When I learned that Bong Junho’s "Parasite" won this year's Cannes Palme d’Or, I was actually not particularly happy, or even a little dissatisfied, because although Bong Junho was indeed a good craftsman-type director in my mind in the past, he was only artistic creation From the point of view, I feel that his author’s vision and artistic innovation are not unique enough, even if he used to express clear personal values in movies. Therefore, I watched "Parasite" with a defensive and kicking mentality. After watching it, I was completely convinced.
"Proficient in popular film language" and "understanding genre film formula" have always been Bong Joon-ho's greatest strengths, but they are also his greatest weaknesses. Bong Junhao has transplanted the Hollywood form, and made a large number of popular films that suit the audience's habits in form, but the "content" is often different from, and even subverted, the Hollywood movie audience's long-standing demand for moral correctness, perfect and beautiful viewing attitude. , "Memories of Murder" did not catch the murderer in the end, the death of the daughter of the last protagonist of "Han River Monster", the impact of "Mother" on the protagonist's belief after the facts were revealed in the script, and "Snow Country Train" unabashedly showed its cruelty. And "Tamako" finally replaced the long-awaited end of the movie with money.
These films have all gone out of the audience’s perception of individual genres in certain parts, but at most they can only achieve breakthroughs in content. The form part is full of craftsmanship and innovation is not outstanding. Therefore, I think Fengjun over the years The growth rate of Hao's artistic achievements is not large.
But I think "Parasite" may be based on Feng Junhao's accumulated resources, confidence and courage, and achieved a great deal of innovation and experimentation. The film's achievements are so special that it is almost unprecedented, but this does not mean that Feng Junhao Junhao breaks away from the genre film formula and the framework of popular movies. The formulaic "conditions" in "Parasite" still exist, but in the case of this movie, it does not become a "problem" (that is, "not a problem" The problem"). On the contrary, it is very peculiar. The artistic achievement of this film comes from the change of the popular film formula.
Feng Junhao's "unusual change" not only exists in the content, but the entire "structure" has become the core of his creativity in this film. When a director continued to use copying formulas to shoot a series of masterpieces, but when the content of "Yuzi" overlapped with "Han River Monster" in many parts, his content has begun to repeat, which is the advantage of the past. He will be viewed as part of his shortcomings. When comparing with other movies, his strengths have also become his weaknesses. What new tricks can he play at this time? Feng Junhao seems to face his own problems squarely this time. Make it a bullseye, and then launch it towards the center with all his strength. He created a movie containing two genres (comedy and horror) that are relatively qualitatively before and after. In this way, the very special achievement of this film is simple to say, but it is actually executed. Time is a challenge. There are a group of directors who are good at making comedies, and there are also a group of directors who are good at making horrors, but who can cleanly shoot two kinds in a movie, a story, and the same group of characters at the same time. Type? This premise completely raises the status of the meaning of "craftsman".
will say that the pre- and post-processing is quite "clean" because I think this film is not a type of "fusion" but a "combination". The front and rear parts are quite distinct, and the boundary between each other is very clear. It seems that Feng Junhao is not the only one who can To do, but to connect the two naturally and purely, it really allows his craftsmanship to be fully utilized. "Parasite" uses the story of a crime movie to combine the two. The first half of the game brings the audience pleasure when it is harvested by opportunism. When the crime is caught, the movie makes the audience feel the tension of being hunted down.
Feng Junhao is very "competent" to meet the two types of needs. The attempt and innovation behind this match the characteristics of his own talent. I would recommend everyone to watch "Parasite" because this movie uses the mainstream The combination of language brings out the most important innovation and uniqueness in the spirit of artistic creation. This film uses a variety of mainstream languages to form the author’s "personal language", which not only creates its own artistic height, but also creates a very, very special appearance. .
