Parasite (Korean: 기생충; Hanja: 寄生蟲;

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

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Just got out of watching it

My big takeaway from the movie: The poor are too busy fighting each other over scraps to cooperate in taking down the rich

There�s an amazing image where a poor dying woman barfs into a toilet and the immediate next shot is a poor young woman opening a flooded toilet that sprays poo poo water in her face.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2019 07:40

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 06:27

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

They�re parasites just like the poor. They use the working class to drive, cook and raise their children for scraps and treat them as disposable

# ¿ Nov 6, 2019 08:11

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

When the Kim daughter interviews the Parks she uses some very common textbook psychological tricks that psychics/mediums use.

My dad went to Yonsei U. I don�t know if it�s still the case but back in the day I think it was the second best school in Korea.

The fact that the Kim kids use American names communicates the idea that they grew up in the US or went to school in the US. Asians in general love sending their kids to the US for school. It�s a status symbol. This is very helpful in selling Mrs Park on her bonafides.

Speaking English is sort of the aspirational language of being successful

There�s a pervasive idea that things in the US are automatically better, an idea that Bong Joonho seems to hate as he has railed against this mindset in several of his movies

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Nov 6, 2019

# ¿ Nov 6, 2019 20:30

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

I�m curious what symbolic meaning his laughing has because that�s screaming symbolism

# ¿ Nov 7, 2019 19:51

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

I�m 99% sure it�s meant to be taken in the darkest interpretation possible (it�s a daydream and not a glimpse of the future) because who amongst us has not daydreamed about what kinds of nice things we�ll do for others when we�re rich and how many of those daydreams haven�t amounted to squat

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Nov 7, 2019

# ¿ Nov 7, 2019 23:07

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Looking over his whole filmography, somebody should put their hand on Bong Joonho�s shoulder and ask him if he�s okay:

- you can�t trust America to fix things for you
- you can�t trust other people to fix things for you
- you can�t trust people who love you to tell you the truth or do what�s in your best interests
- you can�t trust paper records to be facts
- you can�t even trust your own brain to distinguish what�s the truth

# ¿ Nov 7, 2019 23:17

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Movies that lie to you by presenting imagery are my jam.

If you have a strong stomach for torture and haven�t already, watch Audition.

Also recently watched Steven Universe. They fake you out so many clever ways with imagery.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2019 05:58

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Bong�s got us faded

Memories of Murder also has a fantastic last five seconds.

What other movies end on such a similarly great last five seconds? (Spoiler tags where appropriate, or maybe just post titles and don�t post the spoiler at all)

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Nov 8, 2019

# ¿ Nov 8, 2019 21:30

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Bottom Liner posted:

Might be stretching the five seconds thing but these come to mind. Mostly recent, but a few classics
code:
Inception

La La Land

Mother

Annihilation

The Mist

Whiplash

The Witch

The Favourite

The Shining (probably the best)

Call Me By Your Name

A Serious Man

No Country for Old Men

Planet of the Apes (maybe the most iconic)

Yea ok last 30 seconds is fair

# ¿ Nov 8, 2019 23:28

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3tw66BBdDw

Here�s the whole movie on YouTube for free officially

I had to think about it for a bit but I think it�s my favorite procedural of all time

# ¿ Nov 10, 2019 07:39

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

That was a hag lady from behind the dumpster in Mulholland Drive moment.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2019 07:23

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsrgL3kPgvo

Neat video pointing out a lot more symbolism and subtext I missed

Like, the ramen-don was a mix of high class and low class

The rain destroys lower class homes but for the rich it means no camping trip and the kid still camps in the back yard

# ¿ Nov 15, 2019 01:42

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Was the housekeeper sketchy? It seemed whatever lying she did was to save her sick husband, which seems reasonable

# ¿ Nov 15, 2019 08:13

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Some background on Korea:

After the Korean War, South Korea was a sort of revolving door of democracies and dictatorships up until the mid 80�s after which it became a stable capitalist democracy. Older folks remember the poverty of the war and SK was a third world country until there was a capitalistic boom in the late 80�s early 90�s with the government dumping tons of money into investing in various industries.

This kind of gets hinted at in the ending of Memories of Murder where you see the main character at his new job as a salesman. He�s riding the new entrepreneurial wave of the 90�s.

