The Forgotten Neoliberal Man of Parasite

[soryang]

The Forgotten Neoliberal Man of Parasite
[Spoiler Warning: This post discusses highly granular details of the movie Parasite, and it really wouldn’t make sense unless you watched the movie first.]
March 4, 2020 by T.K. at Ask a Korean

...Parasite is often conceived as a critique of neoliberal capitalism—more specifically, how the callous obliviousness of the rich humiliates and degrades the poor. That is indeed what the movie does, and the better reviews of the movie—this one on the Jacobin magazine comes to mind—focuses strongly on all the details of South Korea’s neoliberal society created the division between the rich Parks and the poor Kims. But by failing to discuss Geun-sae, the analysis that focuses on the rich versus the poor loses sight of the crucial flip side of Parasite’s commentary: Ki-taek versus Geun-sae, the poor versus the poor...

http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-forgotten-neoliberal-man-of-parasite.html?m=1

Had the opportunity to see the film on hulu recently. I had been putting off reading TK's review because it's a spoiler, discussing the movie, it's characters and plot in great detail. Some family members found the film unpleasant and it really is. I enjoyed the symbolism in the allegorical film, but the Ask a Korean review was worthwhile after because I missed a number of the visual cues. When I first heard of the film's plot it reminded me of the rich family poor family theme in so many South Korean dramas but there is a difference or wrinkle in this film as it characterizes neoliberal society in much more critical terms.