Image: Snowpiercer and Parasite
In early 2020, before everything fell apart at the seams, the South Korean film, Parasite, won various awards at The Oscars. Predominately for Best Picture and Best Director, Bong Joon Ho. Parasite made history for all its achievements. People were so happy that a foreign film got the recognition and awards it deserves, and that Bong Joon Ho’s talents were finally shown to the world. And rightfully so. To be honest, I haven’t seen many of his films, but the ones I have seen are very well done. Parasite is a great example of this (it’s the reason I’m not the only writing essays on it, people love this movie). Another great example is his 2013 Sci-Fi film, Snowpiercer which I watched earlier this year out of curiosity and boredom. Both films are very different in their execution (one being a drama turned horror show and the other being a compelling apocalyptic sci-fi film), but they do have a similar theme that I want to explore here: the theme of the classes and how that reflects on the real world. It’s clear that Ho has some things to say on this particular topic. So, like every other film reviewer out there, I would like to try to dive into these films too.
Image: The Kim Family
Let’s start with what these movies are about. Parasite is about a poor family, the Kims, in Seoul living in what is basically an underground basement. They live in poverty struggling to survive and making ends meet by doing tedious tasks such as make pizza boxes. Suddenly, the family’s son, Ki-woo (played by Woo-sik Choi), is given an opportunity from a friend: He has the chance to take a tutoring job to teach a rich family, the Parks, daughter. There is a problem. Ki-woo does not have the credentials to tutor. So, he and his sister, Ki-jung (So-dam Park), forge a degree for him in order to pass the interview and get the job. Ki-woo succeeds and now works for the wealthy Parks. Seeing how the Parks, specifically the wife, Yeon-gyo (Yeo-jeong Jo), are oblivious to his lie and naïve in general, Ki-woo devises a plan to get his whole family to work for the Parks as more opportunities open up for them. At first, it starts out with Yeon-gyo thinking that she needs to get her son, Da-song (Hyun-jun Jung), an art-therapist because of his strange paintings and behavior. Ki-woo manages to get his sister, Ki-jung to pose as said therapist, landing her the lucrative job. Eventually, the whole family comes up with clever, calculated schemes to get other servants of the Parks to get fired so that they can take their place. This whole plan works and now the Kims have taken over the Parks home. I can’t say what happens next as that goes into spoiler territory, but I do recommend watching the film yourself to see the twists and turns Ho has in store.
Image: Curtis (Chris Evans), Edgar (Jamie Bell), Gilliam (John Hurt)
Now, Snowpiercer. Snowpiercer, based off a French novel, takes place in an artic wasteland that has consumed all of Earth. Humanity tried their best to stop global warming and their last resort was an experiment that would cool down Earth to a reasonable temperature. Unfortunately, this plan backfires horribly. Instead of just dropping the temperature by some 10s of degrees, the experiment drops Earth’s temperature to several degrees below zero effectively freezing everyone and everything in its path. Except for a long train called Snowpiercer and the people who inhabit it. This train is run by an old man named Wilford and this train is the only place of survival in the world. This train travels around the globe constantly and contains 10s of cars that each have their own unique setting ranging from the poverty and grime of the Tail (the end of the train), to an aquarium, to a classroom, to a high-class restaurant for the rich. The main character, Curtis (played greatly by Chris Evans) is the leader of the Tail and has devised many plans to escape the Tail with his team and get to the head of the car to take down Wilford and give freedom and equality to his people who have suffered for so long. One day, he finally devises a plan that hopefully gets at least one person to the head of the train even if blood has to be shed.
