Murray State University's Cinema International returns with a full schedule of films this spring and is screening the South Korean film "Parasite" this week. The film is the first non-English language film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Directed by Bong Joon-ho, known for directing the sci-fi film "Snowpiercer," this black comedy explores class disparities as the Kim family, a lower-class family, bluffs their way into working for the wealthy Parks family. Its usage of visuals, like stairwells and basements, sets the tone and shows the divisions between the families.
Co-Director of Cinema International Tamara Feinstein says the season starts off with a bang by featuring "Parasite," which she says shows a more realistic view of late-stage capitalism in South Korea.
"So these two families, one sort of is the haves and the other have-nots. The Kims are a lower-class family that are just working to survive in the informal economy, and they get this opportunity through a family friend to start working for this extremely wealthy family, the Park family," she said. "I don't want to spoil it too much, but there's a lot of curveballs in this story. It's kind of a black comedy. It's also a social commentary on the inequalities that we see in a lot of societies, including in South Korea, but also the character development is great in it."
Feinstein says that the wealthy Park family does not know that they are low-income, and the Kims begin what is a long con.
"So it's a long con on the part of this family. This family friend is a young man, like 20-something-year-old friend of this lower-class family's younger son, who's also in his 20s, and he's probably from a middle-class family going to college. And he's the English tutor for the young daughter who's, like, high school age, and he has to go away because he's going to study abroad. So he wants his friend to come in and be the tutor, because he trusts his friend not to make the moves on this young daughter who he has a crush on, and so that's where the twists come in."
Former Cinema International Director Therese Saint Paul said the film is a social commentary on wealth inequality and that there's a metaphorical timebomb in societies that have sharp socioeconomic divisions like the ones in "Parasite."
"I really like this movie for its sharp social commentary between the haves and the have-nots and this wealth gap that is a global phenomenon as a given of capitalism. But I feel that this movie harks at the subtle dangers that lurk in this kind of system. It's almost like a time bomb, that frustration that accumulates among the poor," said Saint Paul. "And we'll see this in this movie is that it starts to grow and as the Kims, the poor, insulate themselves through conniving and lies into this rich family, and the whole family gets involved by different crooked means, and seems like they don't have a lot of scruples, and if they do, it seems like they're quickly brushed away, because what they do is fight for survival."
Saint Paul also said that there's a clear disconnect between the lives of the rich and the poor, and that the wealthier family seems oblivious to the plight of the lower class.
"It's interesting to see how the rich family is portrayed, because they are obviously rich and seem a bit oblivious of the predicament of the poor. They're wrapped up in their own bubble, and they're described by the others as a bit naïve and gullible, and therefore they seem to have a little bit of pity for them, but they take advantage of them," said Saint Paul. "There are several layers of parasitic symbiosis. I'd say the rich feed off the poor, because they need those housemaids, those drivers, and they assume that they're there for them, you know, just with good intentions. And the poor feed, of course, off the rich, but at the same time, there's different levels of parasites. And as we will see, they all fight for the same thing."
MSU Cinema International is screening another free show of "Parasite" on Saturday, February 1st at 7:30 p.m. in Faculty Hall 208 on the main campus of Murray State University. The event is free and open to the public.
