Before "Parasite" exploded, Zhao Ruzhen's labels were "Fang Zi Biography" and "Harem: Concubine of the Emperor", and in these works, she had one word: off. Therefore, many people say that Zhao Ruzhen, who wears clothes in "Parasite", is almost unrecognizable.
How good is Parasite after the Korean version of Shu Qi Zhao Ruzhen was made from a star?
So, what is the excitement of this "Parasite", which has won many awards for the Oscars and the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and won the awards and won soft hands? Who is the "parasite"?
The movie is about a family of four living a poor life in a narrow basement, and his son Ki-woo goes to the rich President Park's house as an English tutor in place of his classmates who want to study abroad, Mrs. Park is very simple, and Ki-woo forged a diploma but passed the interview.
Ji Woo learns that Mrs. Park's young son needs an art teacher, and takes the opportunity to introduce his sister to Mrs. Park, and her sister successfully gets the job. The brothers and sisters implemented despicable means to get Mrs. Park to dismiss the driver and housekeeper one after another, introduce her parents to Mrs. Park, and smoothly enter President Park's home to work.
The four people who ostensibly don't know each other are each taking on their own work, and when they return home, they discuss the affairs of President Park's family, life is getting better and better, and Ji Woo even wants to marry The Park family's eldest lady, Do-hye, but all this changes at the moment when they discover the secret of the former housekeeper.
It turned out that the basement of this house actually hid the bankrupt husband of the former housekeeper, and she took advantage of President Park to take the family out camping and ran back to feed her husband, which led to a fierce conflict between the two families, under the conflict, the former housekeeper was injured and died, and her husband was insane.
The husband of the former housekeeper smashed Ki-woo in revenge, stabbed his sister to death, and was assassinated by Ki-woo's mother in legitimate defense. At the same time, Ji Woo's father (Kim Chauffeur) is stimulated to kill President Park and flees to the basement to become a parasite.
The film's narrative rhythm is smooth and closely connected, the director lays the foreshadowing and hints at different key points in the development of the story, and the overall structure echoes back and forth, although the ending is unexpected, it seems real and natural.
Throughout the film, the director guides the story to the flashpoint of contradictions through several key words, which can also be said to be several clues, and highlights the theme of the story.
<h1>Clue One: Lucky Stone</h1>
Ji Woo's classmates bring a "Lucky Stone" that is said to bring fortune and examination luck, and since the arrival of the stone, the family's life has improved, making Ji Woo believe in the Lucky Stone even more, so when the home is flooded, he first goes to find the stone;
Ki Woo says that the stone has been sticking to him, and decides to use the "lucky stone" to solve the former housekeeper and her husband in the basement, it can be said that under the manipulation of inflated lust, Ki Woo's fascination with the "lucky stone" has gone astray, leading to his own tragic ending; at the end of the film, Ki Woo puts the "lucky stone" into the water, indicating that he accepts the cruelty of reality and puts aside the lucky theory.
<h1>Clue two: body odor</h1>
The younger son first mentioned that the smell of The Golden Driver, the Nanny and the teacher Jessica is because of the smell of living in the basement, and President Park also mentioned to his wife that the smell of the Golden Driver is like the body odor of people riding the subway, which is actually a "poor man's taste" here.
Although the reaction to the action when smelling the smell is reasonable, when Mrs. Park opens the window of the car and puts her hand against her nostrils, the golden driver, after experiencing the experience of being homeless at home, he believes that this is the class discrimination of the rich, and he is inferior to the point of anger.
In particular, when his daughter collapsed in a pool of blood and needed help, but President Park asked him for car keys and drove his child to the hospital, he was already desperate. President Park also disliked the smell of the poor who had fallen in a pool of blood, pinched his nose and picked up the key, which made him feel sad and angry, and he felt humiliated, so he assassinated President Park in anger.