Compared with Bong Joon-ho’s previous movies, "Parasite" is much simpler in many basic settings. In his movies, adventure elements are often quite core characters. The first half of this film is no exception, but "Adventure The essence of "is more purely from the group relationship of people. The adventure of "Snow Country Train" is a novel experience of low-level social characters entering the high-level society, while the adventure of "Yuzi" is a child protagonist entering the adult worldThe world faces a gap in values. The adventure of "Parasite" is similar to "Snow Country Train", but the script is set in the contemporary rather than fictional future, so the source of the construction of the "new world" is no longer based on inhuman external factors. For example, Feng Junhao’s design is more refined from the interaction of roles. For example, the two families have different concepts about money, education, and morality. The latter movie is more in-depth psychological discussion, such as showing that the promotion of social rank The self-confidence and the low self-esteem when realizing that the class is difficult to break through, and finally the low self-esteem turns into anger.
All Bong Joon Ho’s films are hero movies, which means that they all have a very clear and even strong moral orientation, such as the police pursuing justice in "Memories of Murder", "Han River Monster" and "Mother" for their children Desperate fathers and mothers, as well as the representatives of the common people who rob the rich and help the poor in "Snow Country Train" and the innocent children who defend the right of animal survival in "Yuzi", we can see here that we can find that "Parasite" and the above works have great The difference is that the hero of the film, that is, the role of Kim Ki-zek, the father, is not given this image until the end of the film, which also means that the moral orientation of the film is not established until the end of the film, not the opening. This design is a very interesting and special way of this film, because in the first 100 minutes of the moral indefinite death, the film is constantly shifting the inner values of these protagonists. Therefore, we see not only the type In addition to the plot, the four protagonists also gradually change from "gradual" to "complete" at the climax of the final plot along with the length of the film.
If the moral orientation is determined at the beginning of the movie like Bong Junhao’s previous works, the subsequent character history and even the development of the story can make people know one or two things, and this is the advantage of "Parasite" taking the opposite strategy, then It is that the story has always maintained a certain degree of uncertainty for the audience, but when the protagonist in the film develops smoothly, the uncertainty brings more suspense. As for the suspense in the middle section, the tension is even greater. Relying on the audience's understanding of mission-oriented movies, the "crisis" that the protagonist is difficult to avoid will bring excitement, so the audience is looking forward to its arrival, that is, the electric bell in the middle of the night.
Usually, although these crises will aggravate again and again, the protagonists can break through one by one and finally reach victory. However, "Parasite" completely subverts each other before and after. In the latter part, the protagonists are temporarily on the surface. Resolved one problem after another, but from a psychological level, they got into a deeper predicament again and again. "Surface" and "temporary" are very important narrative tools in the film. The protagonist's family has made opportunistic ways to create perfect harmony on the surface (from the perspective of the upper-class family). The script uses the speculation of the characters to deliberately The ignorance and retention of some potential possibilities of the story, these possibilities from different angles have become the accumulation of dramatic energy, an explosion at the end of the movie, in exchange for a quite shocking ending.
's return to the element of "morality" is the key element of Feng Junhao’s complexity in creating characters this time. He used the existing moral standards of the audience to first let us sympathize with the Jin family because of the poverty, so as to let them The next crime has a certain reason, and we are here on their side. However, the later behavior of the Jin family began to "compress" into the living space of others. Feng Junhao was expelled from the former housekeeper because of the Jin family's conspiracy. At the beginning of the moment, the moral standards in front of the audience were shocked. Feng Junhao took a shot of a former housekeeper with a heavy face when he left in the evening, making the audience show mercy and sympathy to her, but because of the same "survival" Space", the audience's sympathy for both sides is definitely conflicting.
This is the main operation method in the middle of the film, including the bitter pleading of the former housekeeper in the basement and the ruthless treatment of our mother Jin Zhongsook, which deepened our sympathy for the former housekeeper, but after a few minutes, the positions of the two sides reversed. With the second reversal, these designs make the middle of the film perfectly shape the complexity of the role, and invisibly manipulate the audience's identity, creating a dramatic tension with swings and gaps.
