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Kate

hell, where all the cool kids are

Kate

hell, where all the cool kids are
Parasite korean movie review
Completed
Parasite
3 people found this review helpful
by Kate
Feb 21, 2020
Completed
Overall 9.5
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 9.5
Rewatch Value 9.5
This review may contain spoilers
This movie made me uncomfortable, scared, annoyed, speechless, confused, angry, and I think it's amazing. Truth to be told, this review was written for myself, to make sense of the movie and how I see it, not for others. There are so many different interpretations everyone can have, I don't think anyone is truly wrong with how they view it.

I went into this movie without knowing much about it. I have seen the trailer once and that was it. Miraculously, I was able to avoid any spoilers, and I'm sure it made the experience even better.

While „Parasite” is often described as dark comedy, the comedy aspect died for me pretty quickly. The whole set up for every family and the situation made me feel extremely anxious. For the longest time I felt scared for the Park family, seeing Kim's as more questionable people. It frightened and frustrated me how easily they were able to slip into the house and daily lives of Parks. The closer we got to the ending, I was starting to see more flaws in the rich family too. The biggest one was their ignorance about anything not related to their life. They lived in the bubble, being scared of even rumors that might break it. That's why they didn't even try to find out the truth about the driver and Moon Gwang. It was easier to just cut them off and pretend like the problem never existed.

What makes the movie so good, was the idea that there are no good characters here. Everyone is twisted to some extent. Kims are willing to cross a lot of lines to gain a better life, but they never put the effort into making a realistic plan. Gi Taek does not act like the head of the family, and in my eyes, he was the one dragging them down. He seemed like the least skilled of them all, failing all his businesses. Both Gi Woo and Gi Jung had amazing potential that was killed by the environment they were living in - both economic and social. They adopted the existence of their parents, dreaming of a better life, but not striving for it, which can be clearly seen in one of the beginning scenes when they barely put any effort while working for the pizzeria. Even the ending shows how twisted the view of reality Gi Woo has. He does not have any meaningful plan, he just wants to be rich. He doesn't want to create, has no idea what he can offer others, that would make them want to invest in him. He has no idea. He just wants to be rich to buy that house. The dream that is impossible to reach. He does not want a better life, a life out of poverty. He wants to be rich, buy the house that became his obsession and live there with his family.

Moon Gwang and Geun Sae had the most parasitic-like mentality from all the families. Geun Sae accepted his life the way it was, in the dark basement, not even being part of the society. It was far more like an existence, as passive as possible. Both he and his wife did not find the situation that strange, keeping it as it was for 4 years. They got used to it, so they didn't really try to change it, until the external situation forced them into action. Even then, they didn't even have a plan. When they've got the upper hand over Kims, they didn't try to come up with an idea out of the situation, they just enjoyed their time in the house, making fun and treating Kims like less of a human. There was no planning, no future in their minds.

Parks are living in denial of reality. Their biggest sin (how much I hate this word) was their ignorance. They didn't deliberately try to hurt anyone, but they were not aware of the suffering of others. It simply didn't even cross their minds. My biggest struggle while watching the movie was placing Yeon Kyu somewhere in my judgment bin. She was a good person extremely unaware of everything that was going on around her. She was oblivious about the advantages she had based on her social and economical status. She didn't try to hurt anyone, but she also didn't try to help and be concerned. All she cared about was herself and her family. It never crossed her mind that the choices she made might have tragic consequences for people around her.

The problem of economic differences and inequality is huge and truth to be told, almost impossible to solve. The idealistic idea of taking away from the rich and giving to the poor is "nice", but would never solve anything. After some time we would end up with exactly the same social structure as we have today. Some people who were on top would not be able to climb back, some who were poor, would be able to invest in their life. But we would still end up with people barely surviving, and the rich getting richer. Some people would be able to produce goods that others want to buy, while some would have no idea how to invest the money to have a long term profit from it. The movie presents an amazing social commentary on the topic that just breaks my brain when I try to think about it. At the end of the day, the money made Kims, Moon Gwang and Geun Sae do despicable things, treating each other like bugs and dogs, not worth even being called humans. It also allowed Park's to ignore it all and not care about the painful events of people who, to some extent, are part of their life.

I think it's also important to add how amazingly shot the movie was. Even just the beginning scene gave me chills. The stunning scenery we've got, the symbolism behind some scenes. It all made a perfect picture that will hunt me for some time.
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