What's up everybody welcome to found flicks on this ending explained although we're going to be looking at a lot more than the ending we're looking at my favorite movie from 2019 the surprising best picture winner at this year's Oscars parasite honestly figured 1917 would get it. You know how us Americans love our wars. Imagine my surprise, they picked a Korean movie about the crushing nature of capitalism instead.
How about that? In the thrilling tragicomedy Parasite, we follow the struggling Kim family, who form a relationship with the well- park family and soon their greed along with some healthy class discrimination threatens to undo them all not only did this walk away with Best Picture the first foreign language film in the Academy's 90 plus year history but also Best Director original screenplay and international film pretty much sweeping all the major categories in which it was nominated which in my opinion was completely deserved although it didn't get any acting nominations which is unfortunate I feel at the very least patriarch Kang Ho-Sung deserved a win or at least domination here as well. This dude's been killing it for years in a bunch of awesome Korean features like Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, The Good, The Bad, and The Weird, The Wonderfully Odd Vampire Tale Thirst, in addition to several of writer-director Bong Joon-Ho's previous works like Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer, and The Host.
Thanks to the two working together previously, they've obviously established a rapport over time, and his casting is perfectly suited for Bong's artistic vision. yet again, giving a multifaceted as well as heartbreaking performance. Ah well, I guess they'll have to settle for a measly four Oscars instead.
Sorry Bong! And if you haven't seen any of the movies I just mentioned, do yourself a favor and watch them all immediately. You'll thank me later.
Or maybe wait till after the video. Yeah, do that. So is the movie really worth all the acclaim and awards it's been getting?
Absolutely! Because the movie's story tackles a lot of important big things going on in our society. telling it in a universal sense that everyone can relate to regardless of where they call home.
Unlike, say, something like Knives Out, which I feel like got way too much credit, and it was very black and white about who we were supposed to be rooting for. While Parasite, on the other hand, plays in much more shades of gray with our represented drastically different social classes. And as a result, is a much more complicated and compelling tale, painting it so that no one is blatantly good or bad.
Real life isn't that simple. Parasite also amans- manages to nearly seamlessly hop between a multitude of different tones and styles. As Bong himself referred to it overall, a tragic comedy, managing to infuse real tension and suspense at several points, while also being incredibly witty and quite amusing. And the whole film ultimately does fall somewhere in between comedy and tragedy, the stakes developing to a dizzying height as things get deeper and deeper for the always scheming Kims.
Suffice to say, there is a lot to look at with this one, so let's dive into the fascinating world of Parasite, breaking down the movie's overall story, looking at the important themes explored throughout, in addition to looking at the looking at the potentially hopeful yet unsure ending and what it truly means for our family. Our first scene immediately dives us headfirst into the desperate difficult world of the struggling Kim family. Even their semi-subterranean apartment speaks volumes, about as low as you could possibly go without literally being a mole person. It illustrates just where they stand in the scheme of society.
Things are in a constant state of turmoil, and this time it's due to their neighbor changing their Wi-Fi password, which they need to access apps for menial jobs. Thanks to patriarch Keetak, once he's forced awake, he has a plan. Go all around the apartment with his phone until they find signal.
getting Salvation in a little spot in the bathroom with their raised toilet, which is a really unfortunate layout to be sure. I don't even know how you, I guess if you're short, that would be all right. As we come to understand, this is a typical day in the Kim's family life, barely scraping by, and any time their situation seems insurmountable, they depend on Keitech to come up with a plan to at least temporarily solve their problems and give them any kind of hope. Say, when the streets are being fumigated above, Sister Kiyan goes to close the window. Dad suggests to keep it open.
Hey, free pest control. And plus, they do have a stink bug problem in the apartment. Although they are certainly being beaten down by outside circumstances, there is another layer that they seem to be a bit unmotivated or lazy.
When doing a gig folding pizza boxes, they obviously go way too quickly and most are unusable. It's like about how to do the least work for the most reward. Even with a 10% deduction, the Kim family is in good spirits thanks to food and reconnected Wi-Fi. But their celebration is tainted by a drunken man urinating in the street above, really putting a damper on the evening, which unfortunately also seems to be a regular occurrence.
Although the Kim's family entire trajectory is about to be Permanently altered, an old school friend of Ki-woo's, the college attending Min, rolls in on a little motorcycle and has a certain air about his presence. Even his sister noting that college students have a real vigor to them, unlike her brother. Ouch, thanks sis.
