Guest:
Peterson W. Hill - Co-Host of the War Starts at Midnight podcast
@petersonwhill on IG, Letterboxd, and Twitter
Previous Guest on Gone Girl (2014)
Cast:
Bong Joon-ho, Writer/Director
Han Jin-won, Co-writer
Jung Jae-il, Music
Song Kang-ho as Kim Ki-taek (Mr Kim; 김기택; Gim Gitaek)
Lee Sun-kyun as Park Dong-ik (Nathan; 박동익; Bak Dongik)
Cho Yeo-jeong as Choi Yeon-gyo ("Madame"; 최연교; Choe Yeongyo)
Choi Woo-shik as Kim Ki-woo (Kevin; 김기우; Gim Giu)
Park So-dam as Kim Ki-jung (Jessica; 김기정; Gim Gijeong)
Jang Hye-jin as Chung-sook (박충숙; Bak Chungsuk)
Lee Jung-eun as Gook Moon-gwang (국문광; Guk Mungwang)
Park Myung-hoon as Oh Geun-sae (오근세; O Geunse)
Jung Ji-so as Park Da-hye (박다혜; Bak Dahye)
Jung Hyeon-jun as Park Da-song (박다송; Bak Dasong)
Park Keun-rok as Yoon (윤; Yun)
Park Seo-joon as Min-hyuk (민혁; Minhyeok)
Jung Yi-seo as a pizza parlour owner
*Recognition:
Parasite was released on May 30, 2019 in South Korea after it had already won the Palme D'or at the Cannes Film Festival that year.
Parasite grossed $71.4 million in South Korea, $53.4 million in the US and Canada, and $133.9 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $262.1 million. It set a new record for Bong, becoming the first of his films to gross over $100 million worldwide. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit as $46.2 million.
In South Korea, Parasite grossed $20.7 million on its opening weekend. It closed its box-office run with $72.2 million and more than 10 million admissions, equal to roughly one-fifth of the country's population and ranking first among the year's top five films.
Parasite ranked first in a survey by IndieWire of over 300 critics, in the Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Foreign Film categories. It also appeared on over 240 critics' year-end top-ten lists, including 77 who ranked it first.
Parasite would be nominated for 6 Academy Awards for Best Production Design and Film Editing, and winning for Best Picture, Director (Bong), Original Screenplay (Bong and Han), and International Feature.
Parasite became the first non-English language film in Academy Awards history to win Best Picture.
Parasite also became the first South Korean film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards and the second East Asian film to receive a nomination for Best Picture since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), and Bong Joon-ho became the fourth Asian to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, becoming the second to win, after Ang Lee.
In 2021, the Writers Guild of America ranked Parasite's screenplay the fourth-greatest of the 21st century so far.
Parasite currently holds a 99% among critics on RT, a 97 score on Metacritic, and a 4.6/5 on Letterboxd as well as one of the 3 most logged films on Letterboxd all-time.
Plot Summary: Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-ho, is a masterful blend of dark comedy, thriller, and social commentary. The story follows the impoverished Kim family as they cunningly infiltrate the wealthy Park household by posing as unrelated, highly qualified workers. With each deceitful step, they inch closer to the luxuries of the upper class. But beneath the humor and suspense lies a searing critique of economic inequality. Bong expertly balances tension and satire, leading to an explosive, tragic climax that reveals the fragile illusions of both the rich and the poor. Parasite is a brilliant, disturbing exploration of class warfare, where the true parasite may not be who we expect.
Did You Know:
Ki-woo's job, at-home tutor, was chosen because director Bong Joon Ho realized that sadly the job is the only way that families from two extreme ends of the class spectrum in modern-day South Korea can cross their paths convincingly in the story arc.
According to editor Jinmo Yang, he edited the film in Final Cut Pro 7 - an editing program that Apple stopped supporting in 2011, on a computer that hasn't had a software update since 2014. He received an Oscar nomination for his work.
