Parasite (new Bong Joon Ho movie)

very weird

PARASITE Black & White

"The film felt more realistic and sharp - as if I was being cut by a blade." Bong Joon Ho

New York
Walter Reade Theater, January 30
Francesca Beale Theater, January 31 - February 6

Los Angeles
Egyptian Theatre, January 31 https://t.co/HhRmyRrlJI

— NEON (@neonrated) January 23, 2020

He did a black-and-white version of MOTHER as well? Almost entirely black and white – there are maybe two minutes at the end that are in color.

had dinner last night with someone who told me they only saw one film last year and it was parasite but it was the best film they saw all year.

can’t argue with that logic tbh

I can't imagine watching this movie in black and white, I actually liked the color palette. I tried watching the "chrome" version of Fury Road some months back as well, and just couldn't get into it. Yet when Steven Soderberg converted Raiders of the Lost Ark into black and white, I thought that worked pretty well.

I don't really understand the purpose of these versions

Isn't the colour palette fairly important to this movie? The green of the lawn, the interiors like out of a glossy catalogue, the paintings.

Yeah ime particularly with modern films I feel like just switching a color film to b&w, no matter how well shot, almost never works. Its not just about color - if you knew you were shooting for b&w all kinds of different choices get made, different compositions, shot choices, editing. B&w Mother was not improved and I thought the 'chrome' Mad Max was an incoherent mess. Agree that the soderbergh b&w Raiders might be the only example I can think of where it was a good & interesting alternate take on the film.

I kinda agree; I thought color was one of the narrative tools delineating upstairs and downstairs. “The purpose,” I imagine, is selling tickets, feels comparable to a b+w comic variant.

Can’t even be mad about it tbh tho given that any bone I have to pick with Parasite has to do with its depth and not it’s memorable and beautifully composed visuals. I imagine most people will enjoy a rewatch... I know I did!

I tried watching the "chrome" version of Fury Road some months back as well, and just couldn't get into it

the chrome version of fury road is fucking amazing imo, makes the movie even more painterly

i don't see the point of this one though

loved this so much. the class warfare stuff worked very well. but ultimately i loved the jarring and abrupt shift in tone, even though from having read about it in advance, I knew it was coming.

definitely worth a rewatch. the last 5 minutes were heartwrenching.

the differing architectures of the neighborhoods might pop more depending on how they handle the contrast. texture is a lot more noticeable in b&w when it's kind of subsumed by color

i thought this was great, and then i went home and read this thread and i watched woman at war (h/t ulysses) and that was also great so i had a good saturday

woman at war is streaming on hulu btw!

glad you liked woman at war; i think it's highly underrated, especially given the outsize USA love and structural similarities to parasite.

the selfish giant is another, even more heartbreaking take in the same general world, bring your tissues.

there was an interesting parallel in the use of flooding (and expanding police/state surveillance) in both films that i thought was very otm

yep. both end with a very ambivalent "we are good and fucked but the human spirit might prevail?" message

i got more of that vibe from WAW, parasite has a note of hopelessness at the end

yeah I detected no optimism from the end of Parasite

I took the ending to be the revolutionary dream: to seize power and pull up the poor. The fact that it only exists in the mind of someone who is brain damaged isn’t great.

Or perhaps not. I guess he gets there within the system. (Sorry, baked)

(Ignore that, makes no sense)

i think parasite's ending is a massive bummer (the kid is never going to actually get the money to buy the house and the proletariat will never seize power from the bourgeoisie) but there's the hint of "if you can dream it, it's not impossible" in both. I mean, we do actually see them getting back together again!

yeah I took that scene to be a hallucination - "the best plan is no plan" and all that.

And I haven't seen it mentioned much but I also think Jessica/Ki Jung's death just underscored the hopelessness of it all. If there was anyone in that family that was going to make it, it would have been her.

the ending is a bummer because even if it's not a daydream, the entire movie has been about how a lifestyle like the park family's can only be achieved through the exploitation of others - if ki-woo does buy the house, it's a sign that he's become a more effective parasite, nothing more

agreed with all that.

idk anything about korean (or specifically s korean) culture but is the genuflection to the park family part of a commentary on a cultural block against collective action by the working class against the rich? (similar to american exceptionalism/bootstraps ideology)?

genuflection seems like it's required in these types of jobs for these types of people - when you work directly for someone who can fire you on a whim, better to err on the side of genuflection, particularly when you're working paycheque to paycheque

mr park being impressed by mr kim's ability to 'not cross the line' seems instructive

thinking more on the ending, it also highlights how difficult it is for people to think their way out of the system - all ki-woo can do is dream about being a beneficiary of the system rather than envision an alternative

Yeah, after all that's happened and all that he's seen, he's been conditioned to embrace capitalism and materialist aspiration.

That was exactly my reading of it, which plays into the doppleganger idea as well.

wrt the genuflection, I'd need to watch it again but there might be something there in terms of the previous owner being an architect (a great man who builds solid but beautiful things) and Mr Park being...well, I'm not sure what, I might have missed it but I thought he was some kind of executive at a firm called Another Brick. I couldn't decide if that name sounded more like tech or real estate, both would be apt

when we see him in his office he's looking at some kind of vr headset with his colleagues so i assumed tech

The elitist inscrutability of the Park’s work, thoughtless consumption, emotional fecklessness and their general stupidity are all intended to show the lack of meritocracy in the system i thought

I'm not sure I'd describe them as "generally" stupid, but I'd have to think about it. Min's emphasis on Mrs. Park being "simple" kept popping into my head throughout.

I do think there's a pretty basic "stages of capitalism" metaphor in the house being built/owned by a genius architect and then by a guy who makes VR

And then pretenders literally occupying the space!

the basicness of the metaphors are one of the best aspects of the movie imo - like yeah it's a great twisty morality tale, sure, but its underlying message is as subtle as a rock specimen to the back of the head

loved the cold read scene when 'Jessica' asks if something happened to the kid in first grade

the flooding scene was well done too.

that was amazing and it's wild that it was a big set!

lol at this wildly misleading french poster

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EKSMJR0XUAAXnlR?format=jpg&name=small

"oh, so it's like a generation family comedy, like Family Matters!"

Min's emphasis on Mrs. Park being "simple" kept popping into my head throughout.

I wonder about the word used originally. ‘Simple’ is a complicated word.

target audience for goop products imo

I first thought he meant 'simple' as in 'dumb', but as she developed later, I just took it more to mean "gullible and naive".

she's not a dumb woman, but way too willing to fall for ruses.

but right, the translation might also impact that

uncritical acceptance of anything that speaks to specific class markers

i like that it's never really explained why mrs park is slumped across the garden table unconscious when ki-woo goes to visit for the first time - just a weird unsettling little detail

I guess she’s not allowed to be a real person, to the point of inaction when her husband isn’t around.

presumed it was cause she was drunk?

or sure: just valium-era US housewife not there

she's doing something that a rich person would do: sitting in her beautiful garden while well dressed

it's the first clue that she doesn't really have anything to do, and when it's shown that her role is to make sure the right people are doing the right things for her children, it's all signifiers

yeah, it's most likely some kind of quiet substance abuse but it seemed a bit more strange on my first viewing because it comes right after she's been described as 'simple' - like what's really going on here

I figured it was equally possible she's just incredibly bored

I thought it was supposed to indicate she was struggling with depression or possibly mental illness.