In the movie “Parasite” by Bong Joon-ho uses different tones and genres
In the movie “Parasite” by Bong Joon-ho uses different tones and genres have been used to define the theme of the film. Art cinema has definition has been confined in traditional meaning of what an art cinema should contain specific features to be classified as an art cinema. However, Parasite, Bong Jon Ho refutes this claim because the film contains different tones and genres and does not contain any specific genre as he does not classify the movie using a particular element, which shows how contemporary art cinema has incorporated new ways of defining art cinema. The tone of the Parasite films can be classified as dramatic, scary, and funny because it incorporates both realistic views of the character’s lives, such as their class, but still offers comic elements about the character’s actions. The scary tone is depicted in the end of the film where it turns bizarre when Kim cannot take the humiliation from Mr. Park and goes on kill him in a bizarre manner (Joon-Ho, 2019, 1:55:11). The parasite use of these tones shows how it can be classified as an art film because it incorporates expressionism and neorealism. According to Sang-Hun (2020), “Parasite” has mesmerized viewers around the world by exposing a much grimmer side of South Korea’s economic growth: urban poverty, and the humiliation and class strife it has spawned.” This shows the real lives of Korean people as depicted by the characters, which make the movie an art cinema. The dramatic and funny tone has overly dominated the film until the end when a horror-filled tone is used to depict the epitome of the leeching impact of both Kim and Park families.
In Parasite, the director has highlighted different genre which incorporates both art cinema and contemporary world cinema such as action genre, comedy genre, drama genre. Still, he says that one can classify the movie differently. The action genre experiences at the end of the film, where Mr. Kim stabs, Mr. Park, at the birthday party, and live to hide in the same house. This genre incorporated a sense of horror, which is depicted in German expressionism; however, this is more modern because there is no use of makeup or sharp angles. The comedy and drama genre in the movie depicts art cinema elements such as realism in showing how Kim’s family lives in extreme poverty in their squalid basement-level apartment (Joon-Ho, 2019, 1:35:45). This shows the standard of living in South Korea, which can correlate with Italian films such as Bicycle Thieves, which shows the challenges people face in society.
In “Theorizing Art Cinema” by David Andrews highlights different criteria used in defining art cinema. The art cinema has always carried a lot of classical conventions in defining what it should entail. Andrew says, “In such ways, this cultural area has prompted its participants to act as individual evaluators who are always ready to restrict art cinema to its “essence.” (Andrews, 2019, p.16).. This individuals first criteria s depicted in Parasite is the use of auteurs where Ho agrees that he has gone on similar ordeal as a citizen in South Korea such as tutoring a wealthy family child. This shows that the director used his personal experiences in the film, which is the first criteria that define the movie as an art cinema. “The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice” by David Bordwell explores criteria that should be used in classifying a film as an art cinema. Bordwell claims that an art cinema should “show us real locations and real problems” (153). This is depicted in the film Parasite, where we can see Kim’s family living in abject poverty, and they are forced to lie out of poverty, but they are stopped by the reality of classism that exists in South Korea(Interview with Bong Joon-ho, 15:12). This can be correlated to neorealism Italian films such as “The Bicycle Thief” by Vittorio De Sica, where the action of characters depicts what is happening in the real world. However, Ho has incorporated classical Hollywood features such as action, which is illustrated when Mr. Kim attacks Park family, which can be explained why the film has been classified as Contemporary World Cinema and Best International Feature Film, not as previously referred as foreign art movies. The Parasite is a definition of what Andrew referred to as universality when it came to the criteria of defining art cinema.