Sophinisba Solis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophinisba) wrote2020-02-10 07:21 pm
sophinisba) wrote2020-02-10 07:21 pm
Parasite, a movie worth seeing in my opinion!
I enjoyed watching the Oscars ceremony last night! I watch every year and enjoy most parts of it even when I'm disappointed with who wins (or who was nominated in the first place). I enjoy not only the acceptance speeches but also awkward scripted presenter banter, the musical numbers, the montages, and so on.
Last night most of the big nominees were for movies I haven't seen and don't plan to see. I was disappointed that there weren't more nominations or awards for Little Women, one of my favorite movies from last year, but I was surprised and pleased that Parasite did so well. Besides having liked the movie I thought Bong Joon-ho was gracious and charming in his acceptance speeches (interpreter Sharon Choi was also lovely and skilled), and it was really exciting to me that a movie not in English could win Best Picture. (I would've been even happier if that history-making film had been Alfonso Cuarón's Roma last year but okay.)
This afternoon I saw some friends on Twitter wondering if they should see Parasite, what with it being pretty violent and their not having liked his previous film Okja. I haven't see Okja (or Snowpiercer or The Host) but I faced similar uncertainty last month, being a person who usually tries to avoid very violent movies but also wanting to know what all the fuss was about with this one. In the end I decided to be brave and ended up being really glad I'd gone to see it in the theater.
So this is my post about whether you should see Parasite! I will try to do this without being super spoilery, but I actually agree with some folks who say it's good to go into this without knowing much about it, because the plot twists are part of the pleasure of it. I will spoil for Get Out though because that's my favorite horror movie and strongest point of comparison. Anyway if you don't want any spoilers the short version is yes! If your tastes are similar to mine you will probably like Parasite. It's got some violence but is also super interesting and well made.
Oh, and also I would like to recommend the website doesthedogdie.com, where you can look up whether movies and TV shows contain specific unpleasant things like animal harm, needles, fat jokes, etc. (No pets die in Parasite.)
A comparison with Get Out
Okay, so I think a lot of people like me who don't usually go to see horror movies did go to see Get Out because we'd heard that it had interesting things to say about racism in the US. And I guess I want to say, yes, it had interesting things to say about racism but also it was just a delightfully clever movie, like it had these twists that were very surprising but then if you looked back (or went to see it again) you could see how there were clues early on. And it was visually very striking, and the acting was great, and it was funny. So I would say, Parasite is sort of like that. It has characters being really clever like in a good heist movie. It has twists that are surprising but that make sense. It has charismatic actors who are fun to watch, and it made me laugh a lot. I found it suspenseful without being like, torturous tense the way some movies are. Like even, there's this long scene where the main characters are being irresponsible and I was sure it was going to end in a certain awful way, but it didn't, instead this other really unexpected thing happened. I loved that!
Vague spoilers for both: a difference that might or might not matter to you is that, whereas in Get Out we side with Chris throughout and most of the other characters are eventually revealed to be evil monsters, in Parasite there are no good guys or villains as such. You sort of side with Kim family and admire their cleverness and daring while also realizing they're doing some unethical things, and (if you're me) at times you bad for the oblivious rich family they're taking advantage of, particularly for the two kids. And then this other thing happens and it all gets more complicated (in a good way).
Parasite takes place in South Korea, a country I know very little about, so like, the social commentary was somewhat less interesting to me than what's in Get Out. It is about class inequality and I can't say how realistic that all is, I think some people have found it a little heavy handed, like omg the rich family represents rich people and they live in a big house on a mountainside! omg the poor family represents poor people and they live in a basement apartment! But there were also a lot of little details about like, the rich people's tastes that felt true to me, and resonated with my experiences in Latin America.
Actually the first half of Parasite reminded me a lot of one of my favorite Brazilian movies, The Second Mother, so if you would like to see a good movie about family intimacy and class inequality with subtitles and no violence I recommend that one, which is streaming on Hulu. Oh and for that matter there's the Mexican movie Roma, streaming on Netflix, which has police shooting at protestors and some other really harrowing things in it but is not anything like a horror movie.
Okay but like, how violent is it?
Okay, so, trying to be specific without actually spoiling for the plot, it gets sort of gross in the last third or so. People hit each other really hard on the head, and there's a lot of wrestling and then there's some stabbing and blood [and death, omg I'm sorry I forgot to mention that people die]. I don't think there's anything much to do with eyes or other real body horror stuff. (Like it's way less gross in that sense than say Black Swan.) At one point you find out about a character who's been suffering for a very long time and that's awful to think about.
What about other gross stuff?
There's some stuff to do with piss and shit, like overflowing toilets, and there's talk about bugs but you barely see any actual bugs, and no snakes or worms or like, literal parasites.