Here, we have two very different films in terms of concept and plot. But, like I said before, they focus on the similar theme on class: the differences between them and the unfairness of the gap between them. As we see in today’s society, the gap between the rich and the poor is astronomical. The rich have everything they could ever dream of: a nice home, delicious food, high-paying jobs with amazing benefits, and little to no worries. They are born and live on silver platters that are served to them every day. The poor (sometimes even the middle class) are much worse off. They work low ranked jobs that only offers them minimum wage at best (some going as low as $7 an hour), struggle to pay rent, and have trouble making ends meet. Even something as simple as getting food is a chore and a half. To even find a something as miraculous as a decent-paying job would take an insane amount of luck even with the right amount of skills and resources (I know this all too well). Bong Joon Ho portrays these themes in the most symbolic way I’ve seen in media. He doesn’t make fun of the topic and brush it off as a “all too real” joke. He instead treats it seriously and uses it as a way to make the audience think about what he might be trying to say both above and below the surface.
Image: Curtis (Chris Evans)
There are a few examples in each film that portrays this. I’ll go in reverse order and start with Snowpiercer. Like I said before, the Snowpiercer is a train with 10s of cars going from the poverty of the Tail to the high-class end of the Head. The people in the Tail live in grimy, sooty environments. They have beds on top of each other that each act as an individual room. Their walkways are metal and surrounded by rails. Their only source of food are these jello-like blocks that are disgusting just by looking at them. Everyone’s clothes are ragged’ they look like hand-me-downs at best and recycled trash at worst. The people at the top visit them on a daily basis to check on them to see if they’ve eaten or if they want to recruit any for what is basically free labor in exchange for living with the higher class. If anyone disobeys or stand up against them, they will punish them in violent ways that I honestly don’t want to describe. Life in the Tail is basically a living Hell.
As for the people up front, they are living lives like there’s nothing to worry about. They have classes for their children, delicacies such as fruit, vegetables, and sushi to eat, saunas to relax in, and even clubs to hang out at and get high off of. They don’t get punished or malnourished like the people at the Tail do. They live comfortably in their own lives. This is the life Curtis and his crew want. This is why they desire justice and equality for their people. As much as they want to become part of the higher class themselves and give those already in that class a taste of their own medicine, they also just want to live their lives as comfortably as those who already have that luxury.
It’s a commentary on how unfair the system is. Those on the front of the train have the wealth, the comfort, the power. They can do whatever they want and they don’t have to worry about a single thing because that thing can always be fixed. And if they do something wrong, that doesn’t matter either. The worst they get is a slap on the wrist. Those in the back of the train have barley survive each day and when they do try to make it to the higher-ups, they are punished with death and bloodshed.
Image: The Aquarium
There is one scene in particular that highlights the differences between the two. Around the middle of the film, Curtis and his team drag Tilda Swinton’s high-class hostage, Mason (who tried to get her men to kill them earlier), across the train when they stop at a car that serves sushi as well as has an aquarium around it. The group eat the sushi and delight in what feels like the first real meal in forever. Mason mentions that this amazing sushi is only served 2 times a year, most likely dude to being less resources/population of fish since the experiment most likely froze them underwater before the events of the film. Though this scene is one of the smaller ones in the film, I think it’s very important to the message Ho is telling. The more fortunate like Mason are aware of how many times they can enjoy the sushi. They know what it tastes like and how valuable it is. The same goes for the fruit and eggs Curtis and his team come across a few scenes later. They aren’t starving for this food because they already have it in their grasps. Curtis and his friends, however, savor this food for as long as they can because, as far as they know, this is probably the only chance they’ll ever get at a life of luxury in some capacity. This is the only time they might eat fish that’s not raw, the only time they’ll see fresh fruit, the only time they’ll get a whiff of a hard-boiled egg. They don’t know if their plan to take over the train will even work; some of them might die along the way. So, they take every chance they get to soak in the sights and flavors of these high-class cars (which are incredibly well-designed) in order to live in the lap of luxury at least once. For one moment, they are living as they should because they might never get that chance again.
