“In terms of labor, the rich can be considered parasites,” Bong tells EW.
“They have to leech off other people’s labor for everything from driving to housekeeping.
Although they pay money, they live off the labor of others.
Parasiteis far from the first time Bong has used a genre film to explore class tensions on screen.
His 2013 sci-fi thrillerSnowpiercerdepicted a post-apocalyptic human society living inside of a single, perpetually-moving train.
Later in the movie, a great rainstorm hits the area.
“In this film, water (including urine) represents misfortune and disaster,” Bong says.
“Unfortunately water always flows from top to bottom, never the other way around.
Water flows from the rich neighborhood to the poor neighborhood.
After that, the simmering class tensions boil over until they erupt in a devastating climax of violence.
Usually they’re very ambiguous and sticky and they just continue in that way,” Bong says.
I always consider myself a genre filmmaker.
That allows us to really show the tension even more clearly, rather than letting it ambiguously carry on.
2019 has been a good year for genre films unafraid to explosively confront class conflict.
EvenJoker,this fall’s much-discussed comic book movie, has class struggle on the brain.
The film’s backstory sheds light on why we might be seeing such films these days.
She originally died in the end.”
Le Bail arrives with the sunrise to collect his collateral.
We’re seeing that with Trump now in a very real way.
Unlike most movies and TV shows that depict strippers,Hustlerstells its story from their point of view.
We were all standing on a rug that was about to be whipped out.
As Ramona,Jennifer Lopez plays the big sistertoHustlers' other strippers like Destiny (Constance Wu).
Eventually, as in most great crime dramas, Ramona’s gang goes too far.
Ramona stands by her philosophy, though.
She delivers the film’s closing line: “It’s all a strip club.
You have people tossing the money and people doing the dance.”
“I think people have been on a journey with the movie.
They watched it start as a movie about strippers and turn into a crime drama about our times.
“Gender may have something to do with it.
The poor, working, and middle classes?Not so much.
And so here we are, in 2019, living in the age ofParasite.
