Galloper's Quests

 Yeah, I'm plugging my most recent novel again. Here are parts of some reviews.

Inspired by the classic novel 'Gulliver's Tales', this edition of Galloper's Quests: The Fall of Earth and the Rise of a New Destiny, a new science fiction novel  by author Augustus Cileone, is a fun read from cover to cover.

 Written with imagination, humor, and a distinctive flair for the kind of narrative driven storytelling that fully emerges the reader from start to finish, "Galloper's Quests" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists and community library Science Fiction & Fantasy collections.  – Midwest Book Review

Galloper’s Quests catapults readers through wormholes into a cosmic odyssey brimming with starborne intrigue and high-stakes adventure. Navy Captain Samuel Galloper, a maverick scientist, escapes Earth to prevent his quantum-drive technology from fueling intergalactic war. As he navigates alien worlds—one utopian, one dystopian, one on the brink of annihilation—he battles cybernetic foes, befriends a rogue AI, and falls for an extraterrestrial with secrets that could reshape humanity’s destiny."  —NewInBooks.com

Galloper’s Quests is perfect for fans of thought-provoking sci-fi, especially those who enjoy books that question authority, challenge societal norms, and explore the weight of human choices. If you like stories that mix The Forever War’s military critique with 1984’s oppressive regimes and Star Trek’s exploratory wonder, you’ll find a lot to love here. It’s not a light read, it makes you think, it makes you uncomfortable, and at times, it makes you angry. But that’s the point. It’s a journey worth taking, even if the destination isn’t what you expect. – Literary Titan

Books About Movies

 I thought I would pass along the titles of a few books about filmmaking that I consider worth reading:

Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clark, and the Making of a Masterpiece, by Michael Benson.

With praise from Martin Scorsese and Tom Hanks, this book provides a treasure trove of information about the making of this classic film. It details the genesis of the story and how it grew to become one of the most talked about motion pictures ever made.

Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul M. Sammon. We get the background of the making of this influential science fiction movie. It portrays how different writers adapted the story by Philip K. Dick and how Ridley Scott brought its unique look to life. Here is a movie that wasn't received well when it was released and now is considered a groundbreaking film. There are interviews with cast members Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young.

The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together by Adam Nayman. Those who are fans of these filmmakers will know the subtitle's reference to The Big Lebowski. Nayman does a terrific job of analyzing the films of the Brothers Coen. Maybe the best book I have read on examining the themes and craft of filmmaking.

Quentin Tarantino: Cinema Speculation. If you want to find out about the roots of this director and Oscar-winning screen writer, and dare to get into his thinking process, this book is for you. You may not agree with his movie recommendations, but you can feel his passion for the films that influenced him. 

Christopher Nolan: The Iconic Filmmaker and his Work by Ian Nathan. This book is my most recent read. Nathan provides background as to how Nolan's films came to be made and the the important contributions of his brother, Jonah. Nathan informs the reader of the influences on Nolan, such as Kubrick and film noir. I happen to like enigmatic, complex films, so I am a huge admirer of Nolan. However, I'm still not sure I want to revisit the impenetrable Tenet.

Eraserhead

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

We recently lost one of the quirkiest and most artistic film directors, David Lynch. Some people hated his work, others love it, and those who love some of his projects dislike others. In any event, he was a challenging filmmaker. I was lucky enough to see Lynch in person at an interview at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute. He related that he was an art student in Philadelphia when he saw air blowing through a window which caused his painting to move. He said it was then that he decided to make motion pictures. He said living in Philadelphia was not a pleasant experience as he observed violence and decay. However, the experience influenced his filmmaking. His movies explore the underbelly of existence. Think of the opening scene in Blue Velvet when the camera moves from the beauty of the garden to the insects swarming over a human ear.

Lynch’s first full-length film, Eraserhead (1977), in black and white, gives us that dark view in a surrealistic landscape. To attempt to analyze this unique work in a traditional manner would be unfair to the film. As Roger Ebert said, “to explain Eraserhead would be like cutting a drum open to see what makes the noise – you may get your answer, but you tend to ruin the drum in the process.” For myself, I feel like the main character Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) when he is asked what he knows. His response is, “Oh, I don’t know much of anything.” I think that may be a good way to start to approach this movie. So, I will draw on my own perceptions, and some from others.

The general view is that the story takes place in either an alternative world or at least a sort of post-apocalyptic one on Earth. Or, it is just an objectification of a Lynch nightmare. There is artificial food, presumably the only kind that can exist, and procreation does not end well. The whole of the film could be seen as a satire on how we as a species have fallen from grace and are irreparably damaged.

