Parasite - ( d) Bong Joon Ho (2019)

 "Well I woke up this morning
On the wrong side of the bed
And how I got to thinkin'
About all those things you said
About ordinary people
And how they make you sick
And if callin' names kicks back on you
Then I hope this does the trick
'Cause I'm sick of your complainin'
About how many bills
And I'm sick of all your bitchin'
'Bout your poodles and your pills
And I just can't see no humor
About your way of life
And I think I can do more for you
With this here fork and knife
Eat the rich
There's only one thing that they are good for
Eat the rich
Take one bite now - come back for more
Eat the rich
I gotta get this off my chest
Eat the rich"

                        ( Eat the rich - Aerosmith, from "Get a Grip")          

After watching the movie, The Parasite, twice, I read a few reviews as is my wont. One thing that surprised me was a few  review hits from Indian sources - ( i.e. Times of India, Hindustani Times,  besides the usual "Guardian", "NY Times" etc. ) then, I gathered it makes sense . The drastic difference between the levels of the super rich and the extreme poor, would have an effect of this movie in India too ( that is not to say, that the differences are less in most other countries ). But it was a sentence from the NY Times review, that hit me like a thunderbolt, soon after what the movie delivered, a near enough one. (To quote):

Yet they’re not gullible, as Ki-taek believes, but are instead defined by cultivated helplessness, the near-infantilization that money affords. In outsourcing their lives, all the cooking and cleaning and caring for their children, the Parks are as parasitical as their humorously opportunistic interlopers.

The word that took my attention was, "near-infantilization", a cultured helplessness. It is here Bong Joon-ho, suggests to look all sides to note The Parasite.

If am to have a modest effort at deconstruction, I may even venture to suggest that the script is extra critical of Mrs. Park, Yeon-kyo. It suggests that she's not much different to one of the pet poodles, that she keeps. Overall events, suggest that she's hardly a woman in control of her house. Yet, it is not as if she's never traveled "the subway".

While, the Parks are usually nice people - even their servants agree - even while the opportunists live off the gullible, to cross the line is unacceptable. This is what Ki-taek feels the most, and in a moment of sudden fury gets the better of him to take the vengeance off his boss, forgetting his enemy till then. The "smell of the people who travel the subway", as the Parks like to term it, is the final death blow, as it were.

The perfect sound track, the pace of each stage, the montage which show the replacement of Gook Moon-gwang ( the former house keeper), by Chung-sook, the beautiful camera work all combine  to make an almost perfect movie, and one that will work inside the viewer's conscience for a long time to come. The importance of empathy, and the choice of being selectively oblivious being one of bad taste, wouldn't go away for sometime, after this movie. Maybe it shouldn't. No, it shouldn't. Jane Fonda presenting the Oscar for the best movie, terms the nominees as the films which made the most impact. This was sure did.

Rating: *****