| Meursault
As a genre film, "Parasite" can be said to be a modern allegorical story, straightforward but can cross language and cause empathy.
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"Parasite" once again propelled Korean cinema to the highlight of world cinema history, the last time in Cannes, where it won the first Palme d'Or for Korean cinema.
The Hollywood trip won four awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Film and Best Original Screenplay, and it is worth mentioning that "Parasite" has also become the first non-English film in Oscar history to win Best Picture. Since its release in 2019, it has won nearly 70 awards at home and abroad, which shows its endless charm.
Its charm is reflected in the theme that director Bong Joon-ho wants to express - the antagonism of classes. Language barriers, Asian and European cultural differences, "Parasite" can still win the favor of the Oscars, which shows that Bong Joon-ho's expression is precise and powerful, which can resonate across languages and cultures.
In terms of themes, there is 1995's "Cold Festival" and "Thief Family" in the Palme d'Or in Cannes, which cannot help but be compared.
In terms of skill and naturalism, many people may prefer "Portrait of a Burning Woman", or Bong Joon-ho's other film "Kidnapping the Dog at the Door", which considers "Parasite" to be victorious.
Indeed, the film is more of a propositional essay, with class antagonisms as the theme. The characters, plots, and props are all foreshadowings and metaphors, so the characters are inevitably facialized and the rhythm loses its fluidity.
But peeling back the shell of the Parasite genre film as a fable, you'll find that foreshadowing and metaphor are a reflection of the times, especially after an in-depth understanding of the social realities of the same period in South Korea.
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"Parasite" is set in modern Korean society and revolves around a family of four unemployed vagrants in a semi-basement.
Parents and two children, after their own setbacks in life, make a living by folding pizza boxes every day, rubbing the wifi upstairs by the toilet toilet.
Parents have also had serious jobs, the son has fought for the college entrance examination several times, the daughter has a talent for design, but has no money to take the college entrance examination, and finally achieve a balance of life in this semi-basement.
Changing the English tutoring job that happened to his son Song Kanghao at home, the family saw the life of another class above the ladder, and saw the dignity and dignity of the upper class.
Song Kanghao used various means to make his family replace the original housekeeper and driver in the student's home. In this step-by-step plan, the family of four entered the upper home and lived peacefully in the shadows of the family, becoming parasites.
Until it meets the former parasite, the husband who the old butler hid in the basement, and clashes, eventually destroying the host.
In this layered plot, the smell, the lines, the heavy rain and other details show the indestructible wall of class created by money. The two types of people inside and outside the wall are shaped into different personalities by reality under different air.
This film has too many symbols and metaphors, and to some extent loses its realistic color, so it is more like a fable, expressing itself directly.
The director's skills make its expression meaningful, every frame, every detail has its meaning, and careful study will make you feel refreshed.
As the much-maligned facetography. The facialization of the poor and the rich pushes this contrast to the high. The poor feel that "those who live well are more likely to become good people."
At the climax of the film, the murder of the rich man makes this sentence the best interpretation of these two classes. No one can be a good person alone.
The environment makes words and deeds. In the film, in different classes, there is a way of living. The poor, whether rich or rich, must abide by the rules of the game of each class.
The poor want survival, the rich want decency, and no one is a good person.
The rich people look at the poor coldly, but they still have to put on a posture of knowing the cold and knowing the heat, taking harmony as the motive, but retaining the dignity in their bones, which inevitably appears insincere.
The environment makes words and deeds. So no matter what class you are in, you have no choice, the distortion of human nature is always there, just in a different way. The director tells the bloody reality in a fable, but he does not delve into the causes of reality, nor does he explain the fate of reality.
The stones that the son of the family cannot give up symbolize wealth and are also his obsession. Perhaps when a family of four was lying dormant in the semi-basement, the obsession disappeared, and reality once again gave birth to it.
But obsession is delusional after all, and the smell of the family of four is mentioned countless times in the movie, and it is also the invisible wall of class. At the end, the dream of the son becoming an upper class cannot become a reality.
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"Parasite" is a fable, an allegory of the times.
The semi-basement in the movie is a kind of rental characteristic of South Korea; the entrepreneurship of the poor father when he was young is the Taiwanese ancient morning cake that swept South Korea and disappeared again; the son of several college entrance examinations, who can't reach and can't squeeze into the single wooden bridge that changes the class, is also a portrayal of Young Koreans...
The film only reflects the gap between rich and poor in South Korea, but the empathy of English-speaking countries shows that the gap between rich and poor is a problem in the world. Populism has made waves in the North American elections in Western Europe; the bottom youth of Western Europe with a mixture of extremist organizations in the Middle East; the 1.3 billion-person country from targeted poverty alleviation to poverty alleviation... If the gaze is placed close, the reality is also shocking.
"Parasite" was born in the era and has also been achieved by the times.
The class gap has always been one of the most resonant targets of literary and artistic works, as far as "Les Misérables" and as close as "Beijing Fold".
It is not only the rich and poor in the sense of money, but also the discrimination of taste, habits and spirit behind it, bringing about a spiritual gap.
The final outbreak of poor fathers is a metaphor for the crisis behind the rapid economic development of East Asian societies for decades, and if these tearing problems are not properly solved, it is difficult for society to move towards a better future.
It is said that Korean movies inherited from Hollywood, but they have worked hard to create a world of genre films. The most praiseworthy is their portrayal of reality and human nature, without taking into account, only to appear sincere.
Only by daring to face reality and acknowledging reality will civilization have fertile ground for development.
The Moon era somehow surpassed the Park geun-hye era and gave aspiring filmmakers a fertile ground.
After winning the award, South Korean President Moon Jae-in even tweeted that "in order to let Korean filmmakers use their imagination and make movies without worry, the government will work together." ”
Under this fertile soil, the cold and sharp reality of the problem, Korean directors can pay close attention to, with conscience and sense of mission to build and express, which is undoubtedly the progress of society.
With such efforts, the Oscars can see the sincerity of the film.
Of course, hypocrisy is always inevitable at any time, but it is a virtue to admit the existence of hypocrisy and accept it calmly.
Let's talk about an episode,
Last year, "Parasite" won the Palme d'Or in Cannes, And Korean film critics laughed at themselves, the Korean people don't care about the Cannes Film Festival, but they care about Cannes, where Korean films won the Palme d'Or, and this time, they can also watch the Oscar's best film without subtitles.
Therefore, for Chinese film fans, dreams must be had, and they do not occupy a place anyway.
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