The opening has a soundtrack that almost sounds like what is in 2001: A Space Odyssey, when the astronaut flies through the psychedelic light show toward the end of that film. We have the image of a man in a suit, Henry with his high, frizzy hair, floating in space in front of what appears to be a desolate planet. (I always thought, when I first saw the movie poster, that Henry’s hair looked like an eraser which fits the title of the film). The camera dives into a black hole where there is an emaciated, disfigured man (or as Ebert suggests one who has burns) looking out a window which evokes a silent scream from Henry. A diseased sperm seems to emanate from Henry’s mouth. The man pulls a lever and the sperm is sucked into fluid where then floats through another hole. Is this image supposed to be a grotesque version of a conception?

                                    

Henry, sporting a nerdish pocket protector, walks through a setting that is drab and barren, with mud, piles of dirt, and tall, filthy buildings. The sound in the background sounds like the drone of machinery, possibly a critique of a world becoming engulfed by mechanization.

He walks into a building that has zigzag carpeting in its lobby, which is what Lynch uses later in his TV show, Twin Peaks. IMDb notes that the pattern may have come from Stanley Kubrick’s influence on Lynch. The effect is one of things being off kilter. The ironwork on the heavy elevator doors has a Gothic feel to it. Henry’s apartment has dirt and grass in it. An IMDb note says that Lynch may be suggesting that below the surface of the human attempt at civilization, there will always be filth and creatures, “both literally and figuratively.” The picture he has of his girlfriend, Mary X (Charlotte Stewart), is in two pieces, one showing her head, as if she is decapitated (a foreshadowing), and thus, a fragmented entity. (The “X” last name of Mary and her parents seems to have something to do with the lack of true identity or individuality).

The landscape appears even more hellish as we hear crashing sounds and smoke emanating from the environment as Henry visits Mary X’s house for the first time. The awkwardness of the meeting with her parents is palpable. Henry scrunches in a corner of a couch, as if trying to recapture the womb experience. We see puppies vying for milk from their mother, their screeching sounds adding to the uncomfortable setting (more foreshadowing). Henry responds that he is a label printer to Mrs. X (Jeanne Bates). But this answer seems out of sync with the fact that Mary X seems to be having some sort of seizure which is only calmed by her mother stroking her hair (a maternal act that Mary X will not be able to sustain). Mr. X (Allen Joseph) says that he remembers that the area used to be a pasture and has declined into a “hellhole,” which implies how civilization has decimated nature. Grandmother (Jean Lange) sits catatonic in the kitchen as Mrs. X places a salad bowl and tosses its contents in her lap. It is humorous and upsetting at the same time, showing the numbing of life here. There is a contorting mechanical cuckoo bird coming out of the clock on the wall. IMDb states that the image may have come from Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend, which is a story about an alcoholic experiencing hallucinations. When Henry attempts to cut up a tiny man-made chicken, it spouts oozing dark liquid and its cooked legs begin to move. It is now Mrs. X who goes into a trance and has a fit. What an inviting meal. One will either shake one’s head or laugh at the satiric thrust of this uber strange boyfriend-meeting-the-family scene.

It gets stranger. Mrs. X confronts Henry by asking if he and her daughter had sex. He is very embarrassed. She proceeds to nuzzle him saying things could get worse. Quite an understatement. Mrs. X says there is a baby at the hospital which is very immature. Mary X questions whether it even is a baby, an accurate assessment. Ebert says the “child” could be “a cross between a fetal version of E.T. and some form of skinned ruminant that has been plagued with an eternal cold that causes it to cry, whine and spit up various forms of goo practically around the clock.” Is the implication that this creature is what the human trace is devolving into – a domestic atrocity? The existence of this wild situation contrasts comically with Mary X asking Henry, like any other wife, if there is any mail.

After Mary X leaves for home because she can’t stand the situation, the child/creature becomes sick with facial pustules and breathing problems. Henry tries being a regular father in this highly irregular situation, taking temperatures and using a humidifier.

What follows is a nightmare, although reality in this film is already unreal. Henry’s loudly hissing radiator divides and turns into a stage revealing the smiling Lady in the Radiator (Laurel Near) with grotesquely large jowls. Those deformed sperms from the beginning of the film begin falling on her stage, which she squishes. Henry later encounters these entities supposedly waking up from his sleep, adding to the disgusting aspect of the film. He then has visions of the beautiful woman across the hall (Judith Rogers), who may be a prostitute. They have sex in a tub of water that looks like a witch’s cauldron. The Lady in the Radiator then sings, “In heaven, everything is fine.” The lyrics are ironic since what Lynch is serving up for us is a view of life that is far from heaven.

