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For Seoul’s poor, class strife in ‘Parasite’ is daily reality

nytimes.com

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Re: For Seoul’s poor, class strife in ‘Parasite’ is daily reality

#21

Post by claudeganon »

Aunche wrote: post #14
cycrutchfield wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They lied and cheated constantly because they were forced to due their poverty. It is absolutely a movie about class inequality and resentment.

They were absolutely terrible people. They weren't so poor that they had to trigger an old lady's dangerous allergy just to get the mother a job.

The point of the film was that poverty forces the poor into ruthless conflict with each other as they battle for the scraps of the rich. It’s pretty blatant. As was the indifference of the rich to the struggles of the poor and their own inhumanity toward them.

Re: For Seoul’s poor, class strife in ‘Parasite’ is daily reality

#22

Post by immawizard »

2drew3 wrote: post #13

For those who watched the movie, I found the ending interesting. I won't spoil it for everyone else, but Bong Joon-ho made his perspective unambiguous: he's not a believer in social mobility in Korea. 6 of the top 10 Forbes list in Korea are self-made; the other 4 inherited their wealth. In contrast, 10 out of top 10 are self-made in the US. There are better metrics to compare social mobility (this one was convenient…

I think social mobility from poverty to middle class is more relevant to most people than mobility from millionaire to billionaire class. According to The Global Social Mobility Report 2020 [1] South Korea has higher level of social mobility than United States.

[1] http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_Social_Mobility_Report.p...

Re: For Seoul’s poor, class strife in ‘Parasite’ is daily reality

#23

Post by claudeganon »

hristov wrote: post #20
httpz wrote: post #16

One unrealistic part about the poor family in the movie is that, there is no way a family of four healthy adults can be that poor in S.Korea (unless they have a large debt payment). If all four of them worked 40hrs/wk doing a minimum wage job ($7/hr in S.Korea), it puts them around $59k/yr, which is above the median household income.

I think the main point is they couldn't get jobs. At one point in the movie they said that every job opening for a security guard draws 500 applicants with college degrees. None of them had college degrees. I am not sure what the actual job situation in S. Korea is. Perhaps someone that lives there can enlighten us.

Yes, at the start of the film they’re folding pizza boxes as a kind of piecework and pleading with the person picking them up to let one of them have a job opening at one of the stores. They’re all unemployed.

Re: For Seoul’s poor, class strife in ‘Parasite’ is daily reality

#24

Post by L_Rahman »

httpz wrote: post #16

One unrealistic part about the poor family in the movie is that, there is no way a family of four healthy adults can be that poor in S.Korea (unless they have a large debt payment). If all four of them worked 40hrs/wk doing a minimum wage job ($7/hr in S.Korea), it puts them around $59k/yr, which is above the median household income.

Which they did. The movie mentions an unsuccessful attempt to be a franchisee of a food chain that later turned out to be a scam. That ended up bankrupting the family.

Re: For Seoul’s poor, class strife in ‘Parasite’ is daily reality

#25

Post by L_Rahman »

justicezyx wrote: post #8

Similar situation exits in many orders of magnitude larger scale in China, but the government so successfully keep everyone not paying attention.

The Chinese middle class is still in its first generation and mobility has stagnated for just a decade so it's still early. It'll be interesting to see whether tolerance for the government survives the upcoming economic slowdown.

Re: For Seoul’s poor, class strife in ‘Parasite’ is daily reality

#26

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

httpz wrote: post #16

One unrealistic part about the poor family in the movie is that, there is no way a family of four healthy adults can be that poor in S.Korea (unless they have a large debt payment). If all four of them worked 40hrs/wk doing a minimum wage job ($7/hr in S.Korea), it puts them around $59k/yr, which is above the median household income.

What would life be like for 4 people on median wage, though? Did they live in a slummy part of Seoul? Or were they in an expensive part in a crappy house?

If a family of four tried to live in Santa Monica on $59k -- they would only have $39k after taxes. You can't rent even a single shitty room for less than $1k per month. That leaves them $500 a month per person. Health care would take at least $58 (the fine if you don't have health care). That leaves you $440 ($14.50 a day) for everything else. It wouldn't be Parasite bad. But it would be awful.

If you just moved to Compton or San Bernardino, it would be fine.

Re: For Seoul’s poor, class strife in ‘Parasite’ is daily reality

#27

Post by kaiabwpdjqn »

hristov wrote: post #20
httpz wrote: post #16

One unrealistic part about the poor family in the movie is that, there is no way a family of four healthy adults can be that poor in S.Korea (unless they have a large debt payment). If all four of them worked 40hrs/wk doing a minimum wage job ($7/hr in S.Korea), it puts them around $59k/yr, which is above the median household income.

I think the main point is they couldn't get jobs. At one point in the movie they said that every job opening for a security guard draws 500 applicants with college degrees. None of them had college degrees. I am not sure what the actual job situation in S. Korea is. Perhaps someone that lives there can enlighten us.

Exactly. All of them were qualified for the jobs they did. They did a good job too. The daughter is a bit of an exception.

The daughter is constantly depicted at someone who is exceptionally talented, although has no paper credentials for the job she does. The family makes multiple comments about good she is at things and how she belongs in the wealthy lifestyle. When everyone is wading through the sewage water (motif for poverty) she sits sort of dry on the toilet just barely above the others (incredible scene imo). She does an excellent job. I think it’s to make a point about the lack of meritocracy even within class or something.

Re: For Seoul’s poor, class strife in ‘Parasite’ is daily reality

#28

Post by totorovirus »

One of the most interesting culture in South korea is that under treated low class people (dirt-spoon class) don't really try disrupt current society model. To elaborate, people put poverty on their own responsibility rather than complaining about structural inequality. The rage towards class inequality is emitted at competition for higher ranked university and the reward of being in a prestigious college.

Re: For Seoul’s poor, class strife in ‘Parasite’ is daily reality

#29

Post by ALittleLight »

zpallin wrote: post #6
madengr wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ Mr. Kim owns his place in the building, bought for $30,000 after he sold his house in a better neighborhood 20 years ago to help pay for his late wife’s cancer bills.” How does that fit into universal health care?

Universal healthcare does not mean "free healthcare". What it means is that all people have equal access to healthcare, the kind that would otherwise be provided by everyone having private healthcare insurance, such as what would need to happen in the US. The intent is that this would be more affordable for the average person than not having a universal healthcare system. Of course, affordability is not a guarantee f…

How is it universal care if some people can't get care because they can't afford it? By that logic the US has universal care - any legal treatment your doctor wants to give you and you can afford it, anyone can get.

Re: For Seoul’s poor, class strife in ‘Parasite’ is daily reality

#30

Post by solveit »

totorovirus wrote: post #28

One of the most interesting culture in South korea is that under treated low class people (dirt-spoon class) don't really try disrupt current society model. To elaborate, people put poverty on their own responsibility rather than complaining about structural inequality. The rage towards class inequality is emitted at competition for higher ranked university and the reward of being in a prestigious college.

It helps that socialism is a much dirtier word in Korea, courtesy of history with a certain northern neighbour.
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