If you�re in your late 30�s early 40�s you might remember SK was famous for student protests during the 80�s because of the corruption of the government, which also gets touched on in Memories of Murder

Rich and poor lived in close proximity when I remember it. I dunno how it is now, but in the 80�s it was common for anyone with a decent house to have a housekeeper/nanny who was either live-in or spent the whole workday cleaning the house and raising the kids. There was a large laborer class.

My grandfather was a professor, which was prestigious back in the day, so my grandparents had a live-in housekeeper.

I think... because of the explosion of the middle class in Korea, laborers like the Kims might be less common now? Only for more well to do people like the Parks?

Nowadays I�m guessing SK is starting to have more segregation of rich/poor? The upscale district of Gangnam didn�t exist until recently.

Korea caught up enough that they�re experiencing the tech boom alongside the US now. The govt dumped money into high speed Internet beyond what the US even gets now and that�s why you can easily imagine a tech CEO of a startup like Mr Park

Side note: the SK govt dumped tons of money into the film industry in the 90�s and early 2000�s, even investing 50% of production costs, which is why there was an explosion of amazing art house films then. Korean movies were CRAP before the 90�s.

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 12:13 on Nov 16, 2019

# ¿ Nov 16, 2019 12:02

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Here�s another good one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezwSfT7sXO0

The reflection with a line separating him from his rich self is brilliant

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Nov 16, 2019

# ¿ Nov 16, 2019 22:47

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Doctor Reynolds posted:

Such a great film!

I work part time at a theatre showing it, and listening to the commentary of people as they leave has been infuriating. People are so bad at watching stuff, it's maddening. "That wasn't very sci-fi", says one. "I think the parasite... was society!" says another. "That ending came out of nowhere!" "I felt so bad for the wealthy family!" "I think they were dead the whole time!"

ugh

Those all sound like things me and certain friends would say sarcastically coming out of a theater

# ¿ Nov 19, 2019 11:11

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

If there�s anything Koreans are good at, it�s acting crazy.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2019 09:09

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3594750/neon-acquires-bong-joon-hos-2003-film-memories-murder-theatrical-blu-ray-release/

Neon has picked up Memories of Murder for theatrical and Blu-Ray

# ¿ Nov 20, 2019 19:33

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

That�s a gooooood question

# ¿ Nov 23, 2019 01:09

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

mobby_6kl posted:

Watched this a couple of days ago. It's a good movie, but you could make the exact same one where Parks were Party bigwigs and the Kims are some peasants.

It matters a lot that the Parks and Kims are people you see in every day life in a capitalist country.

Like, people seriously saw Chernobyl and thought to themselves "good thing this sort of stuff only happens in Communist countries"

# ¿ Nov 27, 2019 23:58

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

YaketySass posted:

Tagline: "You're always someone else's parasite."

It's actually a joke poster parodying cookie cutter French posters for comedies:

The real one looks like this:

Tagline: "Spot the odd one out", or literally "spot the intruder".

Well, it�s still a real (official) poster

# ¿ Nov 30, 2019 19:58

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

You mean the blood on his face? He was slamming his head on the light button to try to give the kid a Morse code while his wife was dying

# ¿ Dec 18, 2019 06:30

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

I think it�s exploitation themed but consider some details that give it some shape:

The Parks looked down on the driver because he (not really) had sex in their car and was doing drugs, then they got off on appropriating his supposed criminality for pillow talk

The Parks had a skit about the savagery of the native Americans and yet their son enjoys dressing up as a native and camping in a teepee

The teepee is Made In America by the white people who genocided the people who lived in teepees

Those in power gently caress over the powerless and pick over their bones for cultural scraps that they can appropriate for their own enjoyment

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 09:26 on Dec 18, 2019

# ¿ Dec 18, 2019 09:06

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Sometimes you gotta for the flow of dialogue, 1:1 translations are always way awkward

# ¿ Jan 8, 2020 03:17

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Prince Myshkin posted:

Enjoying how many oblivious rich people are praising Parasite.

https://twitter.com/bearbeare/status/1213576269968953351?s=19

Wonder how many poor people realize it�s about them too

# ¿ Jan 11, 2020 05:16

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

I don�t know, portraying people doing something bad and against their own self interest is a kind of roundabout way of broadly advocating an action isn�t it?

# ¿ Jan 13, 2020 23:06

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Ceramic Shot posted:

So many good posts in this thread. Any interpretations on the daughter's reaction to her knife wound? While her dad puts pressure on it, she kind of pushes him away, laughingly saying something like, "Stop. If you push it, it hurts."