He bestows them with a present from his grandfather, which has some importance to the story's theme, what's known as a scholar's rock. These are naturally occurring rock formations that have been appreciated by Chinese scholars for centuries and is said to grant good fortune to whoever possesses it. And it appears to already be working. Min offering Ki-woo a life-changing job, tutoring a young daughter for the wealthy Park family as he's going abroad for his studies. Min has designs on his young pupil and intends on officially asking her out when he returns from classes.
And not trusting his frat bro colleagues knows his old friend Ki-woo will keep things strictly professional while he's gone. Although there is a potential hiccup, Ki-Woo will have to pose as a college student for the job. But Min reminds him he's actually quite intelligent, and assures him he'll have his recommendation anyway. And Ki-Young also has some impressive skills of her own, slapping together a quite legit-looking transcript on a gaming lounge computer.
Even her father impressed by her forgery skills. Before heading off for his interview, a newly emboldened Ki-Woo tells his dad that this is only a temporary forgery, as he intends on going to college. His dad beaming. his son is starting to brew big plans just like his old man. Arriving at the nearly invisible park estate from the lowly roads, we see its place on an ever-sloping upwards incline, a clear contrast to the Kim's home, which is also completely barricaded from the outside, almost creating its own personal bubble around the grounds, entirely separated from outside world interference, including the poor like the Kim's.
And apologies for the interruption, but I have to commend Bong here yet again, as this entire house was a set constructed to his specific needs. Honestly had no idea that this was all built and was blown away he actually had the whole design in mind all the way from the script stage. Similar to someone like Robert Eggers, Bong really goes out of his way to have complete control over every aspect of the cinematic world he creates.
Pretty impressive stuff. Here we also get our first example of the idea of crossing a line that shouldn't be crossed which comes to have extreme prominence in the story. The passed out Mrs. refuses to wake up until housekeeper Moon Gwang loudly claps in her ear, startling her awake. Something that probably wouldn't be okay to do to your employer. Also seeing here a more symbolic line being crossed, that in the actual window itself.
After a quick house tour, he meets this somewhat loopy Mrs. Park, and the interview is mostly a formality. Not even bothering to look at his faux transcript, because he has men's recommendation after all. What else do you need? Actual credentials? Pshaw.
But it's not all smooth sailing. Young-Kyo wants to supervise the first lesson with her daughter. If he's not up to snuff, then this opportunity will be over before it began. He does perform admirably, coaching Young-Dahai on the importance of keeping your cool during testing.
which even though it almost concerns Mrs. Park, ultimately impresses her, forking over a wad of cash, adding even more for inflation. Oh, is that how it works? Sure, sounds good, lady. She also assigns him the American name Kevin, which I will also refer to him as from now on to butcher the Korean language as little as possible going forward.
Turns out Da Hai's younger brother Da Song has become quite a handful and finds that he's unable to focus. She shows off a painting by the boy, and Kevin plays off being impressed, guessing it's a picture of a chimpanzee. Z, which she corrects is actually a self-portrait. And without missing a beat, he pretends to be bowled over by the boy's obvious artistic genius.
She's searching for a teacher for him as well, which gives Kevin a devious idea. Suddenly, he remembers he has a perfect candidate, actually his sister, who he calls Jessica, talking up her impressive, completely fake art school background and unusual but effective teaching style. Just like that, he's wormed his sister into the park residence as well, which causes some concern for DeHuy.
thinking that Jessica must be his girlfriend. And it looks like a little crush is already developing here. And they even go in for a kiss. Well, that didn't take long.
No, Kevin, what about your bro? The one thing you weren't supposed to do. was fall in love. Just as with Kevin, Mrs. Park hopes to sit in on her son's lesson, but Jess acts very authoritatively and doesn't allow her to join them, which we see Mrs. Park has some trouble with, her leg shaking uncontrollably not knowing what's going on upstairs. And to her surprise, when she sees Jess and Dasong, he's already been molded into submission.
giving her a proper bow when excusing himself. Dang, she is good! Her whole art therapist persona is taken to another level when giving a bullshit analysis of de Sang's newest painting. That something must have happened to him back in the first grade.
Mrs. Park gasping at this massive truth revealed. And there's more cause for concern. A so-called schizophrenic corner in the drawing.
