Oh my god, Mie, you've cracked it.
You have cracked the ultimate reason why Parasite won
all those Academy Awards.
You should write about that, that's good.
I think you should publish that, it's amazing.
♪ You're the reason it will last forever ♪
♪ When you know that you're, you know that you're the best ♪
- Hi everyone, I'm Mie. - And I'm Rebecca.
And today we're going to be talking about Parasite.
Whenever you watch it again,
the helplessness you feel watching it the first time,
like you can't intervene, is absolutely doubled
because you know what's about to happen
and you're like 'please don't do this,
it's going to result in so much bad stuff',
and you just feel helpless.
And I guess that feeling of helplessness
is what you feel structurally in a society
where you can't progress.
Parasite is definitely a social commentary,
and you can see that through every path it takes.
Obviously, I mean, it made a clean sweep at the Academy Awards,
and you can just tell exactly why that was.
Like, everything is just so genius,
and watching it again and again and again,
you just don't get bored of it because this film is, like,
well, it's the film that just keeps on giving really, you know?
100%.
They're rich but still nice.
They're nice because they're rich.
(shouting, laughing)
From the first scene, what really caught your eye straight away?
That beautiful shot, the very first shot where you're panning down.
It's this idea, it's a social commentary
from the very, very beginning.
You know, you have this family who are in
this very enclosed, claustrophobic space,
and then as the film expands, so do they.
The family expands, the scenes expand,
but they have this very claustrophobic and intimate space
where the film starts,
so it's almost a symbol of the family unit and their social ranking.
Bong Joon-ho definitely characterises this idea of class and of wealth
and he comments on that in a lot of his films,
but I think this opening scene and the beauty of the chaos, I think,
is quite a nice start for quite a dark film.
What did you think, Mie, about that?
Honestly, I literally was just about to say the same thing
because the way they showed, like,
the social, societal structures and everything
in just that one shot in the beginning,
and also with the music at the same time,
I feel like the Parasite theme music is just so perfect.
It has so much hope in it but it's also so tragic.
You know the piano tune?
Ah, yeah.
It's just perfect,
and that really drew me in in the first scene
because it has all of what the film is about in it, really.
(piano music plays)
We're screwed.
No more free Wi-Fi.
Hey, Ki-Jung!
Yeah?
The lady upstairs put a password on "iptime".
Even though there's so many different things going on,
I feel like every single character just manages to be so, like, rich.
Whether they're representing some sort of theme or anything,
they all have their own identity.
So who did you think was your favourite character?
I have to say Mr Kim was my favourite,
especially the scene where he is hiding under the table
and they're talking about that smell,
and you can feel the anger coming through the screen.
He has to keep this pristine exterior
and then you can just feel that anger
permeating through the screen, through the camera, onto you.
Yeah, the pressure of the table above him.
Absolutely.
Like, the clashing sort of thing.
And also with Mr Kim, in Korea he's a big, like, veteran actor
and whenever I've seen him in anything before I'm like,
okay, I really like this guy, he's good.
But with Parasite, I feel like this is a real person
and I can see how they are feeling in this film.
It might sound completely stupid to say
but it felt so authentic and real.
It feels like they've lived a life
before and after the film begins and ends.
I feel like I just-, well, obviously I like everyone,
but also, I really like Ki-woo who is obviously Kevin,
but that's his real name and not the ideal name
of him coming into the Park household.
And I just really like the way that his character
is really torn between these two worlds,
and ultimately I feel like he's the downfall of the family
because he was too ambitious and because the society
wouldn't accept that ambition.
And I really just like the fact that you see him go through
this whole character arc of him being hopeful
and promising his dad, yes, I will go and get an actual degree,
and then him going to the household and he's like, okay, I fit in,
and I'm gonna get a relationship and I'm gonna marry the Kims' daughter.
And then suddenly, just at the party, he's like,
wait, do I actually fit in here?
And from there, just more and more and more tragedy.
I just love his character.
Also, I love the guy who plays him, who's Choi Woo Shik.
I think he's absolutely just a brilliant actor,
he is completely iconic, and he's just my favourite character.
I can't deny it, I just loved it.
I feel like there's a bit of an obsession here.
