the UP host Korean housewife Fion on YouTube. The copyright belongs to her. Thank you for quoting it here.
Insert a sentence of the Taiwanese translation of this film "Parasitic High", I don't like this translation, I personally think this name limits the deep meaning of this film.
Details first.
Park's mansion.
There are three families in this film, one is the upper-class rich Pu family in the scene of the main story, they are not ordinary rich people, because their mansion is located in the north of the Han River, far from the subway station (the driver sent Jin Jijing to see a certain distance) The hillside mansion . This shows that the Pu family is not only a technology upstart, but a higher level. The upstarts prefer to live in high-end apartments in the Jiangnan area, and they are more In, but the privacy is not comparable to that of other people's mansions on the hillside.
The semi-basement of Kim's house.
This type of housing is also more common because of Seoul's many slopes, and the rent is cheaper than the general housing type. In South Korea, apartments near Hongdae cost more than 500,000 won. In addition, many South Koreans are pressed for two or three, which means that it takes nearly 1.5-2 million to move in. This kind of semi-basement may be as low as 300,000, and the pure basement (not because of the slope) of the protagonist's family/Jin's family in the movie should be cheaper. (Well, I suddenly remembered the basement in Beijing before the heavy rain, and Professor Lian Si's famous book called "Ant Clan". In fact, some parts of South Korea are very similar to China, right? After all, they are all East Asian Confucian cultural circles)
A song that two brothers and sisters sang in the Park house for the first time.
The song that the two brothers and sisters hummed when they went to the Park family for the first time, that is, the lines of the younger sister carrying her character, that song was "Dokdo is our territory" sung by Zheng Guangtai in 1982. This is the collective memory of Koreans, maybe like our "Heroes and Sons", of course, whether there is a deeper meaning is unknown. Dokdo is a disputed island between Japan and South Korea. In fact, there are a lot of political metaphors in this film, which are about South and North Korea.
The Jin family is eating out.
They chose the driver's canteen, the kind of place where taxi drivers usually go to eat. The characteristic is that the price is cheap and you can eat all you can. If you compare it, it is a bit like Qingdao's Jingjiu spare ribs with rice. In many places, there is no one place for spare ribs, but Qingdao is delicious. Just like in Yunnan, I can eat bridge rice noodles every day. In Qingdao, I can eat spare ribs every day. Suddenly I miss living in Qingdao Shinan District. In the years, I really ate this every day, if you haven't tried it, I strongly recommend it to you, the best Chinese ribs in the city, no one)
Old fashioned cake.
During the meal, the Jin family had a meal together and mentioned that Dad Jin once made Taiwanese ancient cakes. This is a Korean who went to Tamsui and found that the local king's chicken cake is very delicious (you will hear the pronunciation of "Dawang kasuo" when you listen to the Korean dialogue), so they copied it back to open the store. It was popular in Korea for a while. In the heyday of the franchise chain, there were 400 stores, but in 2016, South Korea discovered that bird flu caused the price of eggs to rise, which made the industry difficult. Although this report is exaggerated and inaccurate, it has seriously impacted the industry, and less than 10% of the stores still exist. It is conceivable to see that the Jin family suffered from this shock and lost everything, and they are so down. Coincidentally, Wu Qinshi in the underground room was hiding there for exactly the same reason. One is unlucky, the other is even more unlucky, but they are not the same people from the end of the world, they must step on the body of the other person and die.
I started talking about the movie, and reminded again that I really have to watch it and then read this movie review. This film is interesting, there are many wonderful clips, many have seen it and experienced it for themselves. Here are just a few selected for comment.
Your "The Tale of Genji", my "Disqualification on Earth"
There are three families in this movie, the beautiful Park family is a miniature Grand View Garden, a young and ignorant daughter, a boy who behaves erratically, the hostess is a combination of Sister Lin/Mother Jia, and a typical elite male host , an upper-class family that my generation can occasionally peep at. But are they bad people? It should be said that the director was very restrained, you could hardly feel it from the beginning to the end, and the hostess didn't even get too aggressive. The only part that detracted from her was probably the chattering on the phone when she was about to buy something near the end, when she was about to start the party, And after the big event at the end, she only cared about her own children.
