in his seminal book "capitalist realism", mark fisher talks about wall-e and how it (and films like wall-e) perform anti-capitalism for us as to pacify its viewers. In order for us not to revolt against capitalism (with its effects like global environmental destruction with wall-e), entertainment corporations much like disney make films that are seemingly critical of capital only to resolve with the same relationship with capital as before.
of course, or at least i hope and it seems like this is true, bong joon ho has different intentions compared to disney. aside from not having a monopoly on entertainment and partnering with the military for script supervision, bong joon ho tackles capitalism in his other films and in his interviews. but just because bong joon ho is not disney doesn't mean that his film would be received as something disney-like especially by media and celebrities from the world's most powerful nation. it's weird how architectural digest talks about the set design of a film rich of visual gestures to inequality.
what i would like to add to mark fisher's performative anti-capitalism is performative anti-american imperialism.
parasite is getting a lot of buzz espcially with american brainwashing awards. with this buzz, bong joon ho acts nonchalantly as he knows that these awards are mainly about america celebrating america rather than celebrating cinema. but with the american accolades (if you can call them accolades), america recognizes an external critique of its capitalist machine.
“This film is about the rich and poor and about capitalism — and the U.S. is the heart of capitalism. I thought it was a natural response.”
parasite being engulfed in american awards fiasco is devaluing its critique of capitalism and its heartland. by embracing a director who is critical not only of capitalism but also of america, hollywood wants us to know that it knows problems of america and how america propagates capitalism but it would also allow the joker in the same category.
short review of the joker: i think it's all american propaganda with the silly pent-up anger of the working class. the movie depicts the working class as sympathetic to a lunatic murderer who is tangential to gotham's inequality. at the end of the movie, riots rage as the joker killed de niro and the working class heralding him as the instigator of a class war that is unorganized and chaotic for the sake of chaos. therefore, i conclude, that the joker depicts the demands of the working class with the inequality of gotham as something silly because they see a crazy guy as a hero and they merely want nothing but violence and chaos.
anyway, by putting the joker and parasite together in the same category, hollywood juxtaposes these two movies as something of equal footing therefore devaluing critiques from parasite and bong joon ho. with a movie like parasite and a director like bong joon ho, they depict the world with people who are victims of capitalism and by putting it next to the joker....... respeto naman guys
i would like to thank the CIA for nominating parasite and bong joon ho.