Henry then sees his own decapitation and his deformed offspring replaces his missing head, as if that horror is what the future holds. His head falls to the street and a boy takes it to a pencil factory where the worker there drills into the skull. The extracted material is used to make eraser head pencils. So, Henry, the nerd with the pocket protector, is an eraser head before actually being reduced to one in this fever dream.

After waking, Henry, who moves like Frankenstein’s monster here (is Lynch Dr. Frankenstein?), witnesses a savage beating from his window, a foreshadowing of what is to come. (The music in the background at this point sounds like sideshow carnival music. Send in the freaks?) He sees the prostitute with a man who has rouge on his cheeks (clown make-up to fit the sideshow feel?) entering her apartment. Henry pictures himself as the creature of his dreams, with the body of a man and the head of his deformed child. He then cuts through the bandages encasing the child, revealing its diseased organs. He then kills the creature with the scissors. Is it a mercy killing or is he trying to abort a decaying future?

Electrical lights blink in the apartment and outlets spark, while Henry sees what appears to be a smooth dinosaur doll head in the shadows. More about evolution? We return to that eerie globe at the beginning that cracks open revealing a hole. The burned/deformed man from the beginning reappears fighting with his levers. Is he a demonic god who has created this fallen world? The last image is of Henry being embraced by the Lady in the Radiator.

Is Henry living in an insane world, or is he himself insane and all this surrealism emanating from his mind? Like the main character in the movie Brazil who finds solace in insanity, is Henry embracing the woman at the end who sings of heaven because that is as close as he can come to escaping the madness? Your guess is as good as any.

Breaking Away

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The title of this film, Breaking Away (1979), not only refers to trying to win a bicycle race but also refers to the characters trying to overcome limitations that others imposed on them, and sometimes, inhibitions that they have imposed on themselves.

Peter Yates directed this movie, and he knows something about four-wheel chases since he also made the Steve McQueen hit, Bullitt. Steve Tesich wrote the screenplay and received an Oscar for his work.

The opening sums up the whole feel of the story. A group of young men walk along a quarry, a place that is a big hole in the ground. Mike (a young Dennis Quaid) sings a funny song about burying his body in the parking lot of the A&P, and having his soul redeemed with trading stamps. Cyril (Daniel Stern who would go on to voice the older version of Fred Savage in The Wonder Years, and act as one of the crooks in the Home Alone films) talks about how he lost all interest in life on this spot when a girl chose another guy. These fellows deal with their difficulties with humor and anger. There is one youth, Dave Stohler (Dennis Christopher), who is different. He speaks with an Italian accent and uses some Italian words. He carries a trophy. He seeks the exotic and is a bike racer who tries to break away from the pedestrian lifestyle that these youths have inherited.

Dave is in stark contrast to the everyday Bloomington, Indiana neighborhood as he rides his bike, singing in Italian. Along with Cyril, Dave’s father, Ray (Paul Dooley) gets most of the funny lines. Ray sees his son as a weirdo bum, wearing “Ity” cologne that attracts flies, saying Italian words, and eating “Ity” food, ending in “eenie,” like “fettuccine.” He humorously says he wants American food like “French fries.” Dave’s mother, Evelyn (Barbara Barrie, who received a Best Supporting Actress nomination) reminds her husband that their son was sickly until he started the bike training, which shows that a dream can aid in escaping life’s obstacles. She is supportive, serving Italian food and calling the cat by his new name, Fellini.

Dad says that he thought Dave would go to college, and then reverses himself by saying why should he go, since Ray never did. Ray says his son should be miserable and tired looking for a job, which is what is supposed to be the working-class way of life. Dad, who has acquiesced to limitations, sees his son’s desire to escape the father’s reality as pointless and a repudiation of the Ray’s reconciling himself to settle for lesser goals. Ray has stooped to working as a stereotypical shady used car salesman. He feels his son is almost like an alien as he shaves his legs like Italian bicycle racers.

The scene shifts to Moocher (Jackie Earl Haley, who later starred in Watchmen and Lincoln among others). He is in love with Nancy (Amy Wright). Moocher is a little guy, but he is dauntless, lifting weights as he talks with her. She hopes to be head cashier at some point. Moocher’s house is run down and needs to be sold since his dad went to Chicago to look for a job. But his wish to find happiness with the girl he loves, whom he later marries, shows another version of finding happiness despite living in poverty.