But when you think about it, especially from her point of view, you can hardly pick the wrong one. How would she know about the flooding of the Jin family? She didn't even know that these people were family. When she and "Jessica" mentioned the pop-up party, she specifically said that she would pay overtime.
In the same way, when danger occurs, it is easy to understand the feeling of a parent who sees nothing but the child.
In the Park family's Tale of Genji, their love for their children and their love for themselves is the most important from beginning to end. It is understandable for them to do so when they have gained financial freedom. It is easy for the director to write a story about hating the rich, but he does not Do this.
Correspondingly, the Jin family and the former aunt and his wife were both at the bottom of their social status. Jin Jize was submissive as soon as he came up, and later told his son after the flood that life is without a plan and goes with the flow. The man who lives in the basement is already a little crazy and can only thank the president of Oh Jinse. These two people are very symbolic. Kim Ki-taek is a middle-aged man who has accepted his fate and no longer resists.
In the most important scene, his wife teases him that if the owner comes back, he will hide like a cockroach.
Kee-taek, who has always had a good temper and was able to be willing to be guided by his son, suddenly became furious. This scene completely hinted at what would happen later. When Keize inadvertently stepped on the host's bottom line, his own bottom line was also inadvertently trampled on.
The biggest difference here is that as the male host, he is very principled, and at the same time, he doesn't care about those who serve their family. Once you violated his bottom line, then you will be fired. Driver Yin and Aunt Wenguang will not give you a chance to explain.
On the contrary, Ji Ze can only hold back, or break out and let himself escape/see the sun, becoming another Wu Qinshi who fell into the ground, because losing his temper is really a luxury for some people.
After both Keizer and the host were dressed as Indians in the movie, the host patiently explained the next arrangement to Keizer. The language here is actually quite polite. Until Keizer said something along the way, you love your wife. This sentence is because the male host who is accustomed to being strong sounds particularly harsh, and for Ji Ze, it is a subconscious overstepping the limit, so the male host straightened his face and said that he has already paid overtime, so let's do things seriously.
The class-to-class rift cannot be eliminated or explained. Like an abyss, there is only fear.
There is also Wu Qinshi, who appeared in the second half, but laid the groundwork at the beginning. The host's little boy's ghost experience when he was a child was actually bumping into this murderer (who didn't kill at the time), this man is just like the future Ji Ze, who has been lonely for a long time, only to see a ray of sunshine occasionally, how did he fall into the ground of? In the movie, it was said through the mouth of Aunt Wenguang that it was helpless under the loan shark.
Ki-taek, who failed in business, sank into the darkness because of the death/injury of his daughter and the killing of the last straw (that disgusting expression of the host).
Wu Jinshi sank into darkness because he opened an ancient cake shop and borrowed loan sharks. Because of his wife's death, he killed and died in anger.
The cycle that the male protagonist falls into is almost an inescapable cycle at the bottom of society, dying underground like a cockroach, or dying.
At a certain moment in their lives, they have been disqualified in the world, and the remaining years cannot be called alive, but are just dying, and no one cares.
The Great Flood That Destroyed Everything
This is the most climax of the whole film, leaving the host and hostess' family. The Jin family began to parasitize the mansion, pushing their happiness to the top, but in this brutal joy, brutality also followed.
When Ki-taek sighed that the male host's family was really rich and kind, his wife Chung-sook corrected him, and he was kind because of money.
This sentence is really the finishing touch, and the image of Keizer's wife is also much fuller. She is no longer a silly aunt, and she is no longer just a fool who complains that others come to give gifts and not give food.
Because of course you can ignore the money and look bright. We often say that proletarians have no perseverance. Is it because of proletarians that they have no perseverance, or is it proletarians without perseverance? The two are mixed and twisted. The Jin family tried their best to find a job for their family. When the son and daughter got jobs one after another, the whole plot was very relaxed and interesting. I felt it was inappropriate, but when Aunt Wenguang was driven away, I believe that many people felt a sense of pulling away from the Jin family's perspective.
Because at this time, I especially gave the footage when my aunt left.
At this moment, it is easy to conclude that the host family is the victim of being deceived, the aunt is the biggest victim, and the Jin family is the complete perpetrator.
