Parasite (Korean: 기생충; Hanja: 寄生蟲;

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > Parasite (Korean: 기생충; Hanja: 寄生蟲;

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

Watched this last night, it was amazing. Not going to spoiler my thoughts because I think we are past the statute of limitations for that and honestly if you haven't seen this movie you've already read way too much, go see it!

My wife pointed out that the Kims' big "scam" was getting hired to do regular jobs, so it was cool to see that mentioned on the first page. Even regarding Jessica the fake art teacher, mostly what Mrs. Park honestly wants and what a kid that age even would need is someone to babysit them and do art with them, and she does that just fine.

I think one thing that's been undersold is how much the Kims were actually responsible for "losing" the housekeeper and driver their jobs (as well as how much of the Parks' crime is just simple dopey ignorance). They certainly play on the Parks' class biases to get these two fired, but what they actually do is pretty minimal. Jessica simply takes off her panties in the car and this has Mr. Park immediately jump to the totally reasonable conclusion that his driver has a fetish for ejaculating in his boss's car seat and is doing so with a meth addicted poor woman. Mr. Kim convinces Mrs. Park that the housekeeper has loving TB (can you think of a better "poor people" disease?) with very little argument. Both of these scenarios could have been pretty easily resolved/avoided by them just talking to their employees; especially in the case of the illness, while there should be an expectation of privacy there is at least the pretense that with a child in the house that the housekeeper would provide a doctor's note.

There's a lot more the Parks do which is beyond just them being nice but clueless rich folk. They fetishize the poor and Mr. Park is obsessed with "crossing the line" but this is kept purposely vague and mostly seems to be "don't do anything to annoy him or make him think you don't offer him total respect and deference". Someone earlier mentioned that they prioritized their fainted child over their stabbed employee, but they also ignore their housekeeper literally still in a life or death struggle, while Mr. Park tells Kim essentially to stop dicking around and get the car.

Flying Zamboni posted:

This was the best movie I've seen this year by far.

This does an excellent job showing the ways that capitalism can dehumanize you. The man in the basement is very much representative of Mr. Park's ideal employee: a man out of sight and out of mind who he doesn't have to talk to and who invisibly performs a menial task that removes a microscopic inconvenience from his life. The man in the basement has tied his identity so closely to his job that he has trouble remembering existing as a person outside of the basement.

This can also be seen in the moment at the party where Mr. Park and the father are hiding behind the bushes. Park gets frustrated when Kim is clearly not enthusiastic to be participating in their birthday skit. Park is upset because Kim is unintentionally reminding him that he is a person that still exists outside of his function as his employee.

This is an excellent post. The scene with Mr. Park and Kim behind the bushes really stuck with me and I wanted to add some more thoughts on it. Mr. Kim is being reflective -- I read it as him thinking about family in regards to their tragedy with the flood as well as the basement dweller's predicament ("you're trying your best too, you love her after all") -- but Mr. Park's immediate instinct is to jump to "we're paying you for this, I own you".

*apologies for using the romanized names and family names, I'm usually bad with names to begin with and the Korean names mostly slid off me except for Da-song who was discussed a good deal

# ¿ Nov 13, 2019 18:24

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 02:41

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

Flying Zamboni posted:

I haven't yet watched the video so maybe it mentions this but the part of the aftermath of the storm that jumped out at me was the mom telling her friends over the phone that the impromptu party was to move past Da-song's "trauma" from the previous night. It's a ludicrous way of describing having to cancel a camping trip especially in comparison to what the Kim family and their entire neighborhood went through at the same time.

She also talks about how the rain washed away the pollution which, well...

# ¿ Nov 15, 2019 04:51

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

Captain Jesus posted:

Hovewer, getting the middle aged housekeeper fired (and making her pretty much homeless) by exploiting her severe allergy is horrifying. The Kims were in the wrong here in any conceivable way. Three of them had a job at that point so there was no pressure to make the mom the housekeeper. They got greedy, which led to their downfall.

I still feel like this greatly overstates the Kims' actual power in this situation, how much they "got" anything to happen. Purposely triggering her allergy is scummy as hell but Mrs. Park is still the one who fires a long trusted employee for being sick (with a stereotypical "poor" disease no less) without even attempting to verify. The Kims might have thought their actions would lead to her homelessness, but Mrs. Park is operating from the same logic while also thinking she has a deadly disease which she also might now not be able to afford proper treatment for.

Again, a lot of people seemed to have read the Parks as just being gullible simpletons who will believe anything, but what they believe is very specifically: that the servant class is essentially a bunch of pimps, crack whores and lepers.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2019 14:57

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

Captain Jesus posted:

I agree that Mrs. Park is guilty of what you said in this situation (I didn't mean to imply that she was in the right to fire the housekeeper or that the Parks were somehow innocent) but that doesn't exonerate the Kims. They were acting with the intent to get the housekeeper fired and without regard for her health or well-being. If she went into anaphylaxis and died they would be liable for murder. The Kims and the Parks both have a separate kind of responsibility for the outcome.

My point is that exploiting horrible rich people is good but intentionally loving over your fellow working men while doing so is bad.

Yeah I for sure get that, I just think the power the Kims actually have is effectively limited to spreading salacious rumors. They were confident it would work and they turned out to be right because of their knowledge of society, but their schemes could have very easily crashed down around them with even basic communication.