The young men are unemployed A&P workers. Mike was fired and the others quit, as Mike invokes the Musketeers’ motto of “all for one.” They are loyal to each other, as Dave says Moocher can move in with him when his house is sold. Dave says there are big families in Italy, and they all live together. It shows a desire to have each person supporting the other. Moocher says that Dave is starting to believe he is Italian, to which Cyril says,” I wish I was somebody.” He feels like his life has nothing to distinguish itself. Cyril jokingly says that he wishes he could be a cartoon figure. Behind the humor is another wish to break free of his depressing reality. Mike asks how Cyril became so stupid. Cyril says it was heredity, and then wittingly asks Mike “What’s your excuse?” which shows that Cyril is not as dumb as Mike says.

Mike jumps into the water hole at the excavated quarry and goes into a refrigerator at the bottom of the water as a joke. The others think he is caught and dive to rescue him. However, he already found a way out. It shows the loyalty of the young men to each other, but it also shows the feeling of entrapment and the ability to escape.

The college students show up and Mike is infuriated that they would invade this place that he feels belongs to them. He wants to get revenge by going on campus to stake out the college turf. Mike says that the students have it made because they’re “rich.” Dave says Italians are poor but are happy, to which Mike says, “Maybe in Italy.” It is a minimalist critique of how poverty may take a greater toll in the United States.

On campus, some of the students throw a frisbee around and it gets away from them. It flies into the street and Mike’s car runs over it, to his delight. The male student curses them, calling them “cutters,” which is the term they think is derogatory. It refers to the fact that the local men cut limestone to build the university buildings. So, the implication is that the townies are only fit for labor, not intellectual pursuits. As they watch the college football team practice, Mike laments that he never reached his goal of becoming a famous quarterback despite being a good athlete in high school. He says he must read about the praise of each succeeding football star, and he will never join those ranks. However, he holds onto a cigarette but never lights it because he feels like he should stay in shape. It shows a lingering hope that he may attain recognition someday.

Dave is alone practicing Italian on campus. He is learning in his own way, not as a student, outside the classroom. He sees Katherine (Robyn Douglass) ride away on her scooter. She drops a book, and we have a boy literally chasing after a girl as he bicycles after her to return the book. (Christopher is quite an accomplished bicyclist in this movie). He automatically adopts the Italian accent as he gives her the book, knowing instinctively that his being a simple “cutter” will not win him any points. He says her name is Caterina, and she takes pleasure hearing its musicality in Italian.

Dave gets a flat tire (showing his deflated opinion of his cutter self?) and, in contrast, watches the college boys train for bicycle racing, as Katherine leads them in a Mercedes, an obvious reference to her economic status.

As opera music plays in the background, Ray ponders what he’s going to do about Dave. He says that he’s afraid to look into his son’s eyes because they may twirl like “pinwheels.” Dad is implying the existence of insanity, but those pinwheels may be a reference to Dave’s bicycle, and his desire to ride away from hereditary misery.

A great episode has Dave, after being thrilled to learn that the Italians are going to race in Indiana, goes out on the highway and follows a Cinzano truck. The driver speeds up and holds out fingers to tell Dave how fast he is going. Obviously, this arrangement has been ongoing. It is exhilarating to see Dave literally trying to race away from his limited existence. Humorously, they are going so fast, a policeman stops the truck for speeding.

Another fun scene is when Mooch goes for a job at a car wash. Mike says he’ll have to wash the rich kids’ cars and smile to get tips. They tell him not to forget to write, as if he’s “going away,” which he is from the unemployed gang’s point of view, since they are reluctant to capitulate to defeatism. The boss is nasty because Mooch is a little late and calls him “Shorty,” as he tells him to punch into the time clock. Mooch does so literally, smashing the device with his fist wrapped in a towel. A very short-term job.

There is a hint of Dave wanting to leave the defeatist working-class mentality of his father by wanting to take a college entrance exam just to see if he can pass. The tall Cyril had dreams of getting a basketball scholarship, but it didn’t happen. He says his father always says he “understands,” when Cyril fails. To Cyril it seems his father expects him to fail at everything, and he wants to give him a birthday present by taking and flunking the college test so his dad will have something else to “understand.”

There is an interesting cross-cutting of scenes as Dave serenades Katherine while Evelyn makes a romantic dinner for Ray, complete with romantic music and lit candles. As Dave sings with Cyril accompanying him on guitar, Dave’s parents hear the same words sung that Dave is performing. Evelyn removes the flower from her hair and Ray takes off his pocket protector, a humorous bit of working-class unclothing.

