Rari
Cloud Drama
This review may contain spoilers
A cynical, satirical, burlesque portrayal of glaring disparities between poor and wealthy in society
This is quite the interesting drama, I was prompted to watch it by the extreme publicity and international hype that it's received since it won the coveted Palme D'Or.
Storywise I'd say there's nothing out of the ordinary about this story ( I mean the implied and overt conflict between the rich and poor) the ingenuity comes in with the way the simple subject matter of socio economic disparity between societal strata is tackled. The way a straightforward tutoring job of one family member morphs into the entire poor family of mother, father, son and daughter being employed by the same wealthy family. What struck me the most was the entitled mindset of the poor family, their apparent lack of remorse or shame for their dishonest actions; my attention was drawn to the unusual portrayal of poor people as unscrupulous and dishonourable, this was particularly evident in the behaviour of Kim Ji Sung (the daughter) After watching many a KDrama where poor people are portrayed as principled, hard working and honourable, this aspect of the story was jarring. In this case poverty was debilitating to the extent that they were prepared to do anything to overcome it.
The portrayal of the wealthy family in my opinion was nothing out of the ordinary, just your average rich people living in their comfortable and nice smelling bubble, a bubble where poor people are there as a mod con to make their lives even more luxurious and fuss free. This was excellently portrayed in the scene where Madame calls from the car on their way from the aborted camping trip and instructs the maid that she should start preparing "ram-don" so that as they literally walk into the house, the ram-don will be just ready to eat.
The collision of these two worlds is what makes this movie fascinating; three separate groups of people each with their own set of expectations on what they were hoping to get from their interaction with each other. The fact that the reality falls short of the expectation is what creates the slow motion train wreck that is this movie.
The cast and acting are superb. special mention goes to Cho Yeo Jung who plays the wealthy and luxuriously oblivious wife, mother and madame of the house. Song Kang Ho is brilliant in his role of the poor husband and father who is so inured to poverty, he has developed a sense of helplessness and resentment which culminates in his crass over-reaction to events at the end of the movie, over-reaction in the sense that had he not already reached boiling point, things may not have gotten so out of hand, the same applies to Moon Gwang's husband Oh Geun Sae.
I didn't pay too much attention to the music.
Rewatch value is quite high 9/10 as I would like to see what other observations I can make on a second viewing.
Overall I give it a 9.
Storywise I'd say there's nothing out of the ordinary about this story ( I mean the implied and overt conflict between the rich and poor) the ingenuity comes in with the way the simple subject matter of socio economic disparity between societal strata is tackled. The way a straightforward tutoring job of one family member morphs into the entire poor family of mother, father, son and daughter being employed by the same wealthy family. What struck me the most was the entitled mindset of the poor family, their apparent lack of remorse or shame for their dishonest actions; my attention was drawn to the unusual portrayal of poor people as unscrupulous and dishonourable, this was particularly evident in the behaviour of Kim Ji Sung (the daughter) After watching many a KDrama where poor people are portrayed as principled, hard working and honourable, this aspect of the story was jarring. In this case poverty was debilitating to the extent that they were prepared to do anything to overcome it.
The portrayal of the wealthy family in my opinion was nothing out of the ordinary, just your average rich people living in their comfortable and nice smelling bubble, a bubble where poor people are there as a mod con to make their lives even more luxurious and fuss free. This was excellently portrayed in the scene where Madame calls from the car on their way from the aborted camping trip and instructs the maid that she should start preparing "ram-don" so that as they literally walk into the house, the ram-don will be just ready to eat.
The collision of these two worlds is what makes this movie fascinating; three separate groups of people each with their own set of expectations on what they were hoping to get from their interaction with each other. The fact that the reality falls short of the expectation is what creates the slow motion train wreck that is this movie.
The cast and acting are superb. special mention goes to Cho Yeo Jung who plays the wealthy and luxuriously oblivious wife, mother and madame of the house. Song Kang Ho is brilliant in his role of the poor husband and father who is so inured to poverty, he has developed a sense of helplessness and resentment which culminates in his crass over-reaction to events at the end of the movie, over-reaction in the sense that had he not already reached boiling point, things may not have gotten so out of hand, the same applies to Moon Gwang's husband Oh Geun Sae.
I didn't pay too much attention to the music.
Rewatch value is quite high 9/10 as I would like to see what other observations I can make on a second viewing.
Overall I give it a 9.
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