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Parasite


SubliminalHorn

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On 11/2/2019 at 7:31 PM, Reynolds Woodcock said:

Update: best movie I’ve seen this year. Go see it

Me too - caveat, first movie I've seen this year.

I went in mostly blind, went with my young adult kids - they wanted to see it. All I read was that it was a dark comedy, that seems like a fairly accurate description.
Would recommend to others, unless they are prejudiced against sub-titles.

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I love the movie.  

Spoiler

 

There are some good Youtubes on the way it was shot.  My favorite deals with the use of lines in the shots, and how it separates rich and poor, until the lines are crossed.  I think the trailer shows one with the original housekeeper waking up the Madam. There is a line in the window that separates them, until she claps to wake her up.  What a weird shot to set up, and shoot that way, but it works with the husband's reference to "not crossing the line." 

The difference in how the rain affects the families was great.  For the poor, their entire home was covered in shit.  For the rich, she appreciated how the rain just wipes away all the pollution.  

 

 

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On 1/27/2020 at 2:35 PM, Wally Fairway said:

Me too - caveat, first movie I've seen this year.

I went in mostly blind, went with my young adult kids - they wanted to see it. All I read was that it was a dark comedy, that seems like a fairly accurate description.
Would recommend to others, unless they are prejudiced against sub-titles.

dark comedy?  never laughed but did smh quite a few times at how over the top they built their world.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Same thing happened to me.  I thought it was a good movie, but it's over-hyped due to the foreign angle.  If it were an American movie, it wouldn't have received nearly as much acclaim.  


Another vote in this camp. I liked it but I went in expecting something that would compete
with Once Upon a Time... tonight while I watch the Oscars. Sadly, I wI’ll not be rooting for it tonight.
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On 11/1/2019 at 10:19 AM, Hank Scorpio said:

Don’t read any reviews or watch the trailer. Going in blind is the best way to see it. 
 

 

Agree completely. I was expecting it to be one thing and it took a completely different turn. It has to win Best International Film tonight.

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Watched it last week. Didn’t know much about it going into it other than it was getting some buzz including an Oscar nomination. Enjoyed it but didn’t feel blown away by it.

Probably my 4th or 5th favorite movie of 2019 and kinda surprised to see it win Best Picture tonight. It’s possible my expectations were too high based on the positive reviews, otherwise people see more in it than I did.

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I haven't seen all the Best Picture nominees, but this one was head and shoulders above the ones I have seen (Joker, Ford v Ferrari, 1917, One Upon a Time, The Irishman). Irishman is #2, but this one is such a clear #1.

Click for too many thoughts

 

Kim kills Park because he's been made to suffer and be humiliated his whole life for his poverty and his powerlessness. He and his family are stuck under a dining table while the rich man talk's about Kim's disgusting smell and fingerfucks his hot wife while they role play lower class life for sexual arousal all while Kim hides like a roach, exactly what his wife calls him and predicts he would do before the doorbell rang; the Kim's life is a mockery to the Parks, and the Parks aren't even malicious about it, they're childlike and unable to see anything outside of their walled garden. Kim's daughter is dying on the lawn and Park literally repulses and holds his nose after being near a poor person.

His daughter is dead because of the fucked up class structure that left them bumming wi-fi and eating a corner of a piece of bread for breakfast.

Does Park "deserve" it? Deserve's got nothing to do with it.

Do the Kims deserve their poverty? Do the original housekeeper and her husband? Did the fired driver and the fired servants before that? Do the citizens in the poor area deserve to get flooded? 

None of them deserve any of it, that's the point.

Is Park's death more tragic than the Kim daughter's death? No. Did Jessica "deserve" it because she lied about art therapy or set up the driver? How many careers did Park crush to get where he is? What devastation has he wrought? Is he a better person because he doesn't smell?

Material inequality makes us base; makes us animals. There's no justice. What would justice even be?

The turning point of the film is when Kim's wife starts to call the police on the old housekeeper. Kim's wife is in her airs because she is imagining herself as superior. The old housekeeper calls her "sister" and seeks solidarity with her but Kim's wife refuses it in pride, ignoring the truth (they ARE sisters in need, they ARE both poor and vulnerable) in order to try and secure her place and deny the reality underneath the drunken fantasy they were living with the Parks gone).

Had they come to an arrangement before the other family members fell down the stairs, they could have continued scraping by an undignified existence under the unaware boot of the Parks.

Their only hope for survival (and even thriving) was class solidarity, was to NOT fall prey to the desire to secure a higher position by subjugating their fellows (the Kims did that to them first, then they humiliate the Kims in revenge).

Once class solidarity is betrayed, they're as good as dead.

I know this is a very Marxist reading, but I think it's pretty clear.

The upper class literally being above and the lower classes literally being below... it's beating you over the head.

"Deserve"... lol

Edited by bad_teammate
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My wife had a much more charitable reading of it than badteammate (shocker).  She pointed out that the Parks weren't bad people -- they didn't intentionally hurt anyone -- but they were ignorant of the suffering that was going on around them, which I think is the main cause of this political schism that we currently live in. 

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18 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

My wife had a much more charitable reading of it than badteammate (shocker).  She pointed out that the Parks weren't bad people -- they didn't intentionally hurt anyone -- but they were ignorant of the suffering that was going on around them, which I think is the main cause of this political schism that we currently live in. 

I agree with this.

Something I loved about this is that it's not childishly about good people vs. bad people.

The difference between the Parks and Kims is material.

When the Kims are all drinking while the Parks are camping, the father remarks that the Park wife is "Rich, but still nice" and the Kim wife corrects, "Nice because she's rich. If I had all this, I would be nice, too."