My takeaway was that she�d rather do something self destructive because it felt better than putting pressure on her wound, kind of like the poors fighting each other over scraps rather than cooperating

quote:

Also, I couldn't quite grasp the importance or any meaningful interpretation of the prosperity-bringing stone, but maybe it's something like "the palliative of hope" or ironically "the aggressive uselessness of metaphors in helping to solve these problems."

The stone represents good fortune to the boy but I guess to us it represents the pursuit of fortune or the hope for fortune. It�s used to kill a competitive poor person. It�s a huge irrational burden he carries at times when he should have abandoned it.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2020 08:45

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

ruddiger posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTCqW9kJ5lM

Well well well...

Apparently the melody of Jessica�s mnemonic device is based on a song called Dokdo Is Our Land

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgtYinVy44Q

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liancourt_Rocks

quote:

"Dokdo" and "Takeshima" redirect here. For other uses, see Dokdo (disambiguation) and Takeshima (disambiguation).

The Liancourt Rocks[a] are a group of small islets in the Sea of Japan. While South Korea controls the islets, its sovereignty over them is contested by Japan.

quote:

Sovereignty over the islands has been an ongoing point of contention in Japan�South Korea relations. There are conflicting interpretations about the historical state of sovereignty over the islets.

South Korean claims are partly based on references to an island called Usan-do (우산도, 于山島/亐山島) in various medieval historical records, maps, and encyclopedia such as Samguk Sagi, Annals of Joseon Dynasty, Dongguk Yeoji Seungnam, and Dongguk munhon bigo. According to the South Korean view, these refer to today's Liancourt Rocks.[citation needed] Japanese researchers of these documents have claimed the various references to Usan-do refer at different times to Jukdo, its neighboring island Ulleungdo, or a non-existent island between Ulleungdo and Korea.[d] The first printed usage of the name Dokdo was in a Japanese log book in 1904.[35]

Other key points of the dispute involve the legal basis that Japan used to claim the islands in 1905, and the legal basis of South Korea's claim on the islands in 1952.[citation needed]

Anyone more knowledgeable about Korean history wanna chime in and share if there�s any deeper meaning to Japan and Korea fighting over these rocks other than the most obvious interpretation

# ¿ Jan 20, 2020 12:05

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Steve Yun posted:

The idea that the Scholar Stone is a reference to Dokdo is pretty tempting, considering what other scholar stones look like:

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1...Q4dUDCAc&uact=5

edit: this is a longshot, but I'm guessing that the stone is being compared to Dokdo island; like Korea and Japan fighting over an insignificant tiny island in the ocean, the dream of wealth is fought over by multiple parties

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Jan 21, 2020

# ¿ Jan 21, 2020 14:13

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Watching Parasite a second time is great, I picked up on a lot that I didn't the first time (or forgot), like

- The pizza shop hired the Kims to fold boxes because their part time employee has been flaking out a lot lately. Kiwoo suggests that they fire the guy and hire him instead. Already they're seeding the idea that in order for the poor to succeed, they have to take opportunity away from another poor person

- Min never got to see the inside of Kiwoo's house before, it sounded like Kiwoo would always find excuses to not let him in

- Min never saw Kiwoo's parents before, and it sounds like Kiwoo was making up excuses like his parents were sick

- Min is giving Kiwoo the rock because they have too many at his grandpa's house. They're filling up the annex, the study, etc...

- Kiwoo asks Min if he likes his student. Min pauses before laughing, a foreshadow to Mr Park pausing when asked if he loves his wife. Holy poo poo this is good

- Mr Park has an English first name, Nathan, which is used in all the English language magazine clippings on his walls. There's an America-worship the movie is making fun of throughout .Mrs Park gives Kiwoo the name Kevin, and picking up on this he brings his sister in with the name Jessica

- It's funny that the Kims fretted about faking the diploma but Min who was the one who went to a good school is the one who suggests faking a diploma in the first place, devaluing the education he achieved. Mrs Park even says she doesn't care about the diploma. She doesn't even care about results because under Min's tutoring, the daughter's grades didn't really improve. She just wants someone who is "at Min's level" like having a tutor there is just a status symbol or something

- this is a real long shot but I noticed Mrs Park smiling, looking off in the distance and being lost in thought for a second when she talks about Min and it made me wonder if Min was banging her. There's no solid clues about this but the way she gets wistful just talking about him really made my ears perk up.