Mie, do we have an obsession?
There's not an obsession, I totally don't follow him on Instagram
and be like 'ooh' every time I see his posts or anything.
- No, of course not. - Oh no, of course not.
You clearly can't get that idea from what I've said at all.
(laughter)
Da-hye.
Do I fit in here?
What?
In this setting, do I fit in?
I mean, thinking about the whole film, Mie,
what did you think your favourite scene was?
There's so many, I know it's difficult to decide, but-,
I mean, the scene that I thought I was going to go for
was the original massive reveal, so I was gonna talk about that.
But then I thought one of the more intricate scenes
that I really enjoyed was, you know after the rainstorm
when the Kim family are going
and they're running about in the rain and everything?
I really liked that scene because it kicks off this sort of arc
where they really just get disillusioned
with the whole idea of wealth
and the idea that the Park family can give them something else,
give them a better life.
And I thought that was just so well-represented in this scene
where they were getting completely, completely drenched
and then the woman of the Park household was literally like,
'Oh, I'm so glad we had this rain.'
'We needed this rain to help us, I feel so refreshed now.'
Meanwhile, they're just completely drenched and they've lost their home.
I thought that was such a perfect scene.
And I think that's the scene where he's clutching this-,
the scholar's rock,
and it's that scene where he realises the true extent of his actions.
And that emotional side of Kevin is one that we haven't really seen
because he's quite a timid character. But yeah, that scene's amazing.
The scene when all the family are sitting round,
all the Kim family are sitting round in this big, expensive house,
and then you hear the doorbell.
I mean, that doorbell now gives me-, it gives me anxiety,
because I associate that with so much stress and intense action.
Every time that ding-dong went,
I just didn't know what was going to happen.
I didn't know what was going to happen.
But I love that bit, it's just a great scene where the bell goes
and then that's sort of like a turning point.
That's where everything starts to go wrong,
so that's why I do not like that bell, or the telephone.
- It's not a great sound. - I hate that bell.
(doorbell rings)
What's she doing here?
The old house keeper?
What's she here for?
She won't stop ringing it.
Raising a racket.
Who is it?
You really do see, once you get into the film,
you get into the stride of the plot,
and you start to see each of these individual members of the Kim family
and how they have so much potential, so much talent, so much to give.
They're very intellectual, they're very smart,
but not in the conventional ways.
Jessica is this-, I mean, the parents say
she could be the best con artist, she could be a great con artist.
She has these talents but because of their social class,
they're not able to give and to receive
in the way that they should in society,
and I think you see that from the beginning
and it carries on through that film.
And the ending, I mean, I don't even know where to start on the ending.
I feel like it just gutted me, like, internally, watching that.
Like, it just-, it got me,
and then I just kept thinking about it all the time.
I'm not even joking, I must have thought about it,
after I watched it in the cinema, for about two months afterwards,
just like 'oh my god'.
It was almost tormenting, but in a way
that you just felt so gut-wrenchingly sad.
- It was-, - Yeah.
Parasite definitely got the recognition
and the critical reception that it deserved, 100%.
A lot of foreign films, they are so amazing and so impactful,
but they don't get the recognition they deserve
because they're not Westernised, they're not in English.
Whether it's an idea of it being not the right style,
whether it's not the right language, whatever it is,
I feel like even if it's not recognised by the Academy
or it's not recognised by this or that in the West,
it doesn't mean it's not a good film.
So I just think everyone should be starting to watch
these brilliant foreign films
because there's an absolute wealth of great foreign films out there,
so I think everyone should just be watching them
because pretty much a lot of them are just as good as Parasite.
Yeah, I am so excited to really expand my choices, see more films,
and Parasite definitely got me hooked
and I'm very excited to see what else I can find.
♪ You're the reason it will last forever ♪
♪ You're the star that's staring back up in the mirror ♪
♪ 'Cause it's special when you stand out from the rest ♪
♪ When you know that you're, you know that you're ♪
♪ You're the reason it will last forever ♪
♪ You're the star that's staring back up in the mirror ♪
♪ 'Cause it's special when you stand out from the rest ♪
♪ When you know that you're, you know that you're the best ♪