"Parasite" is not the first time that Feng Junhao has played with "morality". The protagonist of "Snow Country Train" faces an inherent moral see-saw at the end of the film, but the most classic is "Mother", the strong morality encountered by the protagonist at the end of the movie The impact is the biggest attraction of this film. The "living space" and "compression" mentioned in the previous paragraph of
are also important points of discussion in "Parasite". Most of the conflicts in the film come from the compression of each other's resources. The average resource allocation ratio in the lower classes of society is low, and there are more people at this time. Take it and someone will be deprivedDrop some, and in the end it will only result in a tragic situation of fighting for resources. This "deprivation" is also a very important element in the transformation of the characters in the film. The atrocities committed by the Jin family were not because they saw that the upper class enjoyed a lot of resources, but because the resources they held might be deprived of the lower class. But when a torrential rain deprived all the resources of the Jin family, Kim Ki-zek realized that the fundamental problem was that the gap in class resources was too large, so he changed his attitude from defense to complete anger.
I also want to mention the design of the "perspective" in the narrative in the film. This is a passage that many people are curious about. That is the content that was not revealed when the daughter Jin Jiting first helped the son of an upper-class family to take art lessons? I want to I didn't have to speculate about what she actually did. What I want to discuss is Feng Junhao's motivation for handling this. During the Jin family’s step-by-step invasion of the Park family, Bong Joon-ho ordered the perspective of the Park family’s house to be transferred from the Park family members to the Jin family members. When the Kim family’s son Jin Jiwu first entered the Park family, the film perspective first Follow Ji Woo into the house, and then see his wife sleeping, but when Mrs. Park officially appears, the film perspective is dominated by her. What we see is what she sees. In addition, even Ji Ting entered Park’s house for the first time. In that scene, Feng Junhao also arranged for the Pu family's daughter, Duo Hui, to watch him by the side to strengthen the master control that the family held.
Therefore, "watching the first class" not only showed Mrs. Park’s high attitude as an employer, but also let us feel the "master control" she holds in her hands. This can be used to explain that Jin Jiting did not allow Mrs. Park to observe the class. At this time, Bong Joon-ho didn’t let us follow Ji Ting. Instead, we felt Mrs. Park’s anxiety when she couldn’t know anything downstairs. It was her when Mrs. Park kept shaking her feet due to anxiety. The beginning of losing control, and from about this time, the film began to overlap a lot of informational dialogue and images, so that the entire first half of the film perspective was dominated by the strategy planned by the Jin family, and the subsequent development was also established. On the basis of "the Jin family knows more, the Pu family knows less" (an alternative "information asymmetry", including various secret interactions between the Jin family), from this, "knowledge" has become The character holds the bargaining chip of master control. In order to let the audience experience this invisible right immersively, Bong Joon-ho moved the film perspective from the Pu family to the Kim family in the part of the Pu’s house.
However, I will say this, which means that I have excluded Duosong from the Park family. Of course, he is still a member of the Park family in the story, but Bong Junho asked him to represent a third-party perspective that is close to objective. So we didn't see the content of Ji Ting's first class because of him. It was not until Feng Junhao decided to start putting in different angles to generate moral conflicts among the audience (that is, the two shots in which Wenguang was fired), that Duosong's perspective as a "child" began to be adopted. Children have always been an important element in Bong Joon-ho’s films. The simplicity and cleanliness of children often represents the hope of the future in his films. "Parasite" is no exception. Duosong has a special personality that is different from his family. In art, he is not kidnapped by others' values, and his two children and Ji Woo have solved the Morse code, which all show the children's potential different from the previous generation. However, in Bong Junhao's film, they It is often entrusted to follow the expectations of moral correctness.
