unspeakablehorror | Entries tagged with bong joon-ho

Last night I watched The Host by Bong Joon-Ho and I really enjoyed it (though also found it quite traumatic). Wasn't sure what I would think since I knew it was a monster film and I'm not typically that in to that genre, but I wanted to give it a chance since I've been impressed by all the other films of his I've seen and I was not disappointed.

One thing I find so fascinating about Bong Joon-Ho's protagonists is how they embody that incredible duality of unbelievable strength and extreme fragility that exists in reality, but I think is so often deemed as either too unrealistic or too depressing to depict. Anyone can die in his stories, but that doesn't mean they will, and his characters sometimes exhibit seemingly superhuman levels of strength or resourcefulness. That is especially true in this movie, which is full of adrenaline and action-packed scenes.

Also, had an observation about the ending (huge spoilers below the cut):

Spoilers for the ending...

In the protagonist family, both the grandfather and the daughter die. And when the Agent Yellow is being released, there's a warning about it being especially harmful to the elderly and children. Given that the monster itself is a result of fomaldehyde mutating a river animal, the choice of deaths seems in direct reference to how chemical contamination is especially harmful to these groups.

Anyway, this is yet another great movie that will give me so much to think about. Might write more on this film later, but it's probably going to take some time to properly organize my thoughts on it.

Parasite had such an immense emotional impact on me. It's given me much to think about. But I haven't been able to watch it again. Because watching it was like...ripping away the veil of tolerability to show society at its bleakest. I'll be thinking about it for a long time though, whether I have the courage to rewatch it again or not. One thing I find so fascinating about Parasite is that...

(under a cut because while there are no specifics the following could be considered mild spoilers about the protagonists of the film)

...it doesn't depend on the virtuousness of it's protagonists to convey its horror. In fact its protagonists all at various points engage in some pretty deplorable acts. I feel like some people completely miss the point of this because it doesn't fit into the narrative of virtuous impoverished victim who exists only to be pitied.

But I think it's much more real in conveying the desperation of existing at the margins and how suffering and loss doesn't necessarily make someone a better person. And I think it's also much more real about what 'pulling yourself up by your bootstraps' entails in a cutthroat world of dwindling opportunity.

Meanwhile I've already seen Jordan Peele's Us twice and even though it is a scary, scary film on more than one level it's also just...way more cheery while still going some bleak places.

Both films employ quite a bit of humor and deftly mix it with drama and horror. I also thought it was cool that Bong Joon-Ho namedropped Us in the interview I watched of him talking about Parasite, not long after I'd watched Us myself. The movies definitely have some overlapping themes and imagery, so I can see why he'd bring it up.

I probably sound like a film buff right now but in truth I usually don't watch many movies. It's just lately that I've been going back and watching some of the many movies I haven't seen before. Also, whenever I watch a film, I will then go read and watch a bunch of reviews on it so they can help me pick up on all the cool connections I missed.

I watched Okja (2017) by Bong Joon-Ho recently and absolutely loved it. Having seen Snowpiercer and Parasite previously, and having only some vague impression that the film was about a girl and her giant animal friend, I was very...curious how that would play out. It seemed like a large break in topic and mood from the other works by him I'd seen, but I was quite interested in what direction this director would take such a premise.

Having seen it, I would say that it blends seamlessly with his other works in terms of thematic focus. There is a huge focus on social class and the atrocities and exploitation committed by the corporate elite. At the same time, the film also surprised me in a completely unexpected way. Since elaborating on what way might be considered spoilers, I won't give details, though there are other ways the film also pleasantly surprised me.

It's a very heartwarming story, and a coming-of-age story, but it also deftly avoids the cloying sentimentality and some of the more annoying tropes of the genre.

I watched Parasite (2019) recently and besides finding it possibly the most traumatizing movie I have ever seen, I was also struck by how the rich family is unable to cook, clean, or drive for themselves, and so they hire others to do these tasks for them. The people they hire have little choice but to participate in the alienation of their labor for the benefit of the rich family, even to the point of being coerced to do tasks that they weren't hired for.

There's a lot more going on in the story of course, but I was struck by the beautiful, spacious, and immaculate house the rich family possesses. It left me with such a longing--not for that house specifically, but for a home that I could call my own. This is not a new feeling, really. There's a lot of things I like about living in apartments, but there's also the constant reminder that it's not really yours, that you aren't at liberty to do whatever you like with the space, and that you have to regularly pay a steep price just to be allowed to stay there.

But there was one aspect of the rich family's home that I admired that had nothing to do with home ownership or any property of the building itself: how clean it was. And it occurred to me that this was because they had a housekeeper who performed all the cleaning tasks for them. Neither husband nor wife ever cleaned their own home, and the children were never asked to perform any chores. The cleanliness of their home was thus due entirely to the housekeeper's labor.

However, it also occurred to me that not only am I capable of cleaning my own space, but that doing so is the only way for my space to be clean without the alienation of someone else's labor. And that though the task itself is not one I am particularly skilled at or enjoy, that I always greatly appreciate the results.

Which is how I came to do a thorough cleaning of my bathroom today. I am greatly enjoying the extra cleanliness of the space. I hope to do more cleaning as leftist praxis soon.

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Loftwings and Demons

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Entries tagged with bong joon-ho

The Host by Bong Joon-Ho

Some Thoughts on Parasite and Us

Okja

Parasite and the Joys of a Clean Home (No Spoilers)

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May 2025

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