When the Keizer family was eating barbecued meat, Keizer said that when 500 people were vying for a job, our whole family got the job of President Park, and it was almost impossible to say that President Park was our great benefactor. At the same time, a man in the basement was repeating this sentence over and over again, and was dying of hunger.
Because kindness is really a luxury for the rich, so those who have money and are not kind, think about it.
Zhongshu's mother had no money, she was kind/guilt at one point, and when Aunt Wenguang rang the doorbell, she still let her into the big house. In the range she could afford, she still chose kindness, but the truth they discovered to each other later was too amazing, and kindness was quickly removed from the option.
The heavy rain came so fiercely, implying that the owner's family would return, and also implying the fate of the Jin family living in the semi-basement. There are too many wonderful things in this series of plots, and I will only say my favorite scene.
After a series of plots that were obviously not so nervous, but were more nervous than Mission Impossible.
Keizer and the two children fled all the way back to their home like bereaved dogs, watching the flood submerge their home. This journey seemed to fall from heaven to hell, as if it was the shock of a flood that destroyed the world.
The men and women at the top of the Tower of Babita fell asleep, and the world was already flooded.
Small people can be swallowed up casually in huge cities.
The other is the scene of Ki-kyung smoking the second time, the only corner of the house with Wi-Fi, the churning sewage, and a cigarette.
The most comfortable and innocent person in the whole family was the one who died. Is it irony, is it fate?
A stone is an opportunity, a weapon, and a stone to shoot oneself in the foot.
Kim Ki Woo's Rhapsody
In fact, Kim Ki-woo is half a male protagonist. The story begins when his senior/friend sent him a lucky stone and gave him an opportunity at the same time.
The senior made it very clear that Ki-woo should be the least threatening substitute, but it was also someone else's kindness anyway. No matter what level of people there are calculations all the time, this is the way to survive. In their mouths, the naive hostess also has her calculations, but no one can make an exception.
Ki-woo, who succeeded in small ways, felt good about himself for a while. The murderer mentioned earlier was a hint of Ki-taek's back half. Young Ki-woo can be said to be the epitome of Ki-taek's first half of his life.
I thought I was successful, I thought everything was going well, I even thought I could change my destiny. Ki-taek is chicken cake and Ki-woo is love. So Ki-woo didn't forget to reply to Park Da-hye's text messages in such a dangerous situation, but when he stood on the second floor and looked at the guests in the birthday flash mob like Ukiyo-e.
He smelled the smell they had never been able to smell.
His heart fell like a stone, and his stone was lifted up by himself. Previously, Ki Woo had an uncle who tried to smash a drunk with a stone, but he couldn't act very well. This shot hints at the powerlessness of using this to kill people in the back. This stone is the key prop that echoes before and after.
But he is doomed to fail, because he has failed the exam four times, how can he succeed in killing people, how can his marriage plan succeed, and how can he hope to bring his father back to life?
He's not destined to be the Great Gatsby, and the film ends as hopeless, as hopeless as it really is.
In the end the stone sank into the water and was no different from any other stone.
postscript
This has nothing to do with the movie itself, but more from my feelings. I had a feeling of despair attacking me when I watched this movie. Not only the despair over the insurmountable gap after the solidification of the class, but also for some things at the moment.
As for this Korean drama Parasite, because I have a lot of insights, it is definitely not enough to write only one movie review. I may write two or three more, because similar to the flood that happened in Beijing, many young readers may not I know that in the past, many Beidrifts did not live in Huilongguan and Wangjing, but lived in the basement of the Beijing air-raid shelter. Until a heavy rain in Beijing, many people were drowned (of course, it is said that most of them were electrocuted, and it was Beijing Suburbs), the Beijing government began to forbid them to live in basements, and we finally changed for the better. Finally, let me say a digression. At that time, I was stranded in a hotel in Beijing and lived in a high-rise building with more than ten stories, silently watching the rainstorm outside the window, Listening to the sound of the next room, maybe I wrote a sentence at the beginning of this film review, " The men and women at the top of the Tower of Babita look out the window and the rain is falling, and the world is already flooded. " Friends who are interested in follow-up film reviews remember follow me
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