Parasite defies 1) categorization. It’s a tar-black comedy, a razor-sharp 2) social satire, a twisted fairy tale, and a Hitchockian suspense thriller all at once. Director Bong Joon-ho resides in a genre all to his own, and hasn’t pointed to specific influences when making his Palme D’Or winner, which was inspired by his own experiences as a personal tutor to a rich family. But there is one sequence that Bong said was influenced by a very specific franchise: Mission: Impossible.
“This is some kind of 3) nerdy family version of Mission: Impossible,” Bong says in the Anatomy of a Scene video with the New York Times, referring to the ’60s TV series he watched growing up (not to mention the blockbuster film franchise). It’s fascinating to see how Bong 4) pulls off this high-stakes heist in the Parasite scene breakdown, but the best takeaway from the video below is that the Korean auteur knows who Ansel Elgort is.
Parasite Scene Breakdown
One of the appeals of 5) Parasite is that despite being an arthouse international film that 6) digs into deeper themes about social warfare, it is a blast to watch. This is thanks to the film’s riotous humor and its zippy heist scenes, which have you rooting for a poor family worming their way into the lives of a rich family. One such scene, which is featured in New York Times’ series Anatomy of a Scene, is referred to as the movie’s Mission: Impossible scene by Bong Joon-ho, who explains how he pulled off the 7) high-thrills sequence.
“I 8) intentionally shoot those shots very quickly, [with] some 9) spontaneous reactions and sudden small 10) improvised [moments],” Bong says in the video. “Some things happen very naturally in the camera. That kind of momentary feeling is very important.”
Another layer to this sequence is the moment when the son (Choi Woo-shik) instructs his father (Bong’s longtime collaborator Song Kang-ho) how to act out the 11) script they had written. “When they rehearse it looks like filmmaking,” Bong remarks. “It’s a humorous scene. 12) In reality, the father is played by one of the most 13) renowned actors and the son is an 14) up and coming actor. It’s as if Ansel Elgort is teaching acting to Al Pacino. It’s funnier for the Korean audience.”
Bong has a habit of sprinkling culturally specific jokes or 15) references through his films — another instance happens in Okja when a line of Korean dialogue is 16) deliberately mistranslated in a way that plays off as a joke for Korean audiences, but flies over the head of American audiences. It’s refreshing that Bong doesn’t try to cater to Hollywood, which is probably what helps makes Parasite so damn good.
Parasite is now playing in select U.S. theaters.

By Hoai-Tran Bui

Published: 2019-11-02

Source: SlashFilm

<Word& Expression>
1) categorization: 범주 분류
2) social satire: 사회 풍자
3) nerdy: 머리는 좋으나 세상물정을 모르는
4) pulls off: 해내다
5) Parasite: 기생충
6) digs into: 파고들다
7) high-thrills: 높은 황홀함
8) intentionally: 의도적으로
9) spontaneous: 즉흥적인
10) improvise: 즉흥적으로 하다
11) script: 대본
12) In reality: 사실은
13) renowned actors: 유명한 배우들
14) up and coming: 떠오르는
15) reference: 언급
16) deliberately: 고의로