The serenade is a success as Katherine kisses Dave, and they later meet for lunch. She says that, unlike Dave’s exalting the family in Italian life, she says her parents don’t even miss her. Perhaps she, despite her upper social status, is missing something in her life. However, a few college students beat Cyril for his part in the serenade, and Mike vows vengeance. After the cutters and the students, led by snobbish Rod (Hart Bochner), have a brawl in the college cafeteria, the university says instead of fighting, the cutters can compete with the students in the Little 500 bicycle race.

At the quarry hole, Mike thinks Dave will easily win the race, with the others completing the team requirement. But the latter doesn’t want to expose himself as a cutter to Katherine. He continues to devalue his background and hide behind the façade he has created. Mike gets into an argument with the other guys and says he wasn’t planning on wasting his life with them. Cyril then says, “I thought that was the whole plan, that we were going to waste our lives together.” It is an insightful and sad admission. It is at the heart of this story that these young men have lives without dreams, but at least they have each other to share their disappointments.

Then the college students show up on the other side of the quarry hole, which stresses the class divide between the two groups of youths. Dave continues his deception, hiding so that Katherine will not see him with his friends from the town. This arrival adds insult to injury for Mike, and he challenges Rod to a swimming contest. Mike loses, injuring his head on the side of the rockface, a sort of ironic defeat for a hometown cutter of stone.

After that incident, Dave appears to agree to race, which will reveal who he is to Katherine. Mooch says if she really likes him, it will not make a difference. In a perfect world that would be the case, but the world is a flawed place.

After Dave runs a red light that causes his father to stall out one of his test drives with a customer, Ray denigrates his son in the parents’ bedroom, calling him “worthless” and not capable of being smart enough to go to college. Dave hears his father saying these belittling words that could force an offspring to believe in his worthlessness, perpetuating the lack of achievement. However, Dave was inadvertently exposing his father’s deceit since Ray was trying to sell a defective car. They both are confronting their lack of pride in what they are doing.

Which is possibly why what follows is a scene where Ray visits his former friends who still work at the limestone cutting factory. He joins in helping to do some of his former work, which he was proud of performing. When he is walking with Evelyn, she suggests that he give their son a job at the used car business. Ray’s conflicted nature is obvious when he first says the used car business isn’t good enough for Dave, and admits it’s not even good enough for him, but then switches, saying it is worthy of himself. These scenes show that there can be satisfaction in any job or endeavor as long as that is what one aspires to do. Ray does relent and gives him a job washing the cars.

Despite being exhausted at the job, he continues to train with the Italians whenever he has a chance, even in the rain, which shows Dave’s desire to excel. The contrast between his having to overcome obstacles compared to the privileged students is stressed in the shot where he is cleaning the inside of a car while Rod and his crew ride by on their bikes.

When a young man returns a defective car that Ray sold to him, Dave says they must accept the responsibility. Ray keeps repeating “refund,” like it’s some kind of curse word. He suffers a mild heart attack, but is it because of the stress of having to part with money, or is it also due to an unconscious realization that his life is a fraud?

When Dave says he should skip the race with the Italians until his father recuperates, his mother shows him her passport. She says she carries it with her and shows it anytime she needs to present identification. She tells her son that he should do things while he can. The economy of the dialogue here is effective, because just by saying that, she shows she had a dream to travel that wasn’t realized, and that her son should not give up on his dreams.

Director Peter Yates uses music very well here as he employs an Italian classical soundtrack to keep the pace with the bikers. However, the race with the Italian bicyclists does not go well, as the Italians cheat and cause damage to Dave’s bike. Dave rides with the others as Mike says Dave is just a cutter now, like the rest of them. When he comes home, he no longer is talking like an Italian and admits that his father was right about his used car business, since everybody “cheats.” Ray is now upset and hugs his sad son who has lost his innocence and has learned about the unscrupulous reality that can present itself.

He is now ready to show who he really is to Katherine, who when she first sees him in his regular clothes says she liked him the way he “was before,” and he now looks like “everybody else.” They are harsh statements given the context of the movie. But, she, too, wanted to escape from the ordinary, and Dave gave her that. She slaps him as she feels betrayed by his lying performance.

Ray watches Dave tear down the Italian pictures in his room and they go for a walk. Ray says that he helped cut the stones that built the university’s buildings and was young, strong, and proud of his work. But then somehow those buildings  seemed too good for him. He says that all he left Dave and his friends were the “holes” in the ground, which is a metaphor for passing on a feeling of emptiness to the next generation. Dave admits he took the college entrance exam and did well on it. Ray now is encouraging, saying that was “good,” showing how he is proud that Dave excelled on the test.