The same scrawl showing up in each of his different works. Jessica says she can help with this, but of course it's going to cost extra. which is no problem for me.
Mrs. Park calling herself honored even just for the help. This is all especially hilarious when Jess later reveals she made it all up after a simple google search on art therapy showing how easily manipulated Mrs. Park really is. So it's not surprising at this point when she jumps on the chance for another new position to open up with the family, planting your underwear in the back of their private driver's car when given a ride home. Mr. Park later discovers them, although he is a bit confused how someone would leave their panties behind if having sex in the backseat of a car, rather than an earring or something like that. Regardless, he crossed a professional barrier, instructing a horrified Mrs. Park to invent some lame excuse to dismiss him with discretion, and keep this all under wraps.
Luckily, Dad does have some experience as a valet several years ago. mentioning for the first time that it was after his cake shop went bust. This seems to have been another in a long string of ill-fated plans cooked up by Keitech, although the cake shop specifically seems to have been what began their overall downward spiral into inescapable poverty.
She's easily set up to introduce her father. When a still-concerned Mrs. Park questions Jessica about the driver and getting her ride home, she doesn't reveal any details, but still is disappointed to lose him and liked having a hip young driver. Jess considers the alternative.
that an older, more experienced driver would actually be better. And of course, she knows just the guy. Mrs. Park is totally into it, and even references how all this has been done via recommendations, which she actually prefers, believing a circle of trust is being created. Or, in this case, the exact opposite. Now there lies only one more, yet also their most difficult obstacle to complete total infestation of the household, the long-living housekeeper Moon Gwang.
So long that she's been there, in fact, she worked for the previous architect that built the house, who recommended her to the parks. Yet another recommendation that they blindly accepted. So she's not going to be leaving without some difficulty. And luckily, they discover a solution.
During a lesson with Dahai, she mentions wishing she could have peaches, but Moon Gwang is allergic. And an intricately scripted plot is born to make her look deathly ill with tuberculosis, triggering her allergy with finely shaved peach dust, along with a well-timed selfie including her in the hospital in the background, Keitech feeling obligated to tell the missus all about it, overhearing an alarming phone call about her condition to Mrs. Park's distress. How could she bring TB into their house?
One more peach fuzz attack and some hot sauce on a tissue were all the evidence she needs to get rid of Moon Gwang, quietly and without drawing any attention once again, which we understand are the longstanding rules of the house. They don't want to cause a kerfluffle. Just brush the bad thing out, and they'll hire someone else.
This time it's Keetek who drops a card to Mr. Park with the name of a supposedly exclusive maid service company. And voila, meet the new housekeeper, mom bringing the kids some fresh fruit, including the previously forbidden peach. Impressively, they have been able to all cheat their way into employment they could never normally dream of.
But the problem is that they are all complete frauds, and their balancing act takes on new levels of difficulties now that they're all working for the family, and having to still pretend that they are not related themselves. Their first tell is something extremely subtle, but also comes to have tremendous importance and meaning. Their smell! Little Dasong smells each of the parents and identifies that they smell the same. It's almost like he's smelling the poor on them.
Somehow he can smell that they don't truly belong here amongst the higher class. In spite of the ridiculous charade that they've made their lives, they are happy for their success. Keetek pointing out that a similar position to his would normally draw hundreds of college-educated applicants, showing us how rigged the system really is. Unless you get one of those sweet, sweet references, you're lost in the mass, just like they have been up to this point.
The odds are always exponentially stacked against your success. Though they refuse to stand for the same shoddy treatment from their pissing pal, sprinkling water on him and the man fights back with his own water stream, then gets completely doused by a bucket from key tech. This moment, feeling like they are liberating themselves from the constraints of poorness they've been burdened with and they soon get to live the high life they believe they deserve when the parks go on a camping trip for dasong's birthday and the kim family make themselves right at home in the massive estate helping themselves to expensive liquors and bubble bass yeah sounds like a good time kevin on the other hand takes the opportunity to get some inside dirt on his lady friend diving into her personal journals and when mentioning dahai reveals his feelings for her to his family and tells them he intends on asking her out before a university which is verbatim what men's plans were Clearly, Kevin is jealous, in a sense, of his well-off friend, and is sort of seeing himself try to step into his shoes.
As the family goes into a fantasy future, where Kevin marries to Hai, and this becomes their in-law's house. Keetak approves of her, calling her rich, but still nice. But Mom clarifies that she's nice because she's rich, feeling she'd be nicer too if she had money, to which Dad agrees. Rich people have money to iron everything out, as we've seen. They're surprised by a ring at the doorbell.
