Parasite
Somebody once told me that no stories are new. It’s just we write it different.That’s the thing with Korean movies and dramas. No matter how cliche the story sounds, how old the idea seems there would always be something that makes you think, something that feels fresh or a dialogue, a sentence or a scene that manages to stay. And Parasite is no exception.
The family consists of four- A father, mother, daughter and a son.Their life is just as damp as the basement they live in, the views just as blurred through the dusty window and still life kept pissing to it’s heart’s content at the door just like the lousy drunken neighbor. They had no particular plan. The first question was of survival and they did the best they could.
But then a sudden ray of ambition smashes it’s way through Min ( Son’s friend)and the stone that is supposed to bring materialistic wealth.From there they see a light, and the light paves way to plans, bigger dreams, goals, comfort , ambition and more and eventually the so called light makes their life even darker.
In between, there is so many thing that grabs your heart – for instance, how the girl reminds how they don’t have the luxury to worry about others, how the simple minded, nice looking employers of theirs hated the way they smell. The scene where the father, daughter and son is hiding under the table is a reality check on how some people were desperately holding on to their lives to get through one more day, doing all they could, whereas there was people, simple, may be nice but fake, peacefully lying on the coach enjoying all pleasures of life taking life too easy. And the question arises, Do they both deserve what they have?. They get cruel as they have something to lose, they toss people like them into the basement in hope of preserving something that was never theirs to begin with and in return, they end up losing everything that was theirs. Their home gone, confidence washed away and peace shattered. Still the stone, the burden of ambition clings on to him.
The conversation the father and the son have, lying among many others of their kind
brings out whole lot of emotions, life lessons and finally self doubt and the question of existence. And that’s when the real distinction comes clear. The answer that no matter how hard you try to climb up the social ladder, there would always be things pulling you back, stamping you down. There would be inner voices of doubt, fitting in and the strange comradeship you feel with people of your kind you never knew . Because the core you are made of is very different. Just like the way you smell different, just like the way you see things different, you feel different as well. May be that’s why , in a moment’s time and in the turmoil of emotions, the father stabs the employer at his heart and flees. May be the last ounce of self respect he had for him and his kind has got him real bad.
The movie leaves us with a lot of doubts and questions. It left us with choice on what is right or wrong. And may be a little hope as well. It left us with a man sending out the Morse code without fail each night and the son who brings up a new plan on how he will buy the house and his father could just walk out one day.