Mike now admits that maybe those college guys are better than them. Is he serious, or is he using reverse psychology on Dave? In any event, Dave restores the broken bike and becomes committed to entering the Little 500 race.

Katherine approaches Dave on the street and she has now let go of her anger. She says she will be graduating and has a job in Chicago. She will also go to Italy with her parents. The first thought is that she is showing her privileged status. But the fact that she wants to go to Italy, and with her parents, shows how Dave implanted a similar dream into her to escape the ordinary. She wishes him a good trip, and he says he’s not going anywhere. Her knowing response is, “I don’t know about that.” She realizes that Dave is special and will be escaping from his surrounding limitations.

Katherine is not the only one Dave has influenced. Ray admits that Dave’s mother is expecting, so the Italian love of an expanding family has literally taken seed in the Stohler residence. His parents present him and Moocher T-shirts that say “Cutter” on them, which announces that they should be proud of who they are.

The race is not without its drama as Dave injures his foot. The others do their best to help, participating in the race, showing how it is a team effort. Dave has his foot strapped to the pedal which means he must finish the race himself. He does win to the jubilation of his friends and the townspeople. Even Dave’s father leaves his job to cheer his son on, and there is a shot of Rod applauding, revealing he has conceded that the cutters were the best on this day.

The last scene is heartwarming and funny. Dave is now a freshman at the college, and he encounters a French exchange student. They are both riding bikes, and Dave says he is thinking of taking French, acknowledging that the French are the best bicyclists. Dad has come a long way from his previous perception of his son, and is now also riding a bike. As he passes his son, Dave calls out “Bon Jour, Papa,” startling his father, whose expression shows that Dave may have switched from being Italian to becoming French. In any event, Katherine was right, and Dave is most certainly “breaking away.”

Parasite

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Parasite (2019), was the first foreign-language film to win the Best Picture Oscar. Writer-director Bong Goon Ho here again explores the class divisions between the privileged and the poor, as he did in other films such as Snowpiercer and Mickey 17.

The first shot is that of the view from a basement apartment, stressing the subterranean life of the poor. Mr. Kim (Song Hang Ho) and his family live there. He is an out-of-work driver. Phones are shut off and they have been stealing the internet from a neighbor, who recently changed her password, cutting off the family members crowded together in the cramped dwelling. There is a picture and medal that was won in a track and field event, which shows that there is talent here, but it has not been able to sustain itself in the poverty surrounding it. They have stink bugs in the place. When an exterminator comes by outside, they leave the window open to kill the insects, but it is they who may be the target in this society.

They make money by folding pizza boxes to get by. The son, Ki-Woo (Choi Woo-Shik) has a friend, Min-Hyuk (Park Seo-Joon), who brings them what is known as a Scholar’s Rock that presages good fortune. The mother, Choong Sook (Jang Hye-Jin) says he should have brought food, which is what this deprived family really needs, not a lucky charm.

Ki-Woo is to take over tutoring English from the leaving Min-Hyuk of the daughter, Da-Hye (Jung Ji-So), of the rich Park family. Min-Hyuk doesn’t want some college student putting the moves on Da-Hye, who he likes and sees his friend as a faithful protector. Ki-Woo excelled in school in English, but the family couldn’t afford an education for him, or his sister, Ki-Jeong (Park So-Dam), who is an excellent artist. The only way the lower-class family can attain employment is through fraud (Are they parasites? The title of the film works on different levels). So, Ki-Woo pretends to be a college student, named Kevin, and his sister creates fake documents for him. As the father humorously says if there was a major at Oxford University for forgery, his daughter would excel there. Ki-Woo says he will go to the university and the document is just a bit premature because he will get the diploma, which shows his inner drive, but is it impossible for his dreams to come true?

In contrast, the Park house is luxurious. The first shot of Mrs. Park has her snoozing with her head down on a table. It’s a picture of the idle rich. Min-Hyuk called her “simple,” and her Ki-Wook’s family exploit this lack of shrewdness. (Is Mrs. Park in her own way a parasite living off society as a noncontributing member?) Ki-Woo tells Da-Hye that she needs “vigor” to do well on her tests, slashing through her studies as if clearing a jungle. His advice contrasts with the example of the sleeping mother, and the lax attitude of the entitled wealthy. The Park’s young son, Da-Song (Jung Hyeon Jun), likes to draw, so Ki-Woo sees this fact as an opportunity to insert his sister as an art teacher named Jessica.

