Cannes winner "Parasite" captures rich-poor gap in "basic unit of life" -director

Barunson Entertainment & Arts

28/05/2019 11:36

By Joyce Lee
    SEOUL, May 28 (Reuters) - The South Korean director of
"Parasite", the darkly comic movie that won the top Palme d'Or
prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, described his film on
Tuesday as "a candid portrayal of the rich and the poor."  
    "Parasite" is a wickedly humourous suspense movie about
class struggles set in modern South Korea, following a
down-on-its-luck family of four who worm their way into jobs in
a wealthy household. 
    "I think we're touching on courtesy toward human beings,
human dignity. Whether one becomes parasitic, or symbiotic and
coexistent in the best sense, I think might depend on how much
courtesy one has toward human beings," director Bong Joon-ho
said in a press conference in Seoul.  
    The unanimous decision to award "Parasite" the top prize at
Cannes on Saturday partly came down to its unexpected mash-up of
genres, as the darkly comic tale doubles up as a thriller, with
flashes of violence.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N2310GV 
    It was the first Palme d'Or at Cannes for a South Korean
film. 
    Bong said he conceived and began writing "Parasite" in 2013,
when he was filming the critically-acclaimed movie "Snowpiercer"
starring Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton. 
    Both movies portray the rich and the poor, but instead of
the science fiction setting of a train in "Snowpiercer", Bong
said he focused "Parasite" on two families - one poor, one rich
- to show the wealth gap through "the most basic unit of our
lives." 
    "We all have families, but they're all different," he said. 
    Shares in the movie's production company, Barunson
Entertainment & Arts  035620.KQ , extended gains to rise 20
percent on Tuesday from the previous day's close, compared to a
1.9 percent gain in the junior KOSDAQ index  .KQ11 .
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N23305Q 
    "Parasite" opens in South Korea on May 30, in France on June
5 and in North America in November, distributor CJ ENM
 035760.KQ  said on Tuesday. 

 (Additional reporting by Dae-woung Kim; editing by Darren
Schuettler)
 ((jungyoon.lee@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5609; Reuters
Messaging: jungyoon.lee.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))