Saw a screening at mk2 in the city center tonight. The venue, which can accommodate 200 people, was packed. The last time I saw so many people in a cinema in Paris was the premiere of a Hollywood blockbuster, which shows how influential the Palme d'Or is. During the screening, the audience burst into laughter from time to time, which shows that the director's humor crosses cultures and reaches people's hearts. After the screening, the audience applauded, which shows how wonderful the movie is. (The comments below contain spoilers.)
At the beginning, the Jin family sisters and brothers (probably brothers and sisters) searched 360 degrees for free Wi-Fi in the cramped semi-basement. The director used this dark humor to set the tone of the whole film bright and absurd. Afterwards, the younger brother who dropped out of school, who failed many times in the re-examination, forged his academic qualifications under the introduction of a friend and entered the house of a wealthy businessman Mr. Park to be his daughter's English tutor. Then, the Jin family, who found the opportunity to "slaughter the fat sheep", used all means to enter the Park family to work. In the process of "upgrading", the director's arrangement is full of jokes: the Kim family's particularly dramatic means went very smoothly; the Park family was exceptionally naive and obedient, and carried out exactly according to the Jin family's plan. In this extremely surreal contrast, the director borrowed the words of Mother Jin to raise a question: why are the poor so "scheming", and why are the rich so "innocent and kind"? Are poor people bad because they are poor, or are they bad in nature? If people live in a rich and comfortable environment, is there no need to be bad?
What's wrong with living in poverty? The actors in the film revealed the truth to us through casual conversations: jobs are hard to find, money is hard to earn, society doesn’t seem to value the so-called true skills, and it seems that birth decides everything. Without money, there will be no better learning opportunities, without academic qualifications, there will be no job opportunities... Everything is an endless cycle, and people can't see the hope of social class mobility. For example, the younger brother of the Jin family has retaken the exam many times and has fully mastered English grammar, vocabulary, reading, etc. He is fully qualified for the job of tutoring. However, if there is no recommendation from acquaintances and fake diplomas, he will never have a job opportunity.
The Kim family seems to have ushered in a new chapter in their life after the family achieved employment, and getting rich seems to be on the agenda. However, the director ruthlessly shattered their beautiful fantasy. The family enjoys a luxurious lifestyle while the Park family is out on a trip, only to be interrupted by an unexpected visit from the former housekeeper. They found that the former housekeeper was secretly raising a sick husband in the basement of the Park family, and the Jin family had a conflict with the housekeeper and his wife, and had to keep the latter two in the dark room. During the conflict, Mr. Jin asked the housekeeper husband why he didn’t move out of the basement, and the housekeeper husband answered without ambition that the basement was fine and there was nowhere else to go. In my opinion, the next climax of the film is to answer why people become the walking dead and live on.
The people of the Park family were blocked by the sudden heavy rain, so they turned back home; the Jin family, who were reckless in other people's homes, secretly escaped from the Park family after experiencing many tests. On a rainy night, Dad Jin ran with his children on a street with few people. At this time, although no one was paying attention to them, as a viewer, I felt that all their dignity was shattered, and the scene where they returned to their home where the rain flooded the dilapidated house just embodied this despair: Dad rescued the family The only "honor" medal, the younger brother holds the stone that brought opportunities and shatters the dream, the elder sister is trying in vain to block the toilet that burst out of mud...Life is a flood that sweeps everything, full of Filthy and unbearable, all struggles are in vain.
Lying in the gymnasium where the victims were temporarily relieved, Dad Jin, who was always rude and had been complaining about his lack of life plans, suddenly became enlightened. He taught his son that there is no need to have a plan in life, because if there is a plan, there will be disappointments, and a life without a plan will make people expect nothing, and there will also be no disappointments. I think he really gave up the struggle after living in the basement in place of his former housekeeper's husband. However, the director did not keep his thinking in complete pessimism. He arranged for the younger brother of the Park family to formulate a new struggle plan-to become rich, buy a house, and save his father. However, in the scene switching of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the big house and the ventilation windows of the basement, we can't help but wonder: Can this "arrogant" dream come true? Do people still need to dream in despair? You know you can't do it, why not?
When asking this grand question, the director's grasp of details and insight into people's hearts are quite admirable. In the film, the moment that inspired Dad Kim to kill is the scene where President Park involuntarily covers his nose when he contacts the husband of the former housekeeper. This action deeply offended Dad Jin's self-esteem, because he overheard President Park and his wife dislike his poor and sour taste before. What an instinctive disgust, what a real inferiority complex! How many vicious cases in social news are caused by such seemingly trivial details that touch the pain points of the parties? ! Poor and sour, old, earthy, low... How many labels do we use to distinguish others from ourselves, and how many labels limit the freedom of ourselves and others? Just after the movie ended, I couldn't help but buy a KFC to take home when I was hungry, but to be honest, I was really ashamed to take the subway with his bag, because this behavior seemed to exude a sense of poverty that could not be concealed. . See, that's how life is limited and self-limited.
In addition, I think the director's brilliant point is that he did not limit the conflict to a simple confrontation between rich and poor. Although the film is full of contrasts between the two lives, the director did not present the contradiction as a confrontation between the two sides, nor did he treat Mr. Jin's family as a simple and crude hatred of the rich. In fact, as the former housekeeper husband and father Kim at the bottom, they know that their embarrassment is not directly caused by the wealth of others, and they are very grateful to President Park for giving them the opportunity to work. I think what they are dissatisfied with may be this social reality with no way out. In fact, the sad thing is not only the ants who live like ants, but in a set of switching shots between the basement transom and the floor-to-ceiling windows of the mansion, I also clearly felt the sadness of people as wealthy as the Park family living in a bird cage step by step—— At the end of the movie, the new rich move into the Park family's mansion, and no one remembers the previous family. Perhaps this is the real problem of society: everyone lives only according to their role in society, and what we lack is actually caring for "people". above.
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