5 Valuable Life Lessons From Oscar-Winning Film Parasite

Whether you have seen the film or not, these ideas can be worth reflecting on

I see movies as an extension of our humanity, potentially able to open new points of view. Not only movies entertain us and sometimes inspire us, once in a while they make us reflect. Parasite definitely stirred up some thoughts in my head and I felt inspired to extract some wisdom out of it.

If you’re unfamiliar with Parasite, it’s a South Korean movie directed by Bong Joon Ho. Discussed and ranked by many as the best movie of 2019, it recently received 4 Oscars and many other film awards.

The film tells a story of a relationship between the poor Kims and the rich Parks. The Kim family lives in horrible conditions, constantly struggling with money while the wealthy Park family leads a seemingly effortless life. The narrative follows these two different worlds meeting and sooner or later clashing.

Without focusing on the plot or spoiling it too much, here are the lessons that I found valuable from the Parasite. Whether you have seen the film or not, these ideas can be worth reflecting on.

Envy can make us blind

The impoverished Kims envy the wealth that the rich Parks own, which brings them to reckless decisions and nothing but sorrow in the end.

Envy is desiring something that someone else has. And it shows up when we divide ourselves from other people. When we notice only hierarchy and dwell on our differences.

And it occurs when we feel lack. The idea of “having what someone else has will lead to a happier life” is a fantasy. It is only a temporary solution to a deeper problem.

If we only focus on what we don’t have, we become blind to what we do.

What are we taking for granted? If we envy the ones who have more money, what are other areas in life where we are rich? At least for me, perceiving everyone as competition and living in constant comparison has never brought joy.

We all have our different circumstances. And each existence is unique.

Greed is destructive

If this movie is a mirror of society, then the reflection in it isn’t the most beautiful.

Greed is the main motif in Parasite and we have the chance to observe how toxic it is. The family who is living in poverty, motivated by greed, take an opportunity to exploit the wealth and naiveté of the rich.

Kims believe that bad things happen only to them and that “it is easier to be nice when you are rich”. But they are ignorant and blind to what consequences their actions have.

Some argue that greed is what stimulates people to achieve success. If the definition of greed would be having the ambition to become a better person professionally and get fairly rewarded for that, it would be a different story. I would not consider that greed.

But the greediness that exists in today's society is all about getting more and more. It's about never having enough. And the biggest problem with greed is that so often it drives someone to activities that eventually harm others.

Everyone wants to feel important

The problem though is not in the wanting to feel important because that is a normal human need. If we don’t feel important, we are more likely to experience depression and low self-worth. As a result, we can become easily manipulated.

Being proud of yourself is not a bad thing. But feeling more important, more worthy of life and happiness than other people and becoming controlled by this desire — that is an issue.

There is a difference between being confident in yourself and feeling as if your worth is more significant than the one of other human beings. Instead of viewing people from either above or below, how about meeting each other at eye level?

Money does not make you immune to misery

Parasite portrays different and in many ways opposing societies. We see what a huge gap there is between the rich and the poor. And that is not only a depiction of South Korea in this case. That is the depiction of the whole world.

The sad reality is, that debt accumulates more debt whereas a lot of money easily accumulates more money. And if you are born in a certain class, it is extremely hard to get out of it.

We live in times of harsh economic inequality because of failed political and financial systems. The greed of people in power. The blind selfishness and lack of empathy. Too much money simply belongs to too little people.

Yes, there needs to be a change in the system.

But it can also be valuable to understand that no one is immune to misery. We are all the same humans in the core. Living in different classes but exposed to similar mental and emotional challenges.

And as both financial class representations are shown in Parasite — both are broken, both are sad. Each dealing with life how they can.

Definitely, money brings comfort and freedom. But it alone doesn’t grant you happiness.

Awareness is hard, ignorance is easy

The wealthy Park family is comfortable and their life appears simple. So simple that they are naive and blind to the suffering of other humans. They do not recognise that someone at the same time is living a really difficult life.

Their world is still spinning smoothly while other people in the opposite class experience what seems to them a tragedy.

The poor Kim family, however, are not portrayed as better in that matter. They are equally ignorant of other’s misery. They don’t see how they are damaging lives. Because they experience different realities.

Too often, we are ignorant of the fact that our reality is not all there is. We view life from a tunnel-vision perspective. Being aware of everything is also not possible but the least we can do is recognise our ignorance. Recognise that our point of view is nothing more than our individual glasses that we put on. It does not depict the truth. Everyone has their own.