We were planning on hosting a public screening of Parasite, winner of this year's Academy Award for Best Motion Picture (the first foreign language film to win that honor) on Thursday, April 9th.We can't do that now because of the Covid-19 shutdown, but the film is currently available on several streaming platforms for $5.99. So we invite you to watch at home (at your convenience) and join an Honorable online conversation in the comments section of this post.
Discussion starter: in what way does this film relate to any of the issues you've encountered in any of your Honors seminars
classes thus far?
How does the experience of watching a film like this at home compare to the experience of watching it in a theatre?
Whom do you empathize with most in this film?
What significance to do you attribute to the title? Is there more than one kind of parasitic behavior in this film?
If this film were adapted into an American context, would it change the film significantly if the poor family was African-American or Hispanic? What if they were immigrants? Would such a change supercharge the film's tensions? How would it affect the film's political impact? Is the film sympathetic to the poorer family or does it demonize them?
You are likely to have an immediate response to the film when you see it. Share that but also try to push through it. Let your thoughts simmer and come back to them later. If there are other comments, read and respond to them.
Tony Thoma writes: One of the things that sticks out to me about this movie is that it deals with many cultural issues for the people in the movie that you wouldn’t think apply to many people in the United States. You don’t think about people still having to deal with things we think are above us like flooding, hunger, and unemployment. It is clearly demonstrated in this film that there are underlying issues our society still faces today in our own country and in many counties across the world.
ReplyDeleteI was able to watch this movie in my dorm with friends who wanted to see the movie anyway, unrelated to honors class. This gave me a sense of false comfort that the things shown in the film could never happen to me or have very much effect on my daily life. I believe that watching this at home brings everything into closer perspective about how fragile our existence is and we may not have to worry about flooding but we are all one tornado away from being in a similar situation.
My immediate response to this film was mixed on multiple levels. I thought the last five minutes of the film was the best. The reason I think this is that we usually want the characters in a movie to succeed or have some kind of resolution. We almost get that when the screen goes dark around the father and son hugging as the father emerges from his tomb one last time. I thought the movie was over at this point, being a comedy more than anything else. Just a few moments later we are reminded that if you are brought up in poverty this is usually how you die and the hopes of rescuing his father are all but lost into dreams. I think this leaves a powerful statement about how so many people are locked into this dream of “you can get there if you work hard enough” which I find to be true most of the time. While yes hard work will get you far you still have to have resources at your disposal in order to get very far. When given resources this family flourished until there were no resources. Even with its comedic sense this film dives deep into character development, feelings, empathy and a reminder of societal problems. Truly a film worthy of recommendation.
Parasite is a movie that I will not be forgetting any time soon. The movie was amazing in so many ways, including the actors, sound, and filming methods. It was truly a work of art! What makes the movie so great is not only the surface aesthetics but also the deeper meaning of the movie. The prevalence of classism brought on by a poorly functioning capitalist economy is what stuck out the most. This accompanied with human desire and greed are the major factors that lead to the dramatic conclusion of the movie.
ReplyDeleteIn the movie, it was apparent the struggling family was desperate and willing to seize the moment when granted. This opportune moment occurred when the son, Ki-woo, was presented with the opportunity to take his friends job as a private English teacher. Ki-woo could have continued to be an English teacher and made an honest living. Yet, once he realized how naïve the wealthy family was, he devised a plan that would exploit the family for their money. This plan was symbolic with the title of the movie Parasite, as Ki-woo’s family was acting like a parasite to the wealthy family in order to obtain wealth.
The wealthy family was living a life almost oblivious to commoners. They lived in a house that was practically an art piece, had the money to do what they wanted, and spent their days planning events and special occasions. This resembled almost a utopian lifestyle when compared to average people in the movie. Additionally, the wealthy family viewed commoners as expendable. Their lack of understanding for the life of a struggling family and a disgust for their smell was what provoked Kim to murder the father of the wealthy family.
This shows how classism and desire for wealth leads to conflict between people. It was the desire for the unobtainable and the lack of understanding by the desired that lead to this conflict. The tragic events of the movie could never have transpired if the needy were not so malicious in obtaining their goals and the wealthy where more understanding of the society they lived in. Then again, if the characters were able to understand these issues and work through them in a healthy manner the movie would not have been as amazing as it was.
