Parasite - Internal Class Warfare [Analysis] | Salari

[Music] for the first time in what feels like years of foreign language film has managed to gain wide stream attention from the West parasite is a masterfully made film directed by bong joon-ho much like the majority of his film it's a film about social class and division with protagonists that are on the lower runs of the social ladder and are at odds with individuals and institutions which keep them there it may not be as hotly discussed as star wars the rise of Skywalker but the fact that this film is getting so much attention in West especially in the USA is not only a positive sign that audiences are still willing to engage with foreign cinema but it also means they have an opportunity to see a really great film about class struggle especially since their potential conversations around Joker were monopolized by media outlets which led people to believe that it was a pro in Seoul movie parasite explores how those who are talented academically gifted creative and physically capable aren't always properly rewarded for their ability as many claim that a capitalist society should do because of that the message of parasite is almost universal in the West and the East the Kim family live in abject poverty they're at the mercy of the gig economy jobs that are often very short-term with little to no benefits included and usually very low paying there are family of intelligence and talented people the Sun ki-woo is academically gifted the daughter is an artistic and shrewd person the father kita ik is wise and the mother Chong sook was a champion shot-putter on the other side of the spectrum the parks are an extremely wealthy and privileged family mr. Park is the owner of a tech company who doesn't spend much time with his family mrs. Park is a stay-at-home mother who has well-kept superstitious and perpetually bored and lets her housekeeper do much of the child-rearing the daughter is a complacent teen who doesn't place much value on education and their son is a toddler who seems to have attention issues but it's never confirmed it's clear that the Kim family would never be able to get a foot in the door to work or the park family without some help he was only able to get a job as a tutor for the parks daughter because his wealthy friend passes the job on to him an example of how obtaining employment for the underprivileged can often be a case of who you know after ingratiate himself with the family ki woo is able to use this same method to get his family jobs with the parks however this is at the expense of the parks current employees this is where some of the elements of parasites class warfare are introduced the film isn't simply the Kim's versus the parks it's about the Kim's having to fight against other working-class people in order to satisfy their need for income the Kim's methods to replace the parts current employees are unscrupulous and without compassion it's a microcosm of the dog-eat-dog nature of capitalism which engenders a system in which if someone wins there has to be a loser and loser pays dearly for their loss it's easy to see the Kim family as being despicable for getting the parks employees fired in such an underhanded way and to an extent it is appalling but they are still trying to survive and take an advantage of an opportunity for stable employment which none of them have had in a very long time however as securing wealth goes it's worth considering that this is something that happens on a larger scale far more frequently such as large corporations who lay off thousands of employees to secure profits despite reporting record earnings the framing of the two family classes within the film are made apparent throughout the Kim's live deep within the lowest level of the city in an apartment in the basement of a large building surrounded by clutter in confined spaces the parks live atop the city in a house designed by an architect that once lived there with large windows in which sunlight can enter and they can see the wall below them it's as though their gods living on Mount Olympus and those below them have to appease them any way that they can in order to gain their favor however much like the gods the parks are oblivious to the worship they receive and how the actions of mankind benefit them when goon se is discovered hiding in the bunker to hide from loan sharks we learned that he quite literally worships mr. Kim having created a makeshift shrine in his honor in the belief that his faith and devotion in Him will reward him in time and this continued existence is contingent on his blessing despite not knowing that goons save lives in a house or even exist other than shelter yonce receives nothing from the parked family but he feels the need to appease them after he's tied up during the altercation with the Kimsey he is mr. Park walking up a staircase and jeyonce switches on the lights as he ascends mr. Park does not know that this is the work of a person he believes that simply this is how the world works around him that there is no human endeavor behind the things that make life more convenient for him if he were to compare this to a Greek mythology once again this could possibly be likened to the myth of Sisyphus why he pushes a boulder up the mountain over and over again to gain a favour of Zeus it's a loose analogy but I think it's somewhat appropriate as real-life parallels go the Kim's moon Guang and Jian say appease in the parks is much like the modern-day worship of billionaires and belief that their possession of vast sums of wealth will eventually benefit the world they're the ones who are smart enough to make decisions which will determine the future of our world and how allowing them to keep that wealth will inevitably lead to better more stable jobs better technology and higher standards of living and how the philanthropy will fix things like homelessness education health care poverty or even existential threats like climate change but the fact is is that people like the parks Bill Gates Elon Musk Jeff Bezos Mark Zuckerberg Warren Buffett etc etc if they really wanted to fix the major problems that affect our everyday life or even cared about the average person they would have already done something significant