In an interview with Korean magazine Cine21, Director Bong Joon Ho spoke of his experience in filming in a hyper-rich Korean home. He said his hand literally shook from anxiety when he was returning a trash can that was used as a prop: the trash can was of high-tech variety that stayed silent even when the lid was being closed and cost as much as US $2,500. Still, he was baffled by the cost, saying: "What the fuck? What kind of idiot would buy a trash can that's going to smell anyway?"
The film makes several nods to Alfred Hitchcock throughout. Stairs are used as a motif, voyeurism is used as characters watch scenes through windows 14 times, and (most obviously) there is a brief glimpse of an out of place Alfred Hitchcock collection in the Parks' home.
Stairs and vertical structures are a motif that runs through the entire film, which highlights the social divide between Parks and Kims. In fact, the director Bong Joon-ho called the project a "staircase movie" while filming it.
Ask Dana Anything:
Peterson W. Hill - Co-Host of the War Starts at Midnight podcast
Are you glad Tom chose law, or would you have wanted him to do something else?
Best Performance: Bong Joon-Ho (Writer/Director)
Best Secondary Performance: Song Kang-ho (Mr. Kim)
Most Charismatic Award: Cho Yeo-jeong (Mrs. Park)/Jung Jae-il (Composer)
Best Scene:
Art Therapy
Peach Allergy
The Basement
Under the Table
Birthday Party
Epilogue
Favorite Scene: Art Therapy/Driving Mr. Park/Peach Allergy
Most Indelible Moment: Birthday Party/The Basement
In Memorium:
Cissy Houston, 91, American singer (The Sweet Inspirations) and actress (The Preacher's Wife), Grammy winner (1997, 1999)
Johnny Neel, 70, American musician (The Allman Brothers Band)
Allan Blye, 87, Canadian-born American television writer (The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour) and actor (Mister Rogers' Neighborhood)
Ken Page, 70, American actor (Ain't Misbehavin', Cats, The Nightmare Before Christmas)
Gavin Creel, 48, American actor (Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Book of Mormon, Hello, Dolly!), Tony winner (2017)
Best Lines/Funniest Lines:
Chung-sook: If I had all this I would be kinder.
Ki-taek: You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan. No plan at all. You know why? Because life cannot be planned. Look around you. Did you think these people made a plan to sleep in the sports hall with you? But here we are now, sleeping together on the floor. So, there's no need for a plan. You can't go wrong with no plans. We don't need to make a plan for anything. It doesn't matter what will happen next. Even if the country gets destroyed or sold out, nobody cares. Got it?
Ki-taek: Rich people are naive. No resentments. No creases on them.
Chung-sook: It all gets ironed out. Money is an iron. Those creases all get smoothed out by money.
Moon-gwang: Don't fucking call me sis, you filthy bitch!
Kim Ki-woo: Sure enough! The perspective of a young artist eludes understanding. Or perhaps it's Da-song's expressive genius...
Geun-se: Respect!
Chung-sook: Why didn't you put up a 'No Urinating' sign? I told you!
Ki-taek: No, signs like that just make them piss even more.
Geun-se: Honey, this 'send' button is like a missile launcher.
Park Yeon-kyo: [referring to her son's artistic ability] He has a Basquiat-esque sense, even at age 9!
Kim Ki-jung: [as fumigation is occurring on the street outside their home] Shut the window.
Ki-taek: Leave it open. We'll get free extermination. Kill the stink bugs.
Dong Ik: You still have those cheap panties? Huh? The ones Yoon's girlfriend left behind. If you wear those, I'll get really fucking hard.
Park Yeon-kyo: Really? Then buy me drugs. Buy me drugs!
Dong Ik: Eat this instead.
The Stanley Rubric:
Legacy: 8
Impact/Significance: 8.5
Novelty: 8.67
Classic-ness: 8
Rewatchability: 6.33
Audience Score: 9.0 (90% Google, 90% RT)
Total: 48.5
Remaining Questions:
Does Korea have Miranda rights?
Was the ending a fantasy?
Do you think more than 50% of Americans could find South Korea on a map?
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