'Parasite,' a movie that won the Academy Award for the Best Motion Picture, this year, is the first foreign-language film to win such kind of honor. When I was about to start the movie, I saw the 'Korean film' written below the movie's title. I thought for a while- it is not going to be as interesting as I have thought because I would need to watch for subtitles the whole time. But, later, it was just the opposite of what I was thinking. The story caught my full concentration, and subtitles didn't even matter except for some parts. This movie shows us the reflection of Karma. The Kim family, in the movie, is poor and they tried to get the job after some lies and acting, in the Park family. Their intention was not wrong but their way of getting into the house of park family was not good. The Housekeeper of the Park family suffered somehow because of them and as a result of a bad way of getting into that house, the husband of the Housekeeper, later stab the daughter and son of Kim family. Losing the temper, Father of the Kim family stabs the knife to Mr. Park. One incident messed up various lives and it all started because of lies started for one single tutoring job. What I found the most interesting part in the movie is that the Father of Kim's family reaches the basement place after the murder he committed, where the husband of the Housekeeper used to live for some years. He just got that place to hide and live. He gives signs through the light hoping his son would find him one day.
ReplyDeleteThis movie is great, it has a new and a unique story and does not contain any remakes. It has shown the life from different perspectives, wealthy or poor, and also the result of action we commit.
Brady Pyle
ReplyDeleteParasite Questions
Parasite related to both of the Enduring Question classes I have taken. For my EQ 1 class, we discussed justice and how one can define it in many different ways. For example, The Ki-Woo’s family knew what they were doing to Da-Hye’s family was wrong, but they needed the money to survive and make life better for themselves. In the process, they found ways to make the driver and the housekeeper lose their jobs. This is not justice, because, in the process of making their lives better, they ruined other people’s lives. The housekeeper desperately needed to live there because of her husband.
I liked being able to watch this movie from home because I was able to pause it when I wanted, and I did not have it watch it all in one sitting. If I missed something a character said, I was also able to rewind and reread the captions.
I thought that watching a foreign movie would be too challenging, but I enjoyed it. Before watching Parasite, I was not aware of the movie's contents. The family could not find work. It shows unfortunate circumstances and shows how it is hard for people of little wealth and no recommendations to find work. The only reason Ki-Woo was able to be Da-Hye’s tutor was that his friend, Min, recommended him to the family. He was good at tutoring the girl, but the family would have never hired him if a wealthy college student like Min did not support him. Ki-Jeong was able to make it look like Ki-Woo was a college student. This family was very talented, but because of their social class, they were left with nothing, which is why they fought so hard to secure the jobs in Da-Hye’s household. I was completely shocked by the ending of Parasite because it shows how quickly the tables can turn for anyone. Ki-Woo’s family was on top of the world with the money they made from Yeon-Kyo, but it was taken in a second, and they were in more turmoil than they began with.
Parasite is a thorough analysis of expanding class tensions in today’s society. Whenever Ki-Woo is given the chance to tutor the daughter of the young park family, he slowly paves the way for his entire family’s infiltration into the Park household. Later in the film when it is revealed that the Kim family is not the only one in the shadows living off of the Park’s wealth, it is when the true meaning of the film’s title is clear. Initially, it may seem that the purpose of the title is to show the lower classes are taking advantage of the upper classes’ generosity and wealth.
ReplyDeleteBut it is my opinion that the creators of the film are trying to say something else, that the rich Park family are also acting as parasites to their poor employees. It is showing that the wealthy are only able to live comfortably by living on the backs of the poor’s labor. We see this in more subtle moments of the film, such as when it is shown that the former housekeeper’s husband turns on the lights as Mr. Park turns on the lights for him as he walks up the stairs every single day. Mr. Park doesn’t even realize that that luxuries he enjoys in his life is made possible at the expense of someone who is, quite literally, beneath him.
We see this today through the success of the wealthy only making it to the top at the expense of their overworked and underpaid workers. It is possible that some don’t even realize it, products that I may be buying here in the United States may going toward the companies that treat their employees as mere means to create more money. I believe one of the many things that this film is able to show is that the wealthy are able to live in a blissful ignorance of the hard labors of the poor.