It's the previous housekeeper, Moon Gwang. who is looking a little worse for wear, ringing the doorbell repeatedly until an annoyed Chung-Suk answers. She claims to have left something in the basement, requesting to be let inside, and despite Kevin's worry that this isn't part of the plan, let her in anyway, her descending towards the darkness of a lower level.
After waiting for a while, the family urges her to check, finding Moon Gwang bizarrely straddling the wall in a cabinet. Jung-suk finds something wedged and dislodges it, causing the cabinet to swiftly slide, dropping Moon Gwang, and revealing a heavy-duty metal door leading even deeper below to an underground bunker. More layers again, folks. Levels and levels and levels. She explains that it used to be all the fashion for the ultra-wealthy to have their own bunkers, in case of North Korea attack or what have you.
But the architect was later embarrassed of it and didn't tell anyone else, so only she knew about it. and never mentioned it to the Park family either. However, even more dumbfounding, there's a dude living on a cot down there, Moon Gwang's husband, who has been holed up down here for four years. Jeepers, dude! When the house builder moved to Paris, she snuck her husband down here to escape his debtors.
Coincidentally, he lost everything opening up a cake shop of his own, using loans from loan sharks, the end result being living in a bunker for four years to escape his debts. Wow, I guess the lesson here is DO NOT try to open a cake shop in Korea! You're totally screwed even if you are confident you have the best sweets around like Gwen say here, poor bastard! She tries to appeal to Chung-Suk that they have nothing and hopes for her to continue leaving him food down here, but the tables turn when the rest of the family pratfall down the stairs, Kevin absentmindedly calling Ki-Tech his dad, completely blowing their cover, which the crafty Moon-Gwang gets a recording of on her phone, shifting the power to her and her basement-dwelling husband.
The couples then take control, making fools of the Kims and threatening at any moment to send the damning video to Mrs. Park and do them all in. When they get lost in a previous memory of their own time using the house, the family seizes the opportunity, everyone grappling at each other for the phone. Jess dumps peaches all over Moon Gwang, taking her out, allowing Kevin to get to the phone and delete the video. Well, that's one crisis averted, as a new, even more alarming one occurs. The house phone rings.
It's Mrs. Park, explaining that they're on their way back as the camping trip got rained out and will be home in eight minutes, requesting some ramen when she gets home. They gotta clean all this shit up and deal with the couple and make some dinner in eight minutes. Woo wee! Things are getting tense around here. Kitak deals with the couple, dragging them to the bunker and binding their hands and feet.
And the siblings barely make it to hiding spots as the family comes home. Moon Gwang makes a break for it, getting all the way up the stairs and nearly seen by the parks. But a well-timed kick from Chung Sook sends her reeling backwards, tumbling down the stairs and smashing her head into a wall.
Ooh, that's not good probably. After sealing the door, Keetek gets to know his new buddy a little better, and it's obvious that being trapped down here for years has taken its toll, singing a little song about Mr. Park being home and banging his head on respective switches to flip on lights above as Mr. Park ascends the stairs. He in fact has great respect for Mr. Park, saying that he's been feeding him and giving him a place to live, even though he didn't know who the hell he is, and even does messages via the lights in Morse code, trying to reach the Boy Scout Dasong with his blink. Keetek wonders how he can live in these conditions, but he points out that many live semi-underground and hey, this ain't much worse, which of course we know the Kims do, showing there's a small and very slippery slope between their two situations.
While upstairs, conversation turns to the important episode from first grade that Mrs. Park feels changed her son's behavior, seeing a ghost on the night of his birthday. Dasong crept downstairs that night and gorged himself on cake. catching a glimpse of a certainly frightening figure, which is actually Gwen Say sending the boy into a seizure episode.
Although, to be fair, he does look actually pretty damn terrifying here, and to the boy, seeing a random dude living in his basement would probably be just as scary as any ghost. A well-timed argument allows Kevin to flee, all three now getting trapped under the living room table, and they're almost immediately discovered when Dahai starts texting Kevin, the messages ringing out from right under the table. But when a forlorn Dasong wants to still go camping despite the weather, sets up his tent out in the pouring rain, his parents decide to stay on the couch to watch over him, leaving the Kim stuck for the foreseeable future and totally unable to make a peep or else get caught.