Now let’s look more into Parasite. The Kims, our main focus, are living in a basement apartment. It is literally underground and their windows are so tiny they can only see the street floors from above. Barely any sunlight comes through them. They have a small kitchen and a tiny family table. Their bathroom and tub are cramped into one small room and it’s the only place where the family can get decent wi-fi. The Kims home can barely even be called an apartment. The Parks, on the other hand, are living like kings and queens. They live up on a hill with a beautiful view of Seoul and a large yard in front of their home. Their home is a large, architecturally impressive piece of work that has a large kitchen, large living room, multiple rooms upstairs for the family, guests, offices, etc. and a basement to store things and hold a small wine cellar. Their living room even has a large row of windows that reach from floor to ceiling that shows the view of the yard and of Seoul. Everything about this home is beautiful and everything about it screams high-class. I can’t imagine how must this house must cost. Added on with the workers they have and the expensive food they buy, the Parks are probably richer than the film portrays. Unless you become incredibly successful, lucky financially, or are born into a wealthy family, buying and living in a place like that is a fever dream that can never come true.
Image: Ki-taek Kim (Kang-ho Song) and Ki-woo Kim (Woo-sik Choi)
The setting is the most symbolic representation of the separation of class for the families in this film. One scene in Parasite emphasizes that greatly and it’s the one with the flood. I’ll try not to spoil too much here. After trying to spend the night alone in the house while the Parks are away on a camping trip, the Parks suddenly return home dude to a massive rainstorm. Panicked, the Kims sneak out of the house successfully and run back home as quickly as possible before their basement home starts to flood. Unfortunately, it does and everything they have is soaked, floating in the water, or has already drowned. Thankfully, they all survive the ordeal, but their home is ruined, they have nothing to wear but the dripping clothes they wore the day before, and they’re now living in a shelter with other families until the water drains itself out. It’s an absolute nightmare for the Kims and they still have to make sure they’re not found out by the Parks the next day. On the other hand, the Parks are more than comfortable with the rainstorm. Yes, their camping trip was ruined, but they can rest at home. They don’t have to worry about the flooding because they live up on a hill where the water goes downwards. They don’t have problems with the house because everything is clean and in tip-top shape. They still have food, water, beds, and a massive roof over their head. In general, this rainstorm is nothing but water falling from the sky to help grow their grass the morning after.
This one scene shows how different a situation can be depending on how one lives. The rainstorm was a blessing in a way for people like the Parks who see the rain as convenience for their yard. They get to wake up the next day like nothing had happened. On the other side of things, the rainstorm was a disaster for people like the Kims. Everything in their homes were soaked with water and sewage. They had no place to sleep and no clothes to spare. Even finding a place to use the bathroom was probably difficult for them. They couldn’t even sleep in their own homes; they had to go to a shelter. What it all boils down to is “The rich are fortunate and the poor are not; The rich live in blissful ignorance while the poor face the harshness of reality”. The only way for the poor to even remotely achieve such success as the rich have would take an insane amount of time and luck, and even then, they might not succeed.
Both Parasite and Snowpiercer are excellent films that tell incredible stories while also giving a message underneath. The message of the differences of class and how it’s basically impossible to close that gap between them is an important message that rings wholly true today. The rich are still swimming in money while the poor and middle class are struggling to make ends meet. You can barely live in big cities like NYC without somehow having a boatload of money or living with numerous roommates to share the rent. I don’t want to talk politics here, but the “The 1% vs. The 99%” argument here in the U.S. comes to mind. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was going on in Bong Joon Ho’s head too when making these films. Ho is right when he gives these messages. He knows the struggle people go through and how unfair the system is. The way he portrays it in his films is both unnerving and realistic. We all want to live a comfortable life with little to no worries about what will happen the next day. The unfortunate part is that not everyone can live like that and some people can never get out. The best we can do is try. It’s honestly hard for me to dive more into this film without going into spoilers here. The reason why I don’t go into spoiler territory is because I truly believe some pieces of media deserve to be consumed on one’s own. You can have someone tell you the plot, but that isn’t the same as experiencing it yourself with your own eyes, ears, and thoughts. You can read all the essays and watch all the YouTube videos about these films you want, but I implore you to watch these films during your own time to truly understand what kind of story Bong Joon Ho is telling.
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