already as of 2018 it was estimated that there are five hundred and fifty three thousand people living homeless in the US according to Matthew Chapman Jeff Bezos has enough money to buy every one of them a $200,000 house and still have nineteen point two billion dollars left over which would still make him one of the 25 richest men in the world billionaires will not save you people like mr. Park won't help us a if they were inclined to be so gracious or generous the park family could solve USA and moon guang's financial problems immediately and still have plenty left over not only do they choose not to help people like him they go out of their way to ignore their problems and not only do the parks have disdain for the poor they fetishize him too in a scene where the parks are out of town for a camping trip the entire Kim family stays at their house to enjoy their food and various amenities this is also when they're discovered to be frauds by Moon Wong and USA Chun soo as their housekeeper is the only person who's supposed to be there looking after the place but after the parks call to tell her that they're coming back early the Kim's are caught off guard and they can't escape before they arrive they hide under the coffee table and the parks son who is disappointed that their trip came to an end early is allowed to stay on the lawn in a tent and his parents sleep on the couch in the living room as the kins are stuck under the table still earlier in the film the Kim's daughter got a ride home from the parks old driver ki-jong left her underwear in a back seat so mr. Park will later find them and fire him believing that he's been using his car to hook up with women while the Kim's are trapped under the table mr. and mrs. Park discussed them mr. Park mentions ki-taek soda saying that he can still smell it and how it reminds him of old radish or boiled rags however mrs. Park isn't able to detect the same smell implying that mr. Park can detect and is disgusted by someone working-class they start to become intimate and while they're doing so they begin to roleplay poor people mr. Park fantasizes mrs. Park is wearing he Jon's dirty underwear and mrs. Park asked him to buy her drugs which the implication is that she's a sex worker performing sexual favors for drugs watching the Kim's having to endure through this deeply uncomfortable moment where they realize that the parks disturbing the romance sighs their lives with no understanding of this Travel humiliation can often be a byproduct of remaining in the workplace though consider what people who work in service industries have to put up with customer service workers who have to listen to complaints and even insults because the company they work for have policies that aren't consumer friendly or even waitresses having to put up with unwanted advances and flirting from diners in order to get a decent tip because their employer doesn't pay them a livable wage after the Kim's escape they head back home as torrential rain pours down they walk the entire way and we see that every step of their journey is a descent and water follows with them mixing with all the dirt in the sewage when he arrived home they discovered that their apartment is being completely flooded and most of their belongings have been destroyed they spend the night in a gymnasium with scores of other people who live in the lower parts of the city who have also been victims of the flood at this point key tech admits that everything that people do is meaningless but there's no point in making plans or trying because things will always go wrong for people like him and his family his son who has recovered the scholars rock from his apartment still grasps onto it saying that it won't leave him given his weight and how cumbersome it is it could be an implication that his desire for material wealth and success is a burden that he can't let go of the next day when the parks hold a birthday party for their son the Kim's are invited as employees they use the opportunity to deal with Beyonce and moon Gwang who was still in a bunker ki-woo heads down there with the scholars rock to finish them off almost as though he's learned that in order to succeed he needs to be ruthless he's caught off guard by Hyun se who takes the scholars Rock and brutally strikes ki-woo on the head with it which we later learn gives him permanent brain damage Hyun se then escapes the bunker and heads towards a party with the intent of killing the rest of the Kim family before this happens we see mr. park jung ki-taek hiding behind the bushes waiting to perform a skit for the party while dressed in some unfortunate cultural appropriation but if you'll bear with me I'll explain why that has some sort of purpose as they're waiting key tik begins to connect with mr. Park as he's done on Morris occasions remarking on how we must truly love his family if he's willing to do things like this for them for a moment it seemed as Oki Tech has managed to break through the barrier of their employer / employee relationship but the status quo remains intact and mr. Park reminds key tech once again that he is his employer and that he's paying him extra to be there so he shouldn't talk to him like that Jun say enters a party stabs ki-jong and chest and the park son has a seizure mr. Park rushes to take his child away from the chaos as the Kim's struggle against GSA's frenzy after he's overpowered by Chun sook key tech throws the car keys at mr. Park but misses and end up beneath USA as he lays on the ground injured mr. Park moves to him to retrieve the keys but recoils in disgust at his Oda USA greets mr. Park this figure who is worshipped for the longest time and he replies do I know you kita awarenesses all this mr. parks indifference to the Kim family struggle his ignorance of who USA is and his familiar look of disgust mr. Park sees the poem much like how American settlers saw the Native Americans less than human the natives struggled to survive against the tyranny of those more powerful than them he takes daughter lies dying on the ground his son gravely wounded and his wife slashed the Kim's USA and moon Gwang competed against each other ruthlessly to appease the parks but it was all for nothing after this epiphany key tik grabs a knife