Da-Hye already knows that her brother is a phony who pretends to be inspired to paint. Ki-Woo, being insightful, already knows this fact. So, it is not just Ki-Woo’s family that are pretenders. It is interesting that Ki-Woo and his sister are ambitious people, while the children of the rich are dependent on their parents, like parasites. Da Hye is attracted to Ki-Woo and they kiss, which subverts Min-Hyuk’s plan, and entwines Ki-Woo even more with the Park family.

Ki-Jeong is a better parent for Da-Song than is Mrs. Park. She is strong-willed and gets the boy to act properly quickly. She says that Da-Song needs “art therapy” because he exhibits a psychological pathology in his paintings (she just looked the term up to initiate the scam). She says it was due to a previous trauma, which apparently did happen to the boy. Of course, she must charge Mrs. Park exorbitant fees for such in-depth treatment.

While getting a ride home in the Park family limo, Ji-Jeong gets the idea of leaving her underwear in the car to entrap the driver so that her father can become the new Park’s chauffeur. Mr. Park says that his driver dared to “cross the line,” to have sex in the back seat of the limo, where he sits. The idea of line crossing is a metaphor for the divider between the classes.

Kim, who has tried several businesses in the past but could not become successful, satisfies Mr. Park with his driving. His family then plans on getting rid of the housekeeper, Moon-Kwang (Lee Jung-Eun), who is not as easily duped. She was the housekeeper of the architect who built the house that now is owned by the Parks (It is an interesting fact that becomes important later). Ki-Woo discovers from Da-Hye that the housekeeper is very allergic to peaches and the fruit can’t be in the house. Ki-Jeong sprinkles peach fuzz onto the housekeeper’s neck. Kim then makes a video of the housekeeper going to the hospital. He says he was there for a physical and saw the woman coughing. He tells Mrs. Park he overheard that she may have TB. When Kim shakes Mrs. Kim’s hand, she asks if he washed his hands. It shows a repulsion toward the lower classes, and Mrs. Kim may see the handshake as another crossing of the line. The family rehearses Kim’s performance to recruit the mother, and it may be that director Ho is commenting on the filmmaking process, even adding ketchup to the kitchen trashcan to make it appear as if blood was on the housekeeper’s tissues as sort of a special effect. Mrs. Park fires the housekeeper and now Kim’s wife, Choong Sook, is hired to replace her. Mr. Park notes that his wife can’t do anything around the house, stressing her parasitic nature.

While talking about the Kim family’s good fortune, Kim sees a man again urinating outside their basement apartment. Ki-Woo throws water on the man to chase him away. This act and the fact that the chauffeur and the housekeeper lost their jobs implies that when some members move up in the class system it may be at the expense of others since society does not provide for the welfare of all its citizens.

The Parks go away on a camping trip and the Kims indulge themselves by taking over the mansion, eating, bathing, and drinking. It is there moment where they can pretend to be rich, “pretend” being the operative word. Ki-Woo says he wants to be able to ask Da-Hye out, maybe marry her, and the house will become their home for real. His family laugh at this daydream knowing that they will never be able to rise into the upper class. Ki-Jeong has been hired to act like a guest at some weddings to catch the bouquet, and her acting has become quite good, as she has already shown. Performance is necessary to acquire some benefits given their lower-class status, since that is the closest they will get to being among the rich. Kim says even though Mrs. Park is rich she is nice, but Choong Sook says she is “nice because she is rich,” which means she can afford to be nice, not worrying about scraping by each day to get ahead. All the worries of the rich are “ironed out,” they are “smoothed out by money.” It reminds one of The Great Gatsby, where F. Scott Fitzgerald says that the rich can be careless because they can fall back into the comfort of their money.

The family is drunk now, and Ki-Woo says that his sister seems to fit in well in the extravagant house. Choong Sook says that her husband could never fit in, and would scurry like the cockroaches in their apartment if Mr. Park came in now. Kim seems angry at the insect comparison and he grabs his wife by her shirt. He and his wife then laugh, and Kim says to his son that they were acting. Was he? They have become so used to conning others that they can’t tell if they are acting or not, being genuine or pretending.

The old housekeeper, Moon-Kwang, shows up and says she left something in the basement. She is there to rescue her husband, Geun-Sae (Park Myung-Hoon) who has been living underground for over four years trying to escape debtors. He is staying behind a secret wall, which became jammed and he could not escape. It is a place where the rich can hide if things go bad for them. The Parks did not know of this secret place. The wealthy can afford an escape plan, like a golden parachute. We again have the film’s metaphor that the poor must live below the privileged.

