Parasite Discussion

1) Why is horror a good genre to deal with capitalism and economic pressures and problems? What does this genre have to offer a discussion on these topics -- which can often be quite a dry subject to talk about -- that no other genre does?

2) Discuss the parallels between this film and OUT.

3) Discuss the differences and similarities between Bateman and Mr. Park (the rich father).

4) What does having a lot of money do to the rich family's emotions, and attitudes toward themselves and others? Come up with examples from the film to support your ideas.

5) What does poverty do do to the poor family's emotions, and attitudes toward themselves and others?

6) Discuss the two different homes in the film--that of the Kim family, and that of the Park family. How does the director Bong Joon-ho highlight the differences between the rich and the poor through architecture?

7) How does water and sewage function metaphorically in the film?

8) Why do you think the director includes the housekeeper's husband in the bunker as a twist near the end? How does this revelation make you see the other characters in a new light?

9) What is the true horror in the film?

10) In what ways do the bodies of the poor not belong to them?

11) Analyze the title of the film.

12) Is the fantasy at the ending of the film realistic? Why or why not?

13) What role does "appearance" play in the film?

14) Mr Park says to Mr Kim "think of this as a part of your work." What is relationship between poverty and humiliation? When does a poor person's work end?

15) How much agency (free will to make choices) does the Kim family have? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Horror often deals with inversion. King begins various sections of the novel with references to Biblical narratives such as Lazarus, which is a story of resurrection. How does Pet Semetary “invert” biblical narratives of resurrection, and to what end? What truths is King hoping the reader will discover through this inversion? When Louis explains death a second time to his daughter, after the death of Gage, he covers a number of religions’ different beliefs in the afterlife. Later, he mentions various funeral superstitions such as how the toes of the dead were tied together at Irish funerals to ensure that the deceased ghost’s would not walk. Why is it important in the narrative that so much ground is covered, in terms of different cultural beliefs about death? How might this story be different if only one perspective about death was presented as some kind of absolute truth? What is the significance of the references throughout to Oz the Great and Terrible from the W...
Read more

Cabin in the Woods discussion questions

1) What is this film attempting to say about the nature of the horror genre? 2) Who has agency (free will to make choices) in the film? How is that agency limited? Discuss both the puppeteers and the four main characters in the film. What might this be saying about agency within in the horror genre itself as well as in US society more broadly? 3) How does the film implicate the viewer in the horrors they are witnessing? (To implicate means to make them partially responsible for the horrors). 4) What role do screens play in the film? What does this reflect about our cultural condition? *Consider the scene when Marty finds the small camera in his bedroom. 5) How does the game-like nature of the film reflect our cultural condition? 6) What do the ancient gods represent? 7) What are the four  main characters horror film archetypes? What does the film seem to be suggesting as far as where these archetypes come from? 8) Do you see any tropes of other horror books...
Read more

Write your own urban legend

With your partner, come up with a brief urban legend. It's a story  you "heard from a friend, about a friend of a friend." What happens in the story? Consider some of the famous ones: Coke and pop rocks Blood Mary Slender man and the slender sickness The hitchhiker on the roof Your legend should be brief enough to be told in one to two paragraphs, and should take place at Whittier College. You're coming up with a legend that speaks to the fears and frustrations that Whittier students face on a daily basis. If you want, it can be based on an actual story you've heard from someone at Whittier, or it can be invented. You may want to consider what it is "cautioning" about or if there is a moralizing element to it. Mostly, though, you just want to come up with a creepy story. You can use the example legends as templates. Remember, all urban legends possess the following elements: they are believable, involve a person/people, and take place in a very ...
Read more