Another important telltale sign nearly gives them away. Mr. Park picking up a faint hint of Mr. Kim smell, clarifying it's not an old man smell per se, but something else, like an old radish or boiled rag. He again brings up the concept of crossing the professional line, which he says Mr. Kim does not, but unfortunately his putrid smell does, which also reminds him of the smell of people on the subway, saying people who ride the subway have a special smell. Again, what is being described as basically the smell of poor on people like Ki-taek, these people would never be this close generally.
It's only by being in very tight quarters like the car, or well, inches away hiding under a table, that these two very different classes are close enough to actually smell each other. And for Mr. Park, the smell of- Poor is certainly a foul one. This oddly intimate and voyeuristic moment is taken to uncomfortable new levels when the Parks decide to get frisky on the couch. And almost immediately, the normally demure Mrs. Park is demanding for the right way to rub her nipples.
Counterclockwise, mind you. And when Mr. Park suggests she put on the panties they found in the car, she weirdly moans for her husband to buy her drugs. Which is all quite shocking and again a much more deep level of intimacy than anyone should really be witness to.
Not that the Kims really have a choice in the matter though. Waiting until they fall asleep, they make their escape. After their small taste of the lap of luxury which was immediately dashed by reality, they are symbolically forced to venture all the way back down to the depths where they seem to belong. Here really showing us in detail that literal descent from rich to poor. A never-ending descent of staircases ever downward.
The trio stop for a moment to ask about the captured couple, Jessica wondering what their plan is. In a still delusional, Kevin considers, what would men do? Them scolding him as his well-off friend obviously would never find himself in this situation.
But not to worry, because as usual, dear old dad has a plan, and they continue even further down. Although Kevin is hesitant to take the final steps back towards poverty, and their situation is unbelievably even worse, finding the entire level where they live flooded with sewer water. And unfortunately, their window was left open, their entire apartment now filled with gross sewage. If only they had been home instead of getting into all these insane charlatan shenanigans. Their lives here basically destroyed.
They take what little valuables that matter, a few old medals for key tech, and of course, the scholar stone for Kevin, just floating around amongst the shit. That thing really doesn't seem to have brought them the best of luck after all. Yet poor, eternally deluded, and still hopeful Kevin believes it has power. Back in the bunker, Moon Gwang has managed to get herself out of her restraints, and sets about trying to free her husband, using her teeth to tear up the tape. But the effects of getting knocked down the stairs has given her a concussion, informing him that it was Chung Sook that kicked her down the stairs before passing out and soon after dying.
And now her husband has a new vendetta against the Kim matriarch. The rest of the family isn't faring much better, having to take refuge at a local gym with other displaced families, and Kevin asks what his dad's plan was, hoping as usual he's cooking up something. But Keetek has finally had his spirits broken, lamenting that the only kind of plan that never fails is no plan at all, bleakly concluding that nothing fucking matters.
Kevin is still hopeful in the power of the stone, confident that he has everything figured out, and believes the stone is actually following him. His disillusioned dad thinking he just needs to get some sleep, in spite of their increasingly precarious situation, the family get back to work at the Park household, and are put into overtime when Mrs. Park decides to have an impromptu party, seeing here in a more substantial way the Park's family's lack of respect for their employees, getting Chung-Suk to put together an elaborate battleship-inspired table setup single-handedly, even chiding her for being too loud when moving the tables. While upstairs, DeHai and Kevin are busy swapping spit, But he finds himself distracted, looking out the window longingly to the well-to-do people gathering below, and wondering how they can look so natural, and questioning if he actually fits in here. She gives a cursory nod in return, but he knows he doesn't belong, and has other matters to tend to, pulling out his favorite rock and descending into the basement to take care of their problems.
A still-broken Keetak is given further humiliation via Mr. Park, enlisting him to dress up like an Indian for a little skit of sorts for Dasong. Getting Jess to bring out his cake, the duo will pop up and spook her, allowing Dasong to come out and save the day. Keetak is not feeling it, and gets put in line by his boss, telling him to shape up and consider this to be part of his job.
Keetek looking totally dead inside having to humiliate himself for cash for some kid's amusement. Kevin sneaks down into the basement, at least at first, until dropping his rock down the staircase clattering loudly all the way down. Down the stairs he comes across a hooded body, not noticing an embittered Gwen Say getting him around the neck with a lasso from behind.
