MY IMPRESSIONS ON THE KOREAN MOVIE "PARASITE"

Being a lazy person, my Sunday afternoon nap is almost a sacred ritual for me ! https://fewidlethoughts.blogspot.com/2018/01/two-good-movies.html?m=1 is one instance when a movie affected my nap ! The movie was Satyajit Ray's "Apur Sansar". On Sunday, 05-Apr-2020, another instance occured when I missed my afternoon nap: on that day, my wife and I watched "Parasite", the Korean movie which was awarded the "Best Picture" Academy Award for 2019. We started streaming it at around 2:30 p.m. The next time I turned my neck to check the time in the clock behind me was more than an hour later, well past my usual nap time ! "Do you want to take a break?", I asked my wife. "No, let us watch the movie.", was her reply. So, we watched the movie at a stretch !

The movie is superb ! It deserves the "Best Picture" award.

The story is as follows: A young adult Ki-woo who stays in a basement in the poorer section of Seoul gets a job as an English tutor, thanks to his friend who is going abroad. His student is a girl from the highest echelon of Seoul society. Ki-woo has poor parents and an enterprising sister. He tells his student's mother that he knows an art teacher who could help her troubled son. His sister prepares well and manages to get the art teacher's role with a high salary.

The family conspires so that the driver and housekeeper are eventually replaced by the father and the mother. The entire family is employed at the rich family !

One evening, the rich family heads out for a camping trip. The poor family celebrate in the luxurious house of the rich owner. They get an unexpected visitor: the former housekeeper who says she has forgotten something in the house. While the rest of the family hides, the wife lets in her predecessor, with some trepidation.

Revealing anything more will ruin the movie. So I conclude by saying: The situation becomes more complicated when the rich family returns early due to heavy rain. Events progress quickly culminating in murders.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasite_(2019_film) is one link that reveals the entire story, but if there is plan to watch the movie, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND NOT TO READ IT. Instead, I would recommend reading https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/movies/parasite-review.html which is a review of the movie that I like.

My impressions on the movie "Parasite" are as follows:

• I begin with a pertinent observation that my wife made. "Where are the emotions in this movie?!", she asked me after the movie ended. It is a valid point: despite the comedy, multiple murders and finally tragedy, the display of emotions is extremely restrained. Unlike Bollywood movies where we see emotions being displayed over the top at times, in "Parasite", the display of emotions is subdued. I suppose this may be a cultural aspect: this was my first Korean movie. Probably, the way in which emotions are brought out in Korean cinema is simply different from what we see in Indian cinema.
• In the South Asian sub-continent, India and Pakistan are two countries which are always traditional foes. Over the years, the shared history between the two countries leads to an uneasy peace at best and has led to war in the worst case. "Parasite" shows us that the relationship between South and North Korea is somewhat similar. Despite the advancement of South Korea, the threat of North Korea is in at least some minds of South Korea. It goes to the extent that underground bunkers were built by some South Koreans. This is seen in the movie. It is only now that I realise that North and South Korea ; the former East and West Germany and of course India and Pakistan have a lot in common due to their shared histories.
• My friend stayed in Seoul for two years and has shown me photographs of his life there. I have read that broadband speed is the highest in South Korea. So I know that South Korea is one of the most advanced nations in Asia, if not the world. What "Parasite" shows is that this does not mean that there is no poverty in the country. Just as Mumbai has its Dharavi or Bengaluru has its pockets of poverty like Kalasipalyam, Seoul also has two extreme classes of people: the affluent and the poor. "Parasite" provides good insight into the lives of both classes. In particular, the trying conditions of the boy's family are brought out with humour in the first half and with sensitivity in the second, when a flood occurs due to heavy rain inundating the basement houses of the poor.
• "Parasite" pays a tribute to the Boy Scout movement. Morse code plays an important role in the movie.
• The characters in the movie have their traits. Ki-woo's father becomes the driver, replacing the previous driver by deceit but he asks later whether the previous driver would have found a new job. The character of Ki-woo's sister shows a lot of spunk as she creates a counterfeit educational certificate for her brother and also becomes an art therapist by looking up concepts on the Internet ! All characters have their personalities well defined in "Parasite".
• Cinema is a medium meant primary for the senses of vision and hearing. It is rare that the sense of smell can be demonstrated in a movie and even rarer when it becomes a trigger for key events. "Parasite" is one movie where this happens. The rich owner of the house associates a certain smell with his new driver. When the rich owner literally turns his nose due to the odour at a crucial point in the movie, it leads to an unfortunate event. I could never imagine that the sense of smell can become such a vital part of a movie. The director and story writer deserve a lot of credit for this achievement.
• It is unfair to categorise "Parasite" as a tragi-comedy or a black comedy. I have read reviews that term "Parasite" as such. I think that this is an unjust categorisation. "Parasite" is just a wonderful, sensitive movie. If I have to categorise it, I would call it "Drama" rather than "Black comedy" or "tragi-comedy".

There are many movies that are defined by their stories. Among the ones that I have watched, the stories in "Lucia", the Kannada movie (my blog post https://fewidlethoughts.blogspot.com/2013/09/review-of-lucia-kannada-movie.html describes my impressions on it) and "Kahaani" the Hindi thriller movie (https://fewidlethoughts.blogspot.com/2012/08/review-of-znmd-and-kahaani.html is my blog post on it) are ones where the story is the key element. "Parasite" is another such movie, to be appreciated for the skill with which the director Bong Joon-ho has narrated a superb tale !