"Knowledge" is a weapon that represents power in "Parasite". Therefore, as the Jin family gets to know the Pu family more, the more hidden (substantial) mastership they hold, in contrast, the Pu family has no Knowing the Jin family further, he became a weaker party. This is why the Jin family desperately fabricated facts between the former driver, the former housekeeper, and the Park family to manipulate the influence of "Zhi". In addition, the big turning point in the middle of the movie is also due to the "unknown" brought by the former housekeeper Wenguang. "This creates a kind of fear, because "known" means a closed situation that is better controlled, while "unknown" is an infinite openness that is difficult to control.
In addition, Wenguang can turn herself from weak to strong in the middle stage, relying on discovering the deceptive "knowledge" of the Jin family, and she did use it as a weapon to make the Jin family members surrender to her. Speaking of this, I have to mention Bong Joon-ho’s idea of using mobile phones as guns. I once wrote an article stating that this kind of direct actual threat scene is no longer in contemporary (and contemporary background) thrillers. Re-existed, but Feng Junhao broke through the limitations of artifacts and started from the cultural side (Internet and life). Although mobile phones replaced swords and guns, they can still be used as swords and guns.
Kim Ki-zek’s internal transformation of the role embracesThere is a very large arc. In the early part, he is like his wife and child, thinking that he is a chess player, controlling this upper-class family, but in the middle of the movie, he realizes that not only is he not playing chess, but he himself is A chess piece, he also discovered that he can only be a pawn, a cart, a horse and an artillery pawn. When the value of use disappears, he will be discarded like the former driver and housekeeper. But at the end of the movie, he discovered that when the pawn is in the right position, You can also eat the will.
It’s like Jin Jiting taking a bath in a big bathtub. The bathtub is large and there is a lot of water. It’s very comfortable to soak, but when the "plug" below is pulled out, you can’t take a bath, and the water will run out very quickly. , I was in the bathtub without clothes. It was cold and terrible. Kim Ki-zek went to the basement and hurriedly put the plug back, and then took a knife to destroy the faucet at the party, but this would not let the water flow out, and because the faucet was broken, the switch could not be turned on. The
movie can only ask questions, but cannot give people answers.
"Parasite" can satisfy a wide range of audiences. Whether you want to experience sensory stimulation, look at topic discussions, narrative skills, or look at artistry from the form, you can get some feedback from this film, especially in metaphor. Adequate arrangements, such as the cockroach metaphor and the appearance of a family when they escape, the living terrain is also in contrast to the social rank, and the automatic light shows the "service" relationship between classes, and also symbolizes the "service" used by the lower-class people. "Tools" are all given and controlled by the upper level. In addition, the significance of stones (given by the rich) being "appreciated" in the rich and "used" in the poor also shows luxury and survival, violence, indirect violence and Connection of different classes.
The attitude of the Jin family towards drunks at the door of the house before and after the social class upgrade, respectively showed their increase in internal self-confidence and the demand for self-esteem. In addition, the metaphor of "taste" is just like the design of this film. The first part is just the smell of washing powder, but the latter part represents the class difference beyond smell, and this "smell" is composed of two classes at the same time. Individual self-arrogance and inferiority complex, the most powerful metaphor of this taste, is that the original "tangible" smell can be transformed into a psychological state following the characters, and this makes the film stack a certain depth of discussion in the latter part.
"Parasite" is Feng Junhao's greatest artistic achievement at present. From this film, we can see that he has been very proficient in the language of the film. Except for the genre, many details show his skills, such as the middle section of the bed under the bed. , On the sofa, under the table, there are parallel editing of the two scenes when the hostess eats instant noodles and Kim Ki-ze treats the basement, which naturally expresses the concept of "two worlds" in a sophisticated and steady manner. In addition, the penultimate shot of the whole film, Kim Ki-taek, walked out of the basement and stayed away from the long shot of the camera and his son. He made good use of the audience's habit of film forms and played a little trick, so that the real ending fell short.
"Parasite" is almost an all-round success. It has reached an amazing level at all levels. In addition, the artistic existence of this film is rare and very special. It is definitely one of the movies that should be remembered in the contemporary era.
