"High and Low and Parasite: How Two Different Films Discuss Class Issues"

So recently I watched two very different movies <high and low> by Akira Kurosawa and <Parasite> by Boon Joon Ho. They both sort of explore very similar topic but in very different way,  it really speaks to me and made me think about writing this blog. in order to structure this properly ( for me lol)  I am separating this into: summary of the basic plot, Cultural Context, key elements, My interpretation, Conclusion

Basic Plot: High and Low

The first half of the movie follows a wealthy shoe executive, Kingo Gondo, who is on the verge of taking control of his company when he receives a call from a kidnapper demanding a huge ransom. At first, Gondo believes the kidnapper has taken his own son—but it turns out the victim is the son of Gondo’s chauffeur. Gondo must decide whether to sacrifice his fortune to save another man’s child. In the second half, after Gondo decides to pay the ransom, the focus shifts to the detectives as they track down the kidnapper.The police investigation through Yokohama’s lower-class neighborhoods, revealing stark contrasts between the world of wealth “high” above the city and the world “low” below.

Basic Plot : Parasite

The film follows the Kim family, who live in poverty in a semi-basement apartment. When their son Ki-woo lands a tutoring job for the wealthy Park family’s daughter, the Kims gradually scheme to replace the Parks’ household staff with themselves, posing as unrelated, highly qualified workers. Their plan unravels when they discover a secret hidden beneath the Parks’ home, leading to a violent and tragic confrontation that exposes the deep divide between rich and poor.

Cultural Context: 

High and low 

This film was released 1963 which is period of Japanese economic growth and urbanization which inevitably will create more class issues and more importantly because of the fast rising of the economy. There's shifting and conflicts between traditional social values. Especially between traditional Japanese social values and western values which this is mentioned briefly in the movie when Gondo is persist about craftsmanship ( very traditional Japanese values) versus the co-workers value( profit driven value that's influenced by western capitalism bs ) sorry. lol 

Parasite 

This film was released in 2019 which is a more modern film.  South Korea experienced its slowest economic growth due to weaker exports and global trade tensions. movement against worker's right, women's right, and gender equality was very huge thing back in 2019.   In the movie they also talked about the competition of job market is very extreme. 

Key Elements+ my personal thoughts 

Both film talked about class issues but in a very interesting way.  Nowadays when we think abt capitalism and rich people,  there's no doubt we think that they are awful people,  they have no ethics and no empathy and greedy etc.  But in these two film it explored in a perspective where you couldn't hate the rich despite it was all because of the class issue.  It brings up this complicated question of does what we believed in really that simple ( rich ppl are bad and poor ppl are good? in fact a lot of the things are more complicated than just dualism wait to comment until u finish reading)  For instance, in high and low we see that Mr,  Gondo and his wife decided to pay the ransom to save shinichi. Despite it took a long time for Gondo to decide, because this decision will make him lose his job and his house and his wealth. He decided that morality is more important. On the other hand when Takuechi ( the kinapper) decided to scam him and destroy his life has nothing to do with Gondo because they don't have direct contact. But he wants to kill his son originally because he's living in hell where he couldn't sleep and cold but Gondo is in that beautiful house above everyone living happily. And at the end the very climax of the film where they talked and met for the first time. I left speechless after this scene I couldn't stop thinking about it. because Takuechi explained to Gondo why he hates him so much that he wants him to feel how it felt to live in hell. But you can see that, there's still a difference. when Gondo Failed, he's still able to find a job because ( he is a really passionate craftsman and I felt like this is very important messages too it's not about being rich) He's willing to start over and small and of course he does of have a higher chance to success and when he walked into the jail you can see the janitor is on the floor cleaning ( this still indicates that class exist even when the rich failed) but on the other hand Takuechi, is living in hatred, his life is driven by hate toward Gondo. This made him lose humanity, he killed 3 people that are all poor during this "revenge he had toward Gondo). the concept of heaven and hell in this part, is doubled meaning to me. One side, being rich live in Gondo's life is heaven, andd Takuechi's life is hell. on the other hand, being rich isn't heaven. Personal satisfaction is the answer, (Like Gondo's craftsmanship and his attitude), and you can find it without richness. And ofc, personal satisfaction should never come from jealous/ hatred/ competition toward others. 

In Parasite, it revoke an idea by Chung-sook Kim, which is Ki-woo's mom. “They’re nice because they’re rich. If I had all this money, I’d be nice too." This is a very impactful line for me. Because going back to this concept of how both directors kind of portrayed the poor in a very demon way their don't have moral value as much as the rich, but this line really speaks the truth. Things are just so much more easier for the rich, and they have less hate because their life is comfortable and they have more emotional bandwidth. going back to the concept of blurring the moral gap between poor and rich. In Parasite, the name already explained that both rich and the poor are the parasite. Rich people suck the blood out of the society, and workers. Poor people in this movie are Park's Family's parasite. A similar context in this one and high and low: the poors are not necessarily useless in fact they are very smart that reflects the society is highly competitive, your ability doesn't mean anything. Going back to to how Boon Joon Ho shift the perspective of your idea toward poor, I think the climax to me is the middle point of this film when the Park left the house for camping and The Kim moved into his house like this is their house. They talked about the bad things they did like making the driver losing their job, reading Da-hye's diary, treating the puppy like shit, living and trashing the house, and ofc at the end killed people like what Takuechi did. The complicated part was: it's really hard to not hate the poor for this reason in these movie, but you also felt empathy toward them, this heavy feeling made you feel crazy. ( yes this is why I spent this much time writing this bs)  

There's more things I could talk about but I'm tired HAHA.(  I wanted to talk about the dialogue and filming technique, bc it's very brilliant!~ I've been getting into the language of film a little bit and I am super interested in  looking at details and how it revokes a feeling without being deliberate or obvious  it's   so  magical! like it really is a feeling!!) 

anws, conclusion is: this is my first time writing  this kind of review +  my own thoughts. Very rough and not informative enough but I hope to do this more it's helpful for  my own brain otherwise can't sleep. But back to the topic, these two movie really makes  think abt things in more perspective . Like what you see on the media, is not that simple. Conflicts, are not that simple. It's never dualism.  thanks for  reading this if anyone even read it lol, lmk what  you think and I highly recommend these two movies~ PLUS IF YOU HAVE MOVIE AND BOOK REC SEND. 

Yifei

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