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 06:02 on Jan 22, 2020

# ¿ Jan 22, 2020 05:36

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

When Mrs Park is introduced, we see her through the window and there�s a seam in the glass representing �the line� between the housekeeper and Mrs Park, rich and poor.

This has been pointed out several times here. However:

When she fires the housekeeper, there�s no line between them because Mrs Park has �crossed the line� to fire her. The poor are not allowed to cross the line but the rich are.

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 07:33 on Jan 22, 2020

# ¿ Jan 22, 2020 07:30

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Holy poo poo

The kids mentioned that Mr Kim worked at a taiwanese cake shop as one of his odd jobs.

Geunseh, the poor guy in the basement owned a Taiwanese cake shop that went out of business. The poor are just constantly switching places between poor and more poor

:aaaaa:

# ¿ Jan 22, 2020 09:33

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

The housekeeper calls the Kims neanderthals.

Neanderthals, the competing branch of humans that lost out to homo sapiens

# ¿ Jan 22, 2020 09:38

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

I would like to file a complaint with whoever did the translation of this movie. The mom tells the kids to use Kakao Talk once they get a wifi signal, but in the subtitles they wrote WhatsApp. Complete garbage.

edit: Also, the gently caress about ram-don. They say chapa-guri, which is when you mix a package of Chapagetti (a brand of jiajiangmien) and a packet of Nuhguri (spicy noodle soup)

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 10:08 on Jan 23, 2020

# ¿ Jan 23, 2020 09:23

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Apparently Taiwanese cake shops exploded in South Korea a few years ago, but then collapsed because there was a news report that claimed they were made with substandard ingredients, and Koreans being the trendwhores they are, the whole trend died instantly

https://blog.lewislee.net/2019/10/parasite-understanding-underlying-tragedy-of-taiwanese-cake-shop/

So earlier I suggested that maybe Kitaek worked at the shop owned by Geunse, but considering that it was a nationwide phenomenon, maybe they were at different shops and the point was that they were both hurt by the same industry bust

# ¿ Jan 23, 2020 10:17

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Steve Yun posted:

edit: Also, the gently caress about ram-don. They say chapa-guri, which is when you mix a package of Chapagetti (a brand of jiajiangmien) and a packet of Nuhguri (spicy noodle soup)

FUUUUUUUCK I just realized.

A lot of other articles about Parasite said it was a mix of high class and low class, cheap noodles and expensive steak.

But there are TWO noodle packs in there.

The steak represents the Parks. The chapagetti and the nuhguri, both cheap instant noodles, represent the Kims and the poor couple.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2020 10:23

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

A detail I really liked was that when the housekeeper comes back, she has bruises and cuts all over her face. They never explain it. And I'm glad they never do.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2020 10:38

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Geunse says the loan sharks are still after him, but they never explicitly said they roughed up Moongwang

# ¿ Jan 23, 2020 11:38

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

It said Seoul National University in the dialogue

Anyways

More Korean notes

When Kiwoo first tutors Dahye, he lectures her about plowing through an exam and says she needs to have vigor. In the audio he says gisaeng for vigor, which is the first two syllables of gisaengchung, parasite.

Gisaeng is also strangely, the same root word for guest. So a guest chamber is called a gisaeng dongmul. They're not parasites, they're guests!

In Korean geneology, siblings are all supposed to share one syllable out of their two syllable given name. Whether it's the first syllable or second syllable alternates every generation (based on the father). So among Kiwoo and Kijung, their first syllables are shared, and if Kiwoo has kids they will share the same second syllable. Also, the Ki in Kiwoo and Kijung is the same syllable as the Gi in Gisaengchung, so in the American remake of Parasite on HBO I expect the kids to be named Parker and Paris.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2020 14:28

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 06:27

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Okay here's a wild detail

Koreans for a very long time have been insecure about their eyelids. Because of western standards of beauty, Koreans want to assimilate and so they get their single eyelids surgically modified to have a fold and look more western:

It's so common I think almost all of the Korean girls I knew in high school had it done (if they didn't naturally have it already, which was most of them)

But did you notice something about Park Sodam, the girl who plays Kijung?

Bong Joonho must've gone out of his way to cast someone who didn't get double eyelid surgery done.

Why?

Because the character of Kijung would probably be too poor to get the surgery.

edit: nevermind, debunked by Anonspore

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Jan 23, 2020

# ¿ Jan 23, 2020 14:42

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

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