Reflection

Gisaengchung/Parasite Film Review Student’s Name Institution Course Code: Course Name Professor’s Name Submission Date In Parasite, Bong Joon-ho mounts a compelling critique in light of the haunting ghosts of colonialism while at the same time dismissively challenging the exclusionary discourses through the living characterizations of one impoverished family, the Kims, versus an affluent one, the Parks. A sharp juxtaposition of the Kims' compact semi-basement lodgings against the Parks' mansion-like home underlines social stratification and contemplates the persistence of colonialist hierarchies in South Korea. Unlike the Parks, representing a high-lying home symbolic of aspirations ignited but accessible only for an elite minority, the lowly position of the Kims underlines the systemic suppression of the underprivileged. One revealing scene that puts these fractures forward is when Mr. Park comments on Mr. Kim's "smell," metaphorically relating it to subway travelers, to be more precise-poverty. This silent disgust speaks volumes of an "us versus them" mentality, putting to fore the prejudice that perpetuates further alienation and marginalization of people with low incomes. Mr. Park's reaction epitomizes traces of colonial thinking, where social boundaries are stringently kept, and the impoverished are almost invisible to the elite. Disdain represents a remaining divide that would frame people with low incomes as undesirable outsiders in the society that they belong to (Oberman, 2020). The Kims' calculated infiltration into t...