Also a key theme of the movie is how difficult that class solidarity is when you're basically being pitted against each other to the death (in the logic of the movie quite literally). Look how quickly the "innocent" housekeeper turned on the Kims when she got some power over them -- even tho pushing the send button would have meant her own downfall.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2019 15:26

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

RichterIX posted:

Edit: this made me think about something else-- the housekeeper is basically "old poor" servant class, having been with the house through two owners. She can't even recognize the usurpers as being of the same class.

lol yup, she's like "we appreciated the Mozart and poo poo and all these scumbags did is drink their booze" while she massages her unbathed basement husband

This is such an incredible, multi-layered movie, goddamn

# ¿ Nov 15, 2019 23:12

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

Kangra posted:

The context for what happens at the end is that they believe their son is about to die if they don't get him to a hospital in 15 minutes. There is at least a moment of sympathy in that Park actually asks for the keys instead of ordering the driver to take him. It's at least a mitigating factor, along with the shock of what just occurred, especially since the appropriate course of action would be to call an ambulance (which admittedly we don't see anyone doing). Not only that, but Da-hye is the one who saves Ki-woon's life. Those are actions of ignorance and selfishness, and arguably the last one is even laudable.

As for the situation with their previous employees, I find it a little hard to judge them for this as harshly, since it's the most farcical part of the film. We see the mother literally following a script in the TB conversation, which seems to take away her agency. There are other ways to interpret that, but it seems so deliberate that I come down on the whole effect being to signal to the audience that maybe they have less culpability than we might think.

The offense is because it happened in their car; if they had done this in his bed, it'd be more equivalent. I thought that he even asks why it couldn't have been in a cheap motel or something. Still gross since we know they kept the panties, not gonna argue with that.

Even if it wasn't totally stupid for them to think that a seizure will lead to death within 15 minutes, it's not a trolley problem situation where they have to choose one. They can do multiple things, as you even point out with Da-hye single handedly saving Ki-woon. There's a bunch of people with cars there who can grab Ki-jeong and subdue the mad attacker (one does try) but past a certain point they all gather around Da-song and prioritize his safety (and their own) over nearly all the Kims. Park even initially does order Kim to drive before he sees that he isn't responding and starts yelling for the keys; like instead of telling Kim to pick up Ki-jeong so they can all go to the hospital, he just ignores her plight entirely.

As for the driver's firing specifically, it's not just that they fire him for having sex in their car (which btw he didn't, and which they don't do much work trying to actually confirm) it's that their theory of what happen is a bizarre cartoonish stereotype of the poor. They believe he had sex with a crack whore in their car as a fetishized slight against Mr. Park. None of these details are present in the Kims' plans, it's just how they view the working class: as perverts, drug addicts, and disease carriers.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2019 20:58

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

Well I mean as a few people have already implied, the more important thing to the Parks is the appearance of being luxury staff. Mr. Kim puts by far the most effort into actually doing his job well but he's kind of a weird guy with a milk smell so he faces the most scrutiny.

Also in a lot of cases the Parks don't need the help of the Kims, which is the very definition of luxury. In the case of Da-song he is obviously not some precocious artistic genius who needs an actual art tutor. What Mrs. Park really wants is a babysitter to keep him out of her hair, but she's deluded herself into thinking that it's something more important. Ki-jeong is doing her actual job perfectly even if she's BSing the illusory part.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2020 17:40

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

Hand Knit posted:

Someone posted earlier in the thread that Da-Song is also just acting out from lack of attention, and Ki-Jung is able to "succeed" as art therapist because all she needs to do is properly spend time with him.

Yeah the big thing that visibly impresses Mrs. Park isn't that there is a marked improvement in his paintings or whatever, it's when he is quietly and calmly doing his work and answers politely when Ki-jeong asks him something. She gets this look on her face like "omg he's behaving so nicely, what an improvement!" and it becomes pretty clear what she actually wants isn't some fancy art tutor but basically just a babysitter, which Ki-jeong is doing perfectly well.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2020 17:32

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

That kid does not need art therapy he just needs someone to pay attention and do stuff with him for five minutes, and Mrs Park straight up says she doesn�t care about her daughters grades she only cares about having a prestigious tutor

# ¿ Feb 14, 2020 01:38

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

The Kims are bad tho for sure, but they�re also stuck trying to claw their way up in an utterly broken system, the daughter lying about art is like the least of their crimes by far

# ¿ Feb 14, 2020 01:45

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

thefncrow posted:

The comparison I�ve liked and been using:

Parasite is anti-capitalist.
Knives Out is Woke Capitalism.

A weirdly common sentiment seems to be, roughly, "Capitalism sure would be great without all these capitalists running around ruining things"

# ¿ Feb 18, 2020 23:08

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 02:41

Guy A. Person: May 23, 2003

oliwan posted:

my most successful thread ever, and I forgot all about it

I am infinitely glad I read your OP and didn't continue reading the thread before I saw the film. I don't usually care about spoilers but it was entirely worth it to go in totally cold

# ¿ Feb 20, 2020 19:04

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > Parasite (Korean: 기생충; Hanja: 寄生蟲;