And The eldest miss Do-hye can't smell Ji Woo's body odor, because love makes her ignore poverty and accept the unreal Ji Woo, and also reflects that love without mixed desire is pure, but it can't withstand the cruelty of reality.
<h1>Clue Three: Crickets, cockroaches, three dogs, and flies</h1>
The crickets that appear on the table at the beginning of the film show the embarrassment of the family living in the basement;
Cockroaches, like The Ji Woo family and the former housekeeper husband, live in the basement without seeing the sun. It also expresses the humility of the poor, and when President Park's family went camping and drank in the mansion, the mother laughed at her father: President Park suddenly returned, and you will immediately hide like a cockroach, right? This point shows even more the humility of not seeing the light under the lie;
The fly that fell on the hands of the housekeeper's husband who was stabbed to death reflects the tragic fate of the poor people;
Mrs. Park's section of instructing the three dogs to eat and prefer is a very ironic reflection of the fact that the poor are not as good as the pet dogs of the rich.
<h1>Clue Four: Discuss kindness</h1>
Kindness is spoken of several times in the film, elevating the theme to the discussion of the human side. The mother said: "Rich people are not rich but very kind, but rich so kind." If I also had so much money, I would also be kind, very kind. ”
In fact, Mrs. Park is superficially simple, but before giving Ki-woo a few pieces of money to give Ji Woo a commission, she says that she has increased her salary, while President Park says that it is only a test drive to make Kim drivers relax, but secretly takes a coffee cup to test the driving level.
There is also a hypocritical side under the surface of the gloss, just like the golden driver said, "Rich people and children have no wrinkles on their bodies." The mother said: "Money is like an iron, ironing everything out." ”
The film also shows the kindness of poor people, such as the fact that the golden driver worries about whether the driver who was framed and squeezed out will find a job, and the mother's failure to refuse the request of the housekeeper who was framed and dismissed to enter the mansion on a rainy day, which is a manifestation of the softness of the heart and the discovery of conscience.
<h1>Clue 55: The problem of crossing the line</h1>
President Park mentioned that the Kim driver did not cross the line, but when asked about still loving his wife, because it was a privacy issue, he was uncomfortable at the moment and did not care, and the second time kim driver deliberately asked whether he loved his wife, it was a provocation.
He wants to resist, he wants to cross the gap between the poor and the rich, his daughter is stabbed, his son is injured, his wife is fighting the murderer, all of which stimulate his already fragile nerves and impact his sanity, and he stabs President Park to break through the shackles of fate as a poor person.
<h1>Clue Six: Stark contrast</h1>
The contrast between the mess in the home after the dismissal of the nanny and the two nannies cleaning the mansion in an orderly manner reflects that the rich are "parasites" who depend on the poor;
The irony of the contrast between playing games on the lawn in the slightest with a rain tent purchased in the United States under heavy rain is very strong in contrast to the people whose basement home is completely submerged and leads to living in the gymnasium like refugees;
The Ji Woo family and the former housekeeper husband did not prefer to live as a "parasite" in the first place. They all mentioned the "cake of the past", they had all struggled before, and compared with the fact that they lived in the basement by pitting others and living in the basement, the living conditions of the bankrupt and laid-off families reflected the social problems in the general environment.
"Parasite" This movie depicts the bankrupt poor who live in the basement of President Park's house, as well as the Ki-woo family who rely on President Park's family for job opportunities, they are all "parasites", but the film does not only refer to the poor parasitism and dependence on the rich, but also has another meaning, director Bong Joon-ho said: "The rich also depend on the poor to take care of, drivers, nannies, washers, private cooks, so 'parasites' can also be called those rich people." ”
Therefore, at the level of society as a whole, the poor and the rich are "parasites", which have the meaning of taking what they need, but also reflect the cruelty of reality and the weakness of human nature.
Overall, this is a good movie, and it has also made Zhao Ruzhen, proved her acting skills, and let her wear back the clothes she took off one by one!