Kevin gets loose, Gwen say in hot pursuit, and he almost makes it, so close, getting to the top of the stairs before getting yanked back by the rope again. And he has the good fortune of getting a skull bashed in by the Scholar's Rock. Yeah, this thing really does not seem like any kind of good luck to me. Gwen say leaving a bleeding and spasming Kevin helpless on the ground. He isn't done yet though, grabbing a kitchen knife and heading outside to the party.
His arrival is perfectly timed with a little skit for Daesung, Jessica breaking through the crowd carrying his cake. Out of nowhere, Gwensae attacks, stabbing her in the chest with a knife. But it's Chung-suk he's really after.
preparing for battle with an axe, there's instant chaos. The crowd is running in terror, Ki-taek seeing his bloodied son being carried away by Da-hi. Mr. Park pleads with them to hand over the keys to take his son who fainted to the hospital, worried there's no time for an ambulance.
Struggling to even comprehend what's happening, he relents and tosses the keys, getting deflected in the fracas between Gwen-se and Chung-su, mom putting an end to their battle with a grill skewer jammed into his side. It's even got some- sausages on it and everything. As he has the keys, Mr. Park goes up to him, and Gwensae is happy to simply be in his presence. But of course, Mr. Park has no idea who the man is.
And when getting a whiff of that quintessential stench is grossed out, grabbing the keys and getting as far away as possible. His actions here clearly illustrate the park's true feelings about the poor and their employees, basically not even considering them people. The reason being, as we know, that boiled rag subway person smell is crossing that ever important line. I mean, Jessica is bleeding out on the ground, this guy is dying, and he's only concerned about his son who fainted.
That's it. He'll be fine, you know? Golly, dude.
But Mr. Park simply could not be bothered to care about the poor. And this makes that 100% to be the case here. Bearing witness to his behavior, Keitech has had enough taking the knife and plunging it into Mr. Park's chest.
Sending his wife down for the count as well. A wave of realization suddenly washes over Kitek as he sees what he's done and runs off. Well, yikes!
Their whole dynamic came to, unfortunately, a terrifying and bloody head in the end there. And both families have been irreparably damaged by coming into each other's lives, proving, as usual, the rich and poor simply can't mix in today's society. Though, as we saw here, they were all united in one way.
The knife! No one, no matter how rich you are, can escape violence. And in an odd way, the knife in fact acts as a way of unifying them all together, able to break through all boundaries of rich and poor, by getting stabbed in the fucking face.
Miraculously, when we pick up a month later, Kevin manages to survive the savage rock beating. It appears to have some lingering effects from his brain surgery, uncontrollably laughing at what should be horrible misfortune. Laughing when questioned by detectives, or when hearing him and his mother's crimes being read out in court.
Even when finally getting to see his sister's face. On an urn. Unfortunately, Jessica died in the attack.
It to me seems less that it's the surgery responsible, but he can't help but laugh at just how horribly everything turned out in their lives. All thanks to their infiltrating the park's home. As for his father, a manhunt for his whereabouts was eventually called off when the trail ran cold. And Kevin and his mother return to their same lives as before all of this. Back to assembling pizza boxes while now also being trailed by bumbling detectives.
He finds himself still drawn to the former park house, a new family having moved in, and frequents a mountain nearby that gives a good view of the estate. One night, he's shocked to see what looks like a Morse code message being written in light blinks, just as Gwen Say did before. And after some time, Kevin is able to translate the message. realizing it's a message from his father, learning what happened in the aftermath of the party. Luckily, Moon Gwang had cut the security camera when she first came to the house, and rather than fleeing, Keetek knew the best place to hide, down in the bunker, of which the Park family was unaware, making his location unknown to anyone outside of his family.
Back to that small slippery slope from earlier, going even further down the ladder. Dad's taken on the role of Gwen Say, forced to hide in the bunker due to outstanding debts to unsavory loan sharks, while for Keitech it is unavoidable murder charges. A newly energized Kevin writes back to his father, laying out his new grand plan.
Going to university, getting a good career, and making buku bucks so he can purchase the house. Allowing his trapped father to simply walk up the stairs to freedom and join his family. Placing the scholar's rock in a river from whence it came, blending right into the other apparently unimportant ones in the riverbed.
And he comes tumbling back down from his grand fantasy. The snow falling outside their semi-subterranean apartment as he concludes the letter. Telling Keetak to take care until then.
