(Music)
For the past couple decades, Korean New Wave cinema has captivated international
audiences with films that redefine genre and comment on important social issues.
>> (Noise) It's director Bong Joon-Ho,
who now leads the charge setting an unprecedented amount of international
attention with this 2019 Thriller comedy social drama, Parasite.
But it's not an adaptation so we can't talk about it on this show.
We can talk about his 2013 sci fi action drama,
comedy, guys a lot of stuff here, Snowpiercer.
The premise of the super train carrying the last
of mankind is derived from the French graphic novel
Le Transperceneige originally published in 1982.
Graders Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette satirize modern society with an emphasis
on the fragility of our ecosystem.
Bong Joon-ho however, leans more heavily into themes of social inequality.
It's this thematic shift that dictates the majority of the changes in the adaptation.
So how does Bong Joon-Ho translate into French sci-fi about ecology into
an action-thriller about class?
Well grab yourself a protein snack and
prepare to get spoiled because it's time to ask what's the difference?
>> Do you want to go?
>> You don't mind? >> No.
I can- >> What's the difference?
(Sound) Both book and
the movie start with some back story.
The frozen Earth is a result of chemical CW-7.
But Bong Joon-Ho deviates from the book when he revealed
CW-7 was an attempt to reverse global warming.
In the book, CW-7 is theorized to have been a weapon.
It was a tool in humanity struggle for dominance over the earth.
So the book is critical of war,
how the fight over resources affects the social order.
Both mediums divvy up the train into a class system but they look very different.
The train in the comic is separated into three classes.
Bong Joon-Ho's train on the other hand is a two class society,
the wealthy class at the front and the poor class in the tail.
Based on the Indian caste system, a person's social place is preordained and
cannot be changed.
I belong on the head, you belong on the foot, yes.
So it is.
>> The entire first act is set in the tail end where the people are used as resources
for the upper class and any dissent is dealt with inhumanely.
(Noise) >> However
the book rarely shows the tail end or its people.
The first class cut all communication with the tail long ago,
fearing that they may take more resources by force.
But while the book's third class may not be the subject of oppressive
dismemberment, the main characters do suffer the indignity of
being shaped balls, since poor people are thought to be riddled with disease.
>> This is bull (Bleep).
>> So by redirecting the focus from ecology to class Bong Joon-Ho
sets the stage for a story about revolution.
Then he fills it with an ensemble of eclectic characters
completely unique to the film.
There's Mason, the sadist who maintains the caste system along with her team of
enforcers, while the trains master a man named Wilfred operates unseen.
>> Mr Wilfred, are you there?
>> Meanwhile, a whole network of lower class rebels look to our protagonists
Curtis to guide them to freedom.
(Music)
>> We've got no bullets.
The main character in the book is Proloff who is rather apathetic to the suffering
of the tail, it's survival that drives him, not justice.
His only ally is a naive social activist named Adeline who ties her fate to his.
The antagonists are made up of institutions like the military,
the government, and religious cults,
who would sacrifice the tail cast to secure their own safety.
The Bong Joon-Ho's characters all have unique motivations,
which foot pathways for a very different plot.
The movie, Curtis leads a violent escape from the tail,
hacking their way from carriages like levels of a video game.
His goal is to reach the engine and take control of the system.
It's a straight forward journey from A to B.
The book plot is messier.
Proloff escaped the tail by himself.
He's been escorted to the front for an interview with the first class where he
learns that the train is pulling too much weight to endure.
>> Should get thick and more chapter.
>> Proloff and Adaline then uncover a secret plot to disconnect
the tale in order to lighten the load.
But when passengers start dying of a mysterious disease,
mass panic turns violent as Proloff is hunted as patient zero.
(Music)
Many of the inner workings of the train are adapted straight out of the book with
the exception of the food.
In the movie, the class divide becomes more clear when
Curtis discovers their protein bars are made from insects.
While the front of the train enjoys huge meat lockers and
an aquarium full of seafood.
From the comic however, the menu was much more limited.
The second class relies on a giant slab of artificial meat named mama
while the elite first class enjoys fresh rabbit, mm-hm delicious.
So while the privilege lives much better than the tail,
everyone's still teetering on the brink of famine.
Bong Joon-Ho also diverges from the book when dealing with the subject of hedonism,
whether you're riding high to a rave party or chilled out in the peroneal den,
you know what you're not doing?
Thinking about all the torture the poor people are enduring.
>> This party ain't ever stopping.
>> While drugs certainly play a part in the comic,
sex seems to be the more pervasive method of (Cough) keeping busy.
>> Get out of here.
>> And thus, we arrive at the final confrontation.
In the movie, Curtis reaches the front of the train but
at the cost of every one of his friends.
(Sound) But reaching the engine room was never part of Proloff's goal,
instead he is cornered at the front of a train where he shoots out the windows
causing Adeline to die of exposure while Proloff is rescued by Forester,
the reclusive engineer.
Both mediums satirize God with the character if the train engineer.
But Bong Joon-Ho makes an amoral deity out of Wilfred,
splitting his personality between a savior and the devil himself.
Yes, he saved humanity with his train, yet
he insists the suffering of others is necessary to ensure survival.
Once inside the engine room, Wilfred tempts Curtis into taking his position.
>> And now you have the sacred responsibility to lead all of humanity.
>> Forrester couldn't care less about humanity.
His top priority is the engine lovingly named Olga.
This for her that Forrester there saves Proloff to keep her company after
he's gone.
Unlike Wilfred, Forrester is not a manipulator.
He simply watches quietly from the sidelines as humanity indulges in
depravity.
(Sound) Even though both Curtis and Proloff end up in the engine room,
the outcome could not be more opposite.
>> Elgar, take the fire.
>> Curtis chooses to bring down the entire system,
killing all onboard except two train-born children.
The film ends with Yona and Timmy venturing out into a brave new world.
Even if the entire system is destroyed, life goes on.
In the book, it's the train that goes on after life has perished.
Proloff wakes inside the engine room with Forrester where he watches impotently as
the tail end sacrificed and
the upper classes all die from the mysterious disease.
By the final frame, Proloff is the lone survivor on a train that will never stop.
And that's the end of the line.
Bong Joon-Ho adapts the original premise into a story of his own,
complete with the hallmarks of Korean cinema, genre-bending,
rapid shifts in tone, and striking imagery layered with meaning.
You could say Korean is the film's native tongue.
>> The comic's tongue is pure French, but mostly the dirty words.
It drips with decadence, vulgarity, and smut.
It's bleak, and at times made me feel pretty ashamed of myself.
I mean, what am I doing to help steer our world away from ecological disaster?
I'm just sitting here making little videos for you to watch.
(Sound)!
>> Wow, okay, well that's enough for this episode.
So let us know what you think about Snowpiercer in the comments down below,
and be sure to subscribe to CineFix for more-
>> No, that's okay.
Until next time- >> Dude, get out of here.
>> You're bugging me.