Hello and welcome back to Kat’s Catalog but in March! I am so excited to be discussing this next film with all of you! Just to go through the whole spiel as I always do here is a little rundown of my blog: This blog series is a collection of films recommended for people to watch in their twenties. Each film is either one I see fit to be worthy to post about or I found from a list that highly recommended this age range to watch. Since I am freshly in my twenties and studying film, I wanted to delve deeper into these films and explain my take on each of them. As always, please be aware that there are spoilers integrated into this post.
The next film I will be discussing is Barunson’s E&A and CJ Entertainments’ Parasite. Released in 2019 and with a budget of $11.4 million dollars, Parasite took the box office by storm and was heavily critically acclaimed. It had over five hundred nominations with 318 wins with six Oscar nominations. In 2020, Parasite went home with four Oscars including the controversial Best Picture win which went up against Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Sam Mendes’ 1917, and Taiki Watiti’s Jojo Rabbit. The win sparked controversy, especially among those watching the award ceremony due to Parasite also going home with the Best International Feature Film Academy Award this year. Many believed that it should not have even been considered for Best Picture since it was an international film. However, after doing some research on the qualifications of being nominated for both, I completely understand why it had the ability to be nominated (and win) in both of these categories.
In order to be nominated for Best International Feature Film, the film must be non-English, produced outside of the United States, and each country is allowed to submit only one film where a jury/committee within the said country selected it. For a film to be nominated for Best Picture, it must have a one-week theatrical release in one of the six United States qualifying cities, must meet two out of the four requirements for Representation and Inclusion Standards, and must have an expanded theatrical run of seven days in 10 of the top 50 U.S. markets no later than forty-five days after the initial release. Now don’t get me wrong, when I first watched the Academy Awards I was just as confused when I saw that Parasite, an international film, won Best Picture. However, when I rewatched it in my Film Studies class here at Lewis University and delved deeper into the film itself, I completely understood why this film won against its contenders.
Before I go into the nitty gritty of this film, I think it would be important for you, the reader, to know what it is about. Kim Ki-Taek(Choi Woo-shik) is asked by his friend to tutor his client’s daughter while he’s gone and he takes the opportunity to get money for his poverty-stricken family. As the story progresses, the sister, Ki-jung (Park So-dam) cunningly places herself as a tutor for the Parks’ boy, and soon both of their parents, played by Kang-ho Song and Jang Hye-jin, join in the scheme. The film takes a turn when the Parks leave for vacation allowing the family to take over the house and soon they realize that there was, in fact, someone else living in the basement.
Parasite is this multi-layered film that truly leaves its audience members asking questions about the world around them after viewing it. Throughout the course of the story, there are plenty of symbolic moments, including the use of stairs, that make the reader understand and physically see how far the social classes are. In the film, we see Kim Ki-Taek’s family climb or descend steps to represent the different classes and how they are at the rock bottom of society while working for those who are at the top. The difference between the classes is also represented through how gullible the Parks are in letting strangers into their home to work without second guessing anything that they are saying or doing. It shows the lack of experience in the world that the Park’s have which ultimately caused them to be gullible to the family’s antics.
One question that was brought to the students’ attention when we watched this film in the course was who do we think the title is referring to. I sat back and thought, “well, Kim’s family obviously.” However, after thinking about it and gaining some more experience in the past year, I would now argue that it was actually the Park family. I am not going to just jump to the reasoning being that they are wealthy as my argument, I am more so going to focus on their inability to care or understand that the world is not like their bubble. As I mentioned earlier, they are portrayed to be very gullible, especially when it comes to the corruption and lies the family inflicts onto them. This is why they seem to be the parasite to society for me because they are in their own bubble and seem to assume that the entire world is like that. When someone does not have perspective and they do not understand that their lives are not like everyone else’s, it often causes there to be this lack in seeing the world for what it truly is.
I believe that people, especially young adults, should watch this film because it portrays society on completely opposite ends of the social class spectrum. Art is supposed to give each of us perspective, whether it is because we feel heard or it’s because something is calling us out for our actions. There is this quote that stuck with me that was trending on the internet a couple of months ago which went something along the lines of art is meant to either comfort you or make you uncomfortable, it all depends on what the message is. Art is about perspective based on your experiences, which is why it is so powerful.
A quote from this movie that stuck with me was a conversation between the mother and father when they were talking about the Park family. It is one that leaves you wondering where you fall within society and why are are the way that you are. It sure left me wondering to this day with my upbringing and what made me who I am.
“They’re rich but still nice…. They’re nice because they’re rich.”
Katharine Svehla – Asst. Managing Editor, Prose Editor, Art & Design Editor & Blogger: Katharine is a Junior at Lewis University. She is majoring in English with a concentration in General Writing and minoring in film studies. In addition to her academic pursuits, she is on the Lewis Women’s Bowling team and loves to work out, read, watch movies, and write contemporary fiction. After graduation, she hopes to get her master’s degree and aspires to find her place in the film industry and publish personal works. Some of her favorite authors include Markus Zusak, Michael Chrichton, and Alexandra Bracken.