Choong Sook is ready to call the police, not feeling sympathy for one of her fellow impoverished. But Moon-Kwang discovers that the whole Kim family has conned their way into the house and threatens to expose them with a phone video. She and her husband also begin to enjoy the richness of the house, their only chance at the good life together.

The two families fight over the phone. Their struggle shows how the poor are forced to battle each other for what the wealthy have left them. The Parks were washed out of their camping trip by a storm, so the Kims must clean things up so as not to get caught. The Kims now become the captors of their own class in the subterranean compartment. Choong Sook causes Moon-Kwang to fall down the basement stairs and she sustains a severe head injury, and dies after freeing her husband of his bonds.

Mrs. Park tells Choong Sook of the traumatic experience that her son, Da-Song, experienced. He woke up when he was younger in the middle of the night to have more birthday cake and saw Geun-Sae come out of the basement. The child thought he was a ghost. Symbolically, this event may mean that the uncaring wealthy are haunted by the memories of their class victims.

The rich being superior is again displayed metaphorically. The Parks sleep on a couch in the living area to be on call if their son, who decides to have his own camping experience, stays in a tent in the grounds in the back of the house. The Kims are hiding under the furniture, showing that they are beneath the wealthy family. Mr. Park says that he can still smell Mr. Kim, as if the poor are somehow contaminated by their place in society. Mr. Park says that Kim “always seems about to cross the line,” but doesn’t, again using the analogy to show the need for the lower classes to stay in their place. But his smell “crosses the line.” He says, people who ride subways have that smell, as if derived from associating with others of what he would consider to be the working-class subculture.

Choong Sook resides at the house, being the housekeeper, but the other Kims escape (walking through a tunnel, the underground being their place in life).. When they return to their apartment, their home below the surface is flooded, showing how their plans have washed away. Kim comes to believe that plans are meaningless, and he falls into despair. They attempt to save some possessions, and Ki-Woo gets the Scholar’s Rock, which was supposed to represent good fortune. Ironically, it causes just the opposite, and his clinging to it is misplaced hope in this story.

The next day the Parks are preparing for another birthday for their son, and they can afford to host an opulent party. The scene of Mrs. Park going into her spacious walk-in closet contrasts with the impoverished multitudes in the gymnasium who sought shelter from the storm as they rummage through donated clothing. Mr. and Mrs. Park must act as servants. Da-Hye invited Ki-Woo and his sister. Da-Hye and Ki-Woo are kissing in her bedroom. It is above the grounds, looking down at the rich guests. From that height he is temporarily elevated in his status and wonders if he fits in there.

The child Da-Song likes to pretend he is a Native American, and for the party Mr. Kim must pretend to be one also. In this context he is an oppressed person playing the role of a member of another oppressed race. Ki-Woo takes the Scholar’s Stone and descends to kill Geun-Sae so he can’t expose the Kim family. But the man gets the drop on the young man and smashes his head with the stone. At this point Geun-Sae is in a deranged state following the death of his wife, and he seeks revenge on Choong Sook for her death. He wields a knife, killing Ki-Woo’s sister. On seeing a return of the “ghost,” the boy Da-Song faints. Mr. Park demands that Mr. Kim give him the car keys to transport his son for medical care, not showing any concern for the dying Ji-Jeong. Geun-Sae attacks Choong Sook who is able to use a food skewer to kill the man. It is ironic that something used to feed this posh group is now a homicide weapon used against the rich host. So far, the lower-class uprising has only resulted in deaths of those in their own class. But when Mr. Kim sees Park’s disgust of the smell of his family, Mr. Kim loses it and stabs Mr. Park to death.

What happens next is a narration by Ki-Woo which relates that he recovered following brain surgery. He and his mother were put on probation for acting fraudulently, but she is acquitted of Geun-Sae ‘s death for acting in self-defense. Ki-Woo views the Park house from a hill, the only way he can come close to rising to the height to be able to purchase the home. He realizes his father now lives in hiding in the room below the now vacant house because Geun-Sae used the light controls in the room to send out a Morse Code signal, and now so does Ki-Woo’s father. Mr. Kim has moved from one subterranean place to another, replacing another lower-class person in the seemingly never-ending oppression of the poor.

Ki-Woo writes a letter, that the film visualizes, to his father about working hard and becoming wealthy enough to buy the Park mansion so his father will join them. But he composes the letter from the dingy basement apartment in which the story started, suggesting that his hopes will remain only a dream.