The poor family the Kims, live in a semi basement house while the rich family the Parks, live in a double storey house in a hilly, exclusive area. The son of the Kim family was hired as a tutor for the daughter of the Park family, and eventually each person in the Kim family gained employment through dubious means with the Park family. There is a twist in the movie towards the end which I found riveting and shocking, and that is what made the movie so good. Plus there is a good use of humour in the movie that made the topic of social divide and class exploitation more approachable.
You will see a lot of stairs in this movie, which is used to signify the difference in status between the rich and poor. Even in real life, height is used to signify higher status. For example, the penthouse is usually the most expensive apartment in a building. The highest floors in an office building is usually reserved for the senior executives, those who get paid more. So at the end of the movie when the father of the Kim family descended into the Park family's underground bunker, we understand that he is now in a worse position than when he started, at least his home had partial sunlight. He is now in an utterly hopeless position which he will not be able to get out of, which is rather like the vicious cycle of poverty.
In the extras section of the DVD, the director Bong Joon Ho, actors and actresses were interviewed for their thoughts of their characters and the movie. Apparently most of the actors and actresses did not even know what the movie will be about or what character they will be playing but signed up anyway because of their trust in the director. The director mentioned that they tried to recreate each home faithfully down to the smell (which plays a pivotal part in this movie) by adding dirt, grime and so on, even bringing old doors and windows from actual old neighbourhoods which were to be torn down to make way for redevelopment.
The lack of a villain and a hero in this movie makes this movie different, and certainly the lack of an optimistic ending to the movie is a killjoy. Yet it is a realistic portrayal and reminds us that rich people are not all bad and poor people are not all that good.
For me, while watching this movie I realised that while the rich may look down on those less well off, often it is the poor who are more brutal towards those who are in the same boat but are less fortunate than themselves. There is a lack of unity among the poor, as one class needs someone below them in the social hierarchy to look down on so to make themselves feel more important. That is why I really dislike those messages people mindlessly forward along, something along the lines of: Be content today because you have somewhere to live but x number of people have no roof over their heads etc. Unless there is a message at the end on how to donate to help those people, one should never look at people's misfortune to feel good about the position they are in.
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