Happy to answer other questions to the best of my abilities! Or just like, we can talk about movies or the Oscars in the comments! I love movies, gosh.
Last night most of the big nominees were for movies I haven't seen and don't plan to see. I was disappointed that there weren't more nominations or awards for Little Women, one of my favorite movies from last year, but I was surprised and pleased that Parasite did so well. Besides having liked the movie I thought Bong Joon-ho was gracious and charming in his acceptance speeches (interpreter Sharon Choi was also lovely and skilled), and it was really exciting to me that a movie not in English could win Best Picture. (I would've been even happier if that history-making film had been Alfonso Cuarón's Roma last year but okay.)
This afternoon I saw some friends on Twitter wondering if they should see Parasite, what with it being pretty violent and their not having liked his previous film Okja. I haven't see Okja (or Snowpiercer or The Host) but I faced similar uncertainty last month, being a person who usually tries to avoid very violent movies but also wanting to know what all the fuss was about with this one. In the end I decided to be brave and ended up being really glad I'd gone to see it in the theater.
So this is my post about whether you should see Parasite! I will try to do this without being super spoilery, but I actually agree with some folks who say it's good to go into this without knowing much about it, because the plot twists are part of the pleasure of it. I will spoil for Get Out though because that's my favorite horror movie and strongest point of comparison. Anyway if you don't want any spoilers the short version is yes! If your tastes are similar to mine you will probably like Parasite. It's got some violence but is also super interesting and well made.
Oh, and also I would like to recommend the website doesthedogdie.com, where you can look up whether movies and TV shows contain specific unpleasant things like animal harm, needles, fat jokes, etc. (No pets die in Parasite.)
A comparison with Get Out
Okay, so I think a lot of people like me who don't usually go to see horror movies did go to see Get Out because we'd heard that it had interesting things to say about racism in the US. And I guess I want to say, yes, it had interesting things to say about racism but also it was just a delightfully clever movie, like it had these twists that were very surprising but then if you looked back (or went to see it again) you could see how there were clues early on. And it was visually very striking, and the acting was great, and it was funny. So I would say, Parasite is sort of like that. It has characters being really clever like in a good heist movie. It has twists that are surprising but that make sense. It has charismatic actors who are fun to watch, and it made me laugh a lot. I found it suspenseful without being like, torturous tense the way some movies are. Like even, there's this long scene where the main characters are being irresponsible and I was sure it was going to end in a certain awful way, but it didn't, instead this other really unexpected thing happened. I loved that!
Vague spoilers for both: a difference that might or might not matter to you is that, whereas in Get Out we side with Chris throughout and most of the other characters are eventually revealed to be evil monsters, in Parasite there are no good guys or villains as such. You sort of side with Kim family and admire their cleverness and daring while also realizing they're doing some unethical things, and (if you're me) at times you bad for the oblivious rich family they're taking advantage of, particularly for the two kids. And then this other thing happens and it all gets more complicated (in a good way).
Parasite takes place in South Korea, a country I know very little about, so like, the social commentary was somewhat less interesting to me than what's in Get Out. It is about class inequality and I can't say how realistic that all is, I think some people have found it a little heavy handed, like omg the rich family represents rich people and they live in a big house on a mountainside! omg the poor family represents poor people and they live in a basement apartment! But there were also a lot of little details about like, the rich people's tastes that felt true to me, and resonated with my experiences in Latin America.
Actually the first half of Parasite reminded me a lot of one of my favorite Brazilian movies, The Second Mother, so if you would like to see a good movie about family intimacy and class inequality with subtitles and no violence I recommend that one, which is streaming on Hulu. Oh and for that matter there's the Mexican movie Roma, streaming on Netflix, which has police shooting at protestors and some other really harrowing things in it but is not anything like a horror movie.
Okay but like, how violent is it?
Okay, so, trying to be specific without actually spoiling for the plot, it gets sort of gross in the last third or so. People hit each other really hard on the head, and there's a lot of wrestling and then there's some stabbing and blood [and death, omg I'm sorry I forgot to mention that people die]. I don't think there's anything much to do with eyes or other real body horror stuff. (Like it's way less gross in that sense than say Black Swan.) At one point you find out about a character who's been suffering for a very long time and that's awful to think about.
What about other gross stuff?
There's some stuff to do with piss and shit, like overflowing toilets, and there's talk about bugs but you barely see any actual bugs, and no snakes or worms or like, literal parasites.
Happy to answer other questions to the best of my abilities! Or just like, we can talk about movies or the Oscars in the comments! I love movies, gosh.
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I need to see some movies so I can babble to you about them.
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Did you see the Star War?
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Not yet. I hope I can!
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no subject