Korean melodrama

Korean melodrama

Korean melodrama is one of the popular movie industries in the world. People of the Korean culture and million others of different heritages watch the films for entertainment purposes. Similarly, Korean melodrama often has themes that are universal such as the wealth gap plots, love, family, allegiance to friends, and expressions of beauty, to mention but a few. The common themes allow the drama to be popular among Korean native speakers and the world as a whole. The advancement of the Korean drama narratives has educated the world on some of the standard practices in the South Korean culture and modern society in the manner through which it is captured in the films. The theme of the My Sassy Girl and the recent film Parasite are similar in expressing the wealth gap but differ in the illustration of conspiracy as captured by the characters in the film. Nonetheless, Parasite captures the explanation of the wealth gap in the community by using different editing and scene placements in the movie.

Comparative analysis

Both the film on My Sassy Girl and Parasite captures the looming wealth gap in the community reflected in the movie. The movie on the sassy princes shows the wealth gap between her and the character played by Jung Ki-Joon. The characters are from different wealth worlds in which they are not allowed to love and often associated; thus, the girl is forced to be married to the villain in the narrative based on the social classes. As an author highlights, “What is dramatized from the real is a particular pattern of economic inequality — the rich belong to the transnational capitalist class who own multinational corporations, and the poor are constantly threatened with unemployment” (Yang, 2012, p. 425). In that, the popular element of the Koren drama is the illustration of the poor and the rich in the society. In the critically acclaimed film parasite, the wealth gap is also expressed in a modern sense. The central family, the Kims, in the narrative, live in the poor class as they lack the essential commodities such as Wi-Fi, a comfortable apartment, and jobs in the society. The lack of primary resources thus leads them to look for work in the rich half of community. In the luxurious mansions, the director reveals aspects of richness as the Park family can afford a good home and workers (Joon-Ho 13:02). Both films capture the extreme cases of poverty and abundance in the society and the interaction between people of both social classes. The social classes are seen as barriers to several aspects, such as basic humanity and the element of love.

Even so, the themes of the films differ in the time presentation in each movie; however, it captures the cultures in the nation at different times. As an author explains, “The Korean Wave (Hallyu in Korean), symbolizing the rapid growth of the Korean cultural industries and their exports of popular culture” (Jin, 2018, p.405). The various cultures, both traditional and modern, are captured in the majority of the K-drama. Despite being produced in the current decade, the k-drama directed by Ji-Seok, the sassy girl, captures the historical aspect of the Korean society. In that, the narrative is based in a palace showing the difference in wealth as portrayed in the historical context. The main actress in the film is a troubled prince who falls in love with a scholar and servant in the community. The difference in wealth is captured in the palace and old setting. On the other hand, Joon-Ho captures the difference in the economic gap, as revealed in modern society. For example, the Kim family makes pizza delivery boxes and lives in the lower apartment in a busy city. On the other hand, the rich enjoy a serene and quiet ambiance in their society (Joon-Ho 12:05). The scenes o both films are captured at different times and express different aspects of the Korean culture. The illustration of the past and present is intriguing as it captures the extreme cases of wealth disparity and various ways in which the society has struggled with the differences from the past and present.

More focused research on Parasites

The film expresses the theme of economic inequality in Korea. The modern film has been recognized globally since winning at the Academy Awards, and others acknowledged film awards. The director and the scriptwriters express the leading family in the movie as being poor and struggling to get by in life. For example, in the opening scene, the family seems to lack Wi-Fi and the ability to remove flies and bugs from their home, thus relying on the street fumigation services (Joon-Ho 3:32). The Kim family does not have the basic needs in the house as their business of delivering pizza boxes is not sustainable. The first scene in the movies shows the extreme case of poverty and the struggle to get a better life. Despite the plight of the Kim family, other families such as the Park family enjoys abundance in their hoe and luxuries. Despite being a Korean family, the Seoul family can afford an English tutor, play archery, and other vacationing priorities. As an author of the Atlantic explains, “Parasite is that, while the Korean class system’s injustices may stem from its distancing effect, its most profound harms result from proximity—from the intense relationships of interdependence forged between the rich and the poor under capitalism” (Seo, 2019). The difference in society is well expressed in the interaction with the other two families. The families differ in hilarious and significant ways. For instance, one can afford meat to go with the instant noodles while others cannot. Moreover, the wealthy family can provide good shelter while it rains while the Kim family homes flood when it rains. The differences between the rich and poor are well captured in the theme of the film.

A prominent theme in the film is also the aspect of the values in the society. The values of people seem to differ based on their material needs. The social setting of the movie is entrenched on the aspect of comfort as presented by the material accumulation of one family over the other. The Kim family is revealed as being cunning and dishonest based on their social class, while the rich are expressed as loving and easily gullible. As the author of Forbes explains, “Parasite tells the story of a poverty-stricken family, the Kim, who cunningly place themselves in the service of the Parks, an obscenely wealthy household who have been unknowingly harboring a stranger in their basement for years” (Placid, 2020). In that, the family home of the Parks has been used to hide people as well as being taken advantage of by the workers in their home. Even so, Mrs. park continues to show kindness to various people that work for them. The innocence of the rich is also captured in the interaction between Ki-Jung and Mrs. Park as she convinces her why getting an older driver is better than a young person so as to get the position for the father (Joon-Ho, 2019, 36:20). On the other hand, the poor family is revealed as being full of trickery and conspiracies based on social class. The Kim family is illustrated as invading the home of the Parks under different names and failure to acknowledge their kinship ties. The difference in values plays a subtle role in capturing the understanding of society on the differences in the beliefs of the society about the rich and poor members of society.

The film Parasite falls in the Hallyu genre of K-drama as it expresses the modern popularity of the drama films in the world. As expressed in class, “Hallyu idea was prompted by the Korean drama boom. Hallyu fever infecting neighboring nations such as Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, and Mongolia as well” (‘Korean 142’, 2020, 2). In winning the academy awards, the movie became a major contributor to the genre of Korean wave by allowing the main issues of the community, as revealed in the film, to be captured on an international platform. As experts in Korean Hallyu explain, “The Korean Wave is most distinguishable from other local-based transnational popular cultures such as in Mexico and Brazil, because it has developed several forms of popular culture and digital technologies at the same time and exported them to both Asian countries and Western countries” (Jin & Yoon, 2017, p. 2242). The misce-en-scene, camera angles, and props used in the film were creative and intriguing, thus allowing people from various parts of the world to relate. Similarly, the narrative is not only well-discussed in the Korean culture but also addressed in the western nations. That is, the issue of wealth disparity is a common issue in the current society, with more societies calling for a change in the distribution of wealth. As a result, the west and Korean cultures were intertwined in the common theme expressed in the film. Joon-Ho, together with the team, expresses the challenges of the society in an intriguing and captivating manner, thus ensuring the society is well represented in the creative narrative.

Parasite is a film with a clear message of the social disparities based on wealth, which affects the humanity and values that are necessary for society, such as honesty. The society captured in the narrative is one in which the poor and the rich have different wants and needs where the former goes on the extreme to find the basics. The film relates to the historical representation of the social challenge in my sassy girl. The k-drama developed in the cultural society of palaces and aristocrats captures the extent of the spread in the economic inequality in the Korean culture. Both films are well known to the viewers in the society as they show both the modern and past cultures of the society, thus capturing a long history of the Korean people through film.