Given how illness affects me and how disorienting and difficult movie-watching gets at that time (see my post on ‘Bharat’ for instance), I have decided to stay away from movie-watching at the theatre to the extent possible when I am ill. In my latest episode, I couldn’t sit through ‘Tanhaji’ with its selfie references – the only movie we watched in the theatre - and we left in the interval. I was upset at taking medication outside of home, and felt the CCTV would capture this. Which is true, but the act wouldn’t have been as disorienting on a normal day.
Anyway, Oscar season in 2020 arrived and the sibling asked me more than once if we could watch ‘Parasite’ at the theatre. I did not want to take a chance, and kept postponing the plan. Finally, I watched the movie on Amazon Prime last week in the afternoon, with sub-titles. I can see why the movie won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and still can’t figure out how it got the Best Picture award. It has won numerous awards, so perhaps critics and others can see something in the movie that I cannot - I did prefer 'Joker' on the whole.
I loved how the families were chosen for the leading roles (especially the sister in the poorer family), and how authentic the settings looked especially in the sequences involving torrential rain. I couldn’t fully relate to either family though, and the constant reference to unsavoury smells from the poor left me sad even as I recollected the odour emanating from cabs in Gurugram. What also left me upset was the way art therapy is portrayed in the movie. Trauma-driven mental illness in the rich kid could have been portrayed differently. How different? With more compassion (even for the rich) and letting go of black comedy for a bit. Art therapy doesn't see financial status. Why link it to that? There are differing views on this though.
I also learnt about this dish called Ram-Don (a made-up word for Jjapaguri in Korean) and the role it plays in the movie. MasterChef watching-exposure means I can watch non-vegetarian food getting cooked with more interest than before, and if I had been a non-vegetarian, I would have been tempted to cook this dish myself.
I thought the sex-scene in the movie was done well, and there are several opinions on how uncomfortable the audience felt on watching it. If anyone is hiding and watching others have sex, it is bound to be uncomfortable and privacy endangering, and can bring up several emotions – and this is exactly what the Director wanted the audience to experience.
Watch the trailer here. It is interesting to see who is the parasite.
Anyway, Oscar season in 2020 arrived and the sibling asked me more than once if we could watch ‘Parasite’ at the theatre. I did not want to take a chance, and kept postponing the plan. Finally, I watched the movie on Amazon Prime last week in the afternoon, with sub-titles. I can see why the movie won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and still can’t figure out how it got the Best Picture award. It has won numerous awards, so perhaps critics and others can see something in the movie that I cannot - I did prefer 'Joker' on the whole.
I loved how the families were chosen for the leading roles (especially the sister in the poorer family), and how authentic the settings looked especially in the sequences involving torrential rain. I couldn’t fully relate to either family though, and the constant reference to unsavoury smells from the poor left me sad even as I recollected the odour emanating from cabs in Gurugram. What also left me upset was the way art therapy is portrayed in the movie. Trauma-driven mental illness in the rich kid could have been portrayed differently. How different? With more compassion (even for the rich) and letting go of black comedy for a bit. Art therapy doesn't see financial status. Why link it to that? There are differing views on this though.
I also learnt about this dish called Ram-Don (a made-up word for Jjapaguri in Korean) and the role it plays in the movie. MasterChef watching-exposure means I can watch non-vegetarian food getting cooked with more interest than before, and if I had been a non-vegetarian, I would have been tempted to cook this dish myself.
I thought the sex-scene in the movie was done well, and there are several opinions on how uncomfortable the audience felt on watching it. If anyone is hiding and watching others have sex, it is bound to be uncomfortable and privacy endangering, and can bring up several emotions – and this is exactly what the Director wanted the audience to experience.
Watch the trailer here. It is interesting to see who is the parasite.
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