[Movie review] A comedy wins Palme d’Or, why should Bong Joon-ho?

's "Parasite" won Palme d'Or is an unexpected and delightful thing, even the director Feng Junhao himself did not have confidence before the award. As we all know, the Cannes Film Festival has always been repellent to commercial films, and "Parasite" is an extremely commercial film. This award is a subversion of the previous selection mechanism.

In terms of the quality of the film, the Palme d'Or of "Parasite" is definitely well-deserved, and Feng Junhao has dedicated the most dedicated and mature work of his director career. Even in commercial films, the thought-provoking social expression is still there. For Bong Joon-ho, a sociologically born director, it is too simple. There is no need to worry about the depth of the film.

It can be said that this movie is the masterpiece of Feng Junhao, who has summarized and upgraded his previous technology. The first half of the movie tells a very interesting story. Feng Junhao was very efficient in this hour of narration. It only took less than 10 minutes to clearly explain the character and the background, and immediately entered the main line, allowing the audience to quickly Substitute into the plot. The first hour of

was a mature and wonderful comedy, and the second half an hour was the embodiment of Bong Junhao's ambition. It can be said that the front is just his normal performance, and the back is the main course. So this time I will mainly talk about how Bong Joon-ho shows his superb directing skills in the second half of the film.

Five time bombs

Hitchcock once said that if the screen explodes at the beginning and many people die, the audience will not be too surprised, but if you tell the audience there is a time bomb at the beginning, and The protagonist doesn't know, the audience will be nervous about it, thinking about the bomb all the time.

And Bong Junhao played this theory to the extreme. In that wonderful rainstorm scene, he set a total of five time bombs.

Before the heavy rain, Song Kanghao’s family was eating, drinking, and having fun at the rich man’s house, and they began to fantasize that they were part of this family. Some viewers felt that the scene was too long. I personally think it’s just right because they want the family to stay with themselves. Intoxicated, and the director has unknowingly put the first time bomb, that is, I don't know when the owner will return.

A thunder struck down, and heavy rain began to fall. The family’s fate officially entered the second stage, so the doorbell rang, but it was not the owner, but the former housekeeper (the camera took the former housekeeper extraordinarily hideous and deepened The tension of the audience). The former housekeeper shows up, will you find them? The second time bomb was also planted.

opened the door and the former housekeeper came in and said to get something, so he ran to the basement and turned around and asked if he wanted to follow him. What terrible things are in the basement and will it cause any harm to the owner's family? The third time bomb was also planted.

found the housekeeper’s husband in the basement, and the former housekeeper also found the protagonist’s family, so the second bomb began to explode. The former housekeeper of

filmed a video with her husband to threaten them. The third bomb exploded.

During a dispute, the hostess called and said to be back in 8 minutes. The first bomb finally exploded. But there is a new time bomb, that is, how to solve the scene and leave within 8 minutes.

The protagonist’s family messed up the former housekeeper and husband, and finally left the scene by all means. At this time, the last bomb had been buried by the director, and that was the two people in the basement. This bomb was left until the last climax. Just broke out.

Even if it is a general commercial movie, it can put two to three time bombs at most, and Feng Junhao actually put five! The reason why this rainstorm scene is wonderful is that it is because of the difficulties one after another, the sense of crisis has never stopped, and the audience has been feeling this kind of tension. This is the foundation of Feng Junhao's storytelling, which is absolutely impossible for ordinary directors with such narrative ability.

The gap between the rich and the poor

Bong Junhao sets up two opposing identities in the movie, the rich and the poor. In the first half, we can see that the rich are completely played and applauded by the poor. This is set by Bong Junhao. Imagine that the audience really thinks that the protagonist’s family has an advantage. The reason why the rainstorm drama is wonderful is to break the illusion and bring both the protagonist and the audience back to reality.

How does Feng Junhao cleverly express the rich and the poor? First of all, let’s look at the casting. The actors of the rich family generally have high looks, while the poor family’s appearance is relatively more ordinary. The families of the rich are kind and simple, while the families of the poor are despicable and cunning. The rich are far better than the poor, both externally and internally. Remember the rich man in the middle of the rainstormThe scene when the home came home? The poor families hid under the bed or table one after another, like cockroaches hiding around. Only when the poor are filmed like cockroaches can this kind of identity opposition be so strong.

is the design of the scene again. The rich and the poor live in the houses. The rich live uphill and the poor live underground. At first, the feeling to the audience is that the residential environment is different. The opposition between the rich and the poor is not obvious until the rainstorm scene. . How did the poor family get back after escaping from the house? It runs along the uphill all the way to the lowest, and the rain also slides all the way from the uphill to the bottom. I still remember the hostess sighed after the rain that the rain had cleaned the yard. What she didn't know was that the rain flooded the houses of the poor family and left countless people without houses. Suppose this rain cleans the houses of the rich, and the houses of the poor are sewers. The washed rainwater turns into sewage and flows to the houses of the poor. (The toilet is set in the highest position of this house, and the significance of the sewer is more obvious)

While the poor man was busy with the flooded home, the son of the rich man on the other side pitched a tent in the rain to play soldier games. While the poor are waiting for help, the rich are slowly choosing among the gorgeous clothes. These contrasts are very obvious, but the most prominent is the smell. The smell is not the smell of the toilet or the clothes, but the smell of poverty. This smell has widened the gap between the rich and the poor, and this smell is also Represents class consolidation. There are many metaphors and symbols in the

stone and the basement

, the most prominent is the stone. The lucky stone sent by the protagonist’s friend makes the protagonist’s family transfer. The first position is exchanged by the friend, and the next position is won by the family. This stone brought everything to the protagonist's family and ended everything.

still remember the last actor holding a stone. He wanted to end everything. The meaning behind it was that he wanted to kill two people in the basement. Why did he use this stone? Because he wants to gamble again, can this lucky stone fall in love with him again? However, this bet was lost. The

movie talks about how the poor parasitize the rich. The concept of parasitism is brought to the extreme in the basement. The man in the basement has lived in it for several years. All his sources of life are derived from the owner of the mansion, and he himself has no desires and desires, and only wants to stay in this place for a lifetime. The basement of

is a microcosm of society for the poor. When combined with the real world, how many people live in the government or company all their lives, just for stability. But the sad thing is that everything you have is left to the rich. If the rich suddenly decide to move out and there is no one living in this mansion, it means that the source of life is cut off. The death of

's wife made the man in the basement walk out. The knife in his hand was a baton for the entrance of the basement.

Why did Song Kanghao stabbed that knife? It was the gust of smell mentioned earlier. The smell was emitted by the man who died on the ground. The male host saw the dead man holding his nose with an expression of disgust. This was the real fuse. This means that the man who died was originally the same person as himself, and in the eyes of the rich, all the poor are the same. So he took the knife, performed that extreme behavior, and completed the handover ceremony for the basement entrance. The setting of

is very interesting. The man in the basement walked out of the basement because he was dead, and Song Kanghao decided to go into the basement because he was dead.

​​Class solidification is an eternal topic in movies, and it has become more and more serious in recent years. Last year, Li Cangdong's "Burning" also talked about the same theme. Bong Junhao used superb storytelling skills to tell us that even if it is fully commercialized, there can be in-depth social expression. The two have always been balanced. The "Parasite" we see today can be so wonderful , Is derived from Feng Junhao's accumulation and practice over the years. Looking at his "Kidnapping of the Doorway Dog", "Mother", and "Snow Country Train", you will find that his expression has never changed over the years.

text/jiangliu