Of course the Parks loathe the smell of the subway/poor people; we all hate signs of poverty partially because it reminds us of the tenuousness of our existence. Kim's wife does the same thing when the old housekeeper is physically beaten up, begging, and vulnerable.

The material conditions make animals of everyone.

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19 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

My wife had a much more charitable reading of it than badteammate (shocker).  She pointed out that the Parks weren't bad people -- they didn't intentionally hurt anyone -- but they were ignorant of the suffering that was going on around them, which I think is the main cause of this political schism that we currently live in. 

I don't think they were ignorant of people's suffering.  They grew beyond it.  You can't save everybody. This is a Korean filmmaker not an American. 

All Koreans remember hard times.  Maybe that's why they let go of the suffering of others.  They've learned to not waste energy on things that they can't control.  

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On 2/8/2020 at 10:14 AM, mdmost said:

Watched it last night and really enjoyed it. Cinematography was excellent. Need to check out the director’s other films.

Would really recommend Memories of Murder (based on the true story of Korea's most infamous serial killer) and Mother. 

Also, if it's your first introduction into Korean film movies like I Saw the Devil, Man from Nowhere, The Chaser,  A New World, Train to Busan are all great movies to watch.

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On 1/26/2020 at 1:47 AM, Al Czervik said:

Saw it today and it was great. I would watch it again with recent releases like Uncut Gems and 1917.  
So many questions and observations made in this thread makes the film more intriguing.  Catching the pre-movie Birth Movies Death at Alamo gave a little insight to the director for me as I had not seen any of his films.  Go in with an open mind and prepare to be shocked/surprised and not disappointed. 
 

side note: the ‘wealthy’ Mom was hot as balls. And her hot Mom friends that were invited over for the party.....oh myyyyy. Makes Al want to relocate South of the 38th parallel.  Al like watching the LPGA for a reason. 

You can see "more" of her in some of her past films. 

The Servant 

Obsessed

The Concubine

I used to watch her in a couple of dramas and variety shows so I was pretty shocked to see her in those movies from what I saw of her personality.

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I watched it last night and thought it was great. It's one of those kind of movies that you think about more and more and with each thought realize how good it really is. Hard to say if it's best picture but I wouldn't argue about it. With how movies are being made today it's hard to find a clear Best Picture. They're not big pictures like Dances With Wolves, The English Patient, Out of Africa, The Last Emperor, Lawrence of Arabia. Kind of disappointing. 

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5 hours ago, Buzzrock said:

For some reason the one moment that sticks with me most is when basement guy was shown coming up the stairs in the past and freaking out the kid. That was some creepy shit.

 

4 hours ago, PRONG HORN said:

 

Basement guy is Parasite.

That's actually just badteammate peeping out of the cloakroom

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We checked it out last night after the Oscar domination.  Really good...better more that I think of it. I don't think it is best picture winner worthy though...to me that deserves a movie with really great acting.  This just...seemed like anyone could have played these characters.  

Someone asked why the "mr kim" stabbed mr. park...I think it was out of a combination / culmination of things. Mr. park treating lower class like shit in subtle ways...he wasn't a huge asshole but still saw himself above them.  He was just yelling at mr. kim to do his job...demanded the keys...then when he winced at the smell of the basement guy it set off mr. kim recalling how the Parks both talked about his strange smell also.  Mr. kim's family just had their place flooded, and all that the Parks are worried about is how rain removed pollution and preparing for a bday party. Mr. Kim felt defeated and acted out...especially after holding his dying daughter. Just a big FU to the Parks.

 

Also I just realized same director did Snowpierecer!  lol Loved that movie when I blind purchased it years ago.

 

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On 2/10/2020 at 10:16 PM, Beau Vine said:

My wife had a much more charitable reading of it than badteammate (shocker).  She pointed out that the Parks weren't bad people -- they didn't intentionally hurt anyone -- but they were ignorant of the suffering that was going on around them, which I think is the main cause of this political schism that we currently live in. 

Your wife is right. 

ecp2hhwc7k741.png

Edited by Hank Scorpio
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I loved it.  Loved that it started out as one movie, and turned into another without the contrived "shocking twist".  My wife didn't like it at first...but at the end thought she wanted to watch it again because she felt like maybe she wasn't open enough to it.

Of course this had been on my radar since my father in law wanted to get my mother in law(who's full Korean from Seoul) to see it.  She liked it too.

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Would really recommend Memories of Murder (based on the true story of Korea's most infamous serial killer) and Mother. 

Also, if it's your first introduction into Korean film movies like I Saw the Devil, Man from Nowhere, The Chaser,  A New World, Train to Busan are all great movies to watch.
Just watched Memories and that was also amazing.

Thanks for the rec.
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On 2/11/2020 at 5:48 PM, AngryDragon said:

Would really recommend Memories of Murder (based on the true story of Korea's most infamous serial killer) and Mother. 

Also, if it's your first introduction into Korean film movies like I Saw the Devil, Man from Nowhere, The Chaser,  A New World, Train to Busan are all great movies to watch.

Mother is outstanding.  Demonstrates love. 

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Wasn't surprised it won best picture after I saw it over the weekend, given its theme.  

I know it wasn't the message I was supposed to take away from the film, but the biggest impression it made on me was a reminder that human defects of character live in all of us, rich or poor. 

 

 

 

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On 2/15/2020 at 11:09 AM, Hank Scorpio said:

Your wife is right. 

ecp2hhwc7k741.png

I've traveled throughout India and Nepal.

We don't have poverty in the USA.  Not compared to those places, nowhere close.

And we're as capitalist as it gets.  If there's a better solution I'm all for it, but no one's found it yet.

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