Palme d’Or is the Cannes Film Festival’s best award given to the “director of the best competition among films” invited by the Cannes Film Festival. Although there had been several Asian winners of the Palme d’Or, it is the first time for a Korean director to win the prize, which makes this a more meaningful event.
Director Bong Jun-ho’s Golden Palm Award
There is the phrase - genre “Bong Jun-ho” and “Bong-tail”1) among the movie fans. This shows the deep trust for Bong Jun-ho in movie industries. Bong Jun-ho said that the “PARASITE (2019)” is a movie that is thoroughly sad before it even speaks of hope. Interesting details of “PARASITE” is the black square entrance of basement links with other Bong Jun-ho’s films. Moreover Bong forms low-angle of a “stone” as if it is a human, and comparing the difference between “a rich dog” and “a poor dog” is also one of those details. All these “Bong-tail”s make movie genre the Bong Jun-ho, himself.
One of the key points of director Bong Jun-ho’s movie is music. “PARASITE” was composed and arranged by music director Jung Jae-il to create the overall flow. The background music (bgm) is “messed up Baroque Music”, a combination of baroque music and Trot-like melodies. With these melodies, music director made up the melody that reminds of stairway, which is especially well suited to the main theme of “Rising and Falling” in film “PARASITE ”.
Thoroughly analyzing “ PARASITE ”
Stone that brings luck was given as a gift from Ki-woo’s friend Min-hyuk. The twisted obsession for this incongruous stone suggests that things will eventually be broken down. It also gives feeling of burden for Ki-woo as a practical head of the whole household. Taking this stone while evacuating from flood shows that Ki-woo’s cleverness disappeared because of his reckless faith.
The smell, first noticed by Da-song, is described as an “unchangeable difference in status”. This is a semibasement smell that no matter how much you wash, and no matter how much you do the laundry there still exists – that is, the miserable smell of poverty.
The meaning of the title is also an important metaphor. In fragmentary view, it seems “PARASITE” only refers to Gi-taek’s family. In a larger frame, not only Moon-kwang’s or Gi-taek’s family, but also the CEO Park’s family is parasitic on the power of “labor”. They have the “capital”, but they do not know how to use wisely with out the labor. They do not even know how to cook “Jjapaguri”.2) This shows that even the most powerful capital is helpless without labor.
1) Combined word of Bong Jun-ho + Detail. Director Bong Jun-ho is famous for specified details hidden in his films.
2) Combined word meaning Jjapagetti (Korean Black-bean ramen) + RtA (Korean ramen)