Right, so we have this lovely fantasy of Kevin going on to becoming legitimately successful. Is there any chance this rosy future could come to pass? I gotta say, based on everything we've seen up to this point, I don't think so. The fact that we transition from this nice family reunion to the reality of Kevin back in his old apartment says it all. Just like his father always had a scheme or plan cooking, it's no different for Kevin.
Problem is, they're always pipe dreams. Nothing that could most likely ever come to fruition. And there's also a kind of catch-22 at play as well. Early on, it's established that Kevin is actually a smart kid and applied to several schools.
The roadblock being how to possibly pay for it considering his family's situation. He also seemed to idolize men as a result of this, and attempts to emulate him, even at that crucial moment asking himself what Min would do. Almost thinking if only I could have opportunity, I could be successful in everything too. And in his future fantasy, his look even closely resembles his old friend. Certainly no coincidence.
Even his relationship with Dahai is following his friend's pattern exactly. Telling his family he's going to ask her out when heading to college. So many degrees outside of what the reality of his current situation is. Then there's the other problem. Without the financial means to be successful.
he is essentially doomed to folding pizza boxes with his mother and squalor for eternity. The broken system never really even gives him a chance, which is why the family pushes so much immediately when getting a foot in the door at the Parks. It's the best chance that they've ever had, and even feel lucky that there's this wealthy family they can exploit for their own personal gain.
Also not really considering the family to be people in this sense, as they are disconnected from them and the world at large due to their wealth and status. Made even more brutal as if they hadn't orchestrated their master plan to infiltrate the parks. none of this would have happened.
It was their greed that doomed them. Which leads us back to the parasites of the title. Now, clearly the Kims aren't the best people, lying and cheating for even a small taste of success.
Yet on the other hand, the Park family is ultimately exploiting them as well. Unlike the Kims having to deal with basically being mole people and a drunk dude pissing outside of their kitchen window on a regular basis, the Parks are living in their lovely well-walled castle, totally secluded from the trappings of the outside world. which as a result has skewed their perspective on things as well. They employ these servants to help them with the most basic of menial daily chores and tasks, having a personal driver, cleaning and cooking around the house, and it's even specifically mentioned by Mr. Park that his wife doesn't do so well with housework like washing dishes and cleaning.
Again, super basic stuff, yet somehow she's unable to do so. So by hiring these people to take care of them, they are also leeching off the poor, because from their perspective, They're overjoyed to even have the opportunity to clean your damn undies and make you ramen noodles. It's a bit nuts.
So I wondered if this is all due to the wife having a drug problem, you know, like pills or something like that. As when we first meet her, she's just stone cold passed out sitting on the patio. And Moon Gwang has to like clap to even wake her up.
The whole time I was like, yo, this bitch on drugs. Though outside of that, that mention of buy me drugs during their weird non-sex scene. we have no other indication of this possibility.
But that would at least explain more about her peculiar behavior and why she can't do anything. I mean, she doesn't work or whatever. You can't even do the dishes. How do you screw that up? You know what I mean?
Something's going on there. Point being, they're all parasites for drastically different reasons. Yet parasites, just the same.
Rich, poor, everyone sucks for their own reason. And it's all thanks to this crushing capitalist society that we live in. Haha, isn't that reassuring? World. doomed.
And with that we have reached the conclusion of this in-depth explain video for Parasite. I'm glad that this kind of movie got as much attention as it did, and I hope that means that we're leading to a more open and interesting kind of mainstream cinema in America. But yeah, probably not.
Just a fluke. Also interesting, Bong is hard at work on a Parasite TV series for HBO, and at first I was like, huh? But according to the director, he actually had too many ideas for the film to fit into a standard two-hour runtime. And the limited series would actually act as an expansion of the story, essentially a six-hour movie.
While the movie does feel quite complete on its own, I'm more than excited to see this world expanded yet also wondered if it would wind up being Americanized. And when I saw the recent news of Mark Ruffalo circling the series, it seems I got my answer. While not inherently disappointing, I do feel like doing an English language version might lose something.
Yet with Bong still at the helm, I'm sure it will be excellent. Hey, Snowpiercer was in English and that was great, so I'm not too worried and curious to see what aspects will get explored further in the 6 hour TV version coming soon. What did you guys think of Parasite and its ending? What's your favorite Bong Joon-ho film? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below.
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