runs at mr. Park and stabs him in the chest inevitably killing him he realizes that he shouldn't fight against people like USA that struggle just as much as he and his family do and ultimately people like mr. Park who decide upon the fate of the working class every day are the problem that they not only failed to see that struggle they actively choose not to we later learn ki-woo survived his injury I'll be it with a disorder that makes him laugh uncontrollably at times as though their troubles are just a joke ki-jong has died and ki tech is stuck in a bunker where Guillen Tsai once lived to avoid the police so ki-woo and Chun sook are left to fend for themselves once again resorting to geek jobs in order to survive and after paying various legal fees and hospital fees it's safe to assume that they're in the same place that they were in the beginning or even worse queue visits the parks old house which they have sold to a German family he looks at it from a distance and notices a flickering light which turns out to be key tech communicating in Morse code to whoever might see it he tells him that he's managing to survive and living off the food that he can find in household he will writes a letter back to his father bowing that he's going to become rich and successful so the he come one day buy the house so that his dad can finally climb the stairs out of the bunker and be free we see him in the future having accomplished his goal and him reuniting with his dad however this is revealed to be a fantasy ending the film on a shot of ki-woo in the basement apartment in the darkness looking into the camera with tears in his eyes and the implication that this will never happen the film puts across the message that talent or academic prowess might be a contributor to success within a capitalist society but it's not a guarantee it might be the case that mr. Park built himself up from nothing or very little the film doesn't say whether this is the case but it's safe to assume that at some point in his life he had the capital to help him create his business therefore helping him accumulate more wealth regardless of how he did build himself up mr. Park is a staunch defender of the status quo and maintains his distance from the lower classes he takes strikes of numerous conversations with mr. Kim but when he starts to connect with him on a more personal level mr. Park shuts him down and reminds ki-taek that he's no more than an employee and shouldn't be engaging with him on this level mr. Park refuses to seem keechak as nothing more than a tool to fulfill a role developing any empathy with him not only acknowledges him as a human being but someone who has their own struggles and how people like the park family are responsible for that mr. parks remarks on how he's disgusted by he take soda and his reaction to USA's signify an implicit aversion to someone of his class a natural disdain for them much like many people in the well the Kim's USA and moon Guang believed that appeasing to those who hold the majority of wealth will bring them rewards that eventually they can climb Nevada and perhaps even become like them but it's apparent that the system is rigged against them that their daily struggles are ignored by the wealthy and this is by all means intentional the park family do not empathize with the Kim's despite them mistakenly believe in that they do in a way by the end ki-woo has learned a lesson that their struggle is futile that the only thing they can really do is survive the Kim's attained some level of class consciousness by realizing that they're being exploited for their labor but ki-woo still understands that the only way they can escape this or even be free of their individual struggle is if they somehow attain wealth but the film makes this clear that the odds of this happening are almost non-existent what parasite puts forward is that class warfare doesn't just happen between the poor and the wealthy but within the same classes the Kim's fight ruthlessly against the parks employees adopting tactics which are underhanded but necessary in order to achieve their goals the film says that survival among the lower classes is contingent on other people within that group losing as others win in the end when kita achmed as mr. Park is finally rejected the notion that his enemies aren't those who struggle much like his family but those who put them in a position where they have to struggle the wealthy that ensure their interests are secured by exploiting the working class both financially and through dehumanization however by rejecting the status quo ki Tech pays dearly because he still lives in a world where the majority of people in the world haven't attained class consciousness and aren't willing to fight or even question their oppressors became sacrificed a great deal to achieve this realization but despite all this they're still at the whim of a capitalist society which doesn't care about them they still need to survive and they're still doomed to face the financial setbacks over and again for the rest of their lives in hopes that someday they'll get another chance to live a better more comfortable life a day that rarely ever comes for people like the Kim's [Music] thank you very much for watching through to the end I hope you enjoyed the video I love parasite it's easily my favourite film of 2019 if you haven't seen any of bong Joon hos other movies I highly recommend you watch them there's the host mother snowpiercer and Archer all great movies I guarantee you'll love them if you like the parasite if you could do all the typical YouTube stuff like comment subscribe etc I would really appreciate it it helps me out a lot but otherwise I hope you have a good day and I'll see you next time alright bye bye

Channel: Salari

Views: 27,877

Rating: 4.9469419 out of 5

Keywords: parasite, analysis, video essay, explained, oscars, academy award, bong joon ho, song kang ho, korea, korean cinema, joker, breadtube, lefttube, socialism, capitalism, marxism, communism, wealthy, poor, movies, film, lee sun-kyun, jo yeo-jeong, choi woo-sik, park so-dam, lee jeong-eun, best picture, best director, best screenplay

Id: gZQabjPeElU

Length: 18min 44sec (1124 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 15 2020