‘Parasite’ Fans With Their Own Alternative Movie Posters

March 23, 2020

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Last year, Bong Joon Ho’s Parasites was the first South Korean film to win the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize, and this year it was the first non-English film to win an Oscar. Alexei Filippov, the editor of the Art of Cinema website, tells us what is so remarkable about the style of the director, who was loved by Quentin Tarantino ten years ago. The material has been prepared with the support of the Cultural Centre of the Republic of Korea.

The key charm of Korean cinema in general, and of Bong Joon Ho in particular, is the ability to switch between genres, like experienced motorists – between speeds. In the best films, the director quite rapidly maneuvers between thriller, drama, black comedy, satire, and other genre structures – maybe not dizzying, but not as tediously consistent as is customary in Western genre cinema. Already in his debut film “Barking Dogs Do not Bite” (2000), the director demonstrated how quickly from the Hitchcock Saspensa can move to slapstick, and in “Memories of Murder” (2003) only consolidated success. True, both American paintings by Bong Joon Ho – “Through the snow” (2013) and “Okcha” (2017) – in the dynamics of changing the tone inferior to the Korean. Anti-utopia about the future in the entourage of eternal winter distributes genres on the wagons: tragedy, satire, brutal action, social drama – and further, how much fantasy and opportunities will be enough. In the pamphlet about the genetically modified pig, the director continued to make smoother transitions, fearing to confuse the viewer. In “Parasites” he corrected himself – even if not accelerated to the usual speed.

Black Humor

“Okcha”, 2017.Another distinctive feature of Pong Joon Ho’s cinematography is its sardonic, somewhat ruthless humor (however, it is balanced by the patented Korean sentimentality that can be found over the edge even in hit movies). The director not only doesn’t take the liberty of showing characters that are silly and even with peculiarities of development (as in “Memoirs” or “Mother”) but also often ironically over rituals, which seem unsuitable for this. So, in “The Dinosaur Invasion.” (2006), he comically demonstrates the family’s behavior at funerals, and in the same “Mother” (2009), the harsh process of interrogation. In “Through the Snow”, he makes Tilda Swinton, a shoe-like representative of the local government, explain to the residents of poor wagons that they are a shoe that should know its place (i.e. on its foot, near the dirty floor). In “Parasites” the director as unsightly as possible to equip the poor people’s homes and bring naive fools to their rich employers.

Song Kang Ho

Current problems

“Barking Dogs Don’t Bite”, 2000.Bong Joon Ho (he’s been in the left-working party for a while), of course, doesn’t get past sensitive questions. He thought about class inequality in “Barking Dogs Don’t Bite”, where the whole collision was built around four-legged pets, which the richer ones see as a status acceptance, and the poor ones as a dish. “Through the snow” and “Parasites” also study the conflict between rich and poor – in revolutionary and everyday eruptions. However, financial problems affect the characters of all his paintings one way or another. In “Dogs”, he also resorted to urban legends about budget cuts. In Netflix’s “Okcha” (2017) he spoke about meat-eating, ecoactivism, unification and corporation with a human face. Probably the most diverse manifesto of his views on life.

America/West

“Dinosaur Invasion”, 2006.It is symbolic that the author of one of the hits of the Korean box office (“Dinosaur Invasion” in 2006 set a record for the national film industry at home) often emphasizes the “harmful influence of the West. In “Mothers” rich people drive a German car Mercedes and play golf (home of the game, however, the fog – from Scotland to China). At Okça, the cursed corporation sets up ideal food farms around the world – and in Korea, too. In “Dinosaur Invasion”, the whole batch starts with 200 bottles of formaldehyde being poured into the sewers and the Hangangan River at an American military base. (Curiously enough, however, the fact that the Korean army is subordinate to the US under the 1953 peace agreement is also interesting.) In “Parasites” the rich family demonstratively learns English, and the youngest child in the family is fond of Indians (how fond – likes to sit in a tepee). Bong Joon Ho doesn’t blame all the trouble inside the country on the U.S. but denounces both the predatory advances of its foreign policy and in general the charm of its fellow citizens. In the dialogue, Korean cinema, which is popular at home and in the world, is born, and monsters in blind imitation/subordination.

The film goes beyond race, culture, religion and everything else that can separate people. It’s a universal and eternal fairy tale that people around the world understand. The film is something you should experience without spoilers, so we will not say anything about a dirty fairy tale about losers and losers.

At Oscar 2020, South Korea’s Parasite went down in history as the first non-English movie to win the Best Picture category.

Bong is meticulous about his process and creates complete storyboards (sequences of planned shootings) for all his films.

The culmination of his hard work was a film that was shown all over the world.

…and many alternative versions of the now iconographic film poster (some of them created by fans).