South Korea shows Hollywood how it’s done

I’m inordinately pleased to witness ‘Parasite’ win the Best Picture award at the Oscars. This film did not miss a single beat in creating a tonally immersive experience. Despite the violence contained within, I was transformed enough to see it twice.

In ‘1917’ we had the filmmaking community revisit its fetish for war, something I’m just not up for.

If we are to promote peace, we need to depict scenes upon scenes depicting peace. Building peace, one kind gesture at a time, takes a willingness to focus on the more palatable parts of humanity - the capacity for people to be sweet to each other, our ability to give our time, attention and sympathy where we didn’t even know we could, the frequent instinct to soothe, reassure and encourage.

‘Parasite’ had some scenes where siblings bond, the father demonstrates his pride for his son, and the closely knit nature of the poor family is implied by their filling of the screen together, a coherent unit.  I’ll take it. Give me more of the same. Let it grow, multiply, flourish. Let it be the main theme of the narrative. Let it touch those hard to reach places in my soul, the ones crying out for more representations for love and affection - so that I can mirror what I see on the big screen. I want to learn by osmosis. Picture me, directors. Picture me. 

Flow

She wondered if she'd look up more often if she wore contacts, because glasses meant that her line of sight was limited to the frames. Lenses had a way of getting her in trouble, though. And she enjoyed the impression of intellectualism that her glasses imparted. Glasses it was. 

She swept her gaze up and down the harbour-side shops, as if painting them enchanting. The First Nations art shop was shut, but the artistic display of gourmet chocolate experiences would tickle her imagination. 

In the back of her mind she had a vision of rapid co-mingling of disparate concepts, or intuitive fusion of previously mismatched notions. It looked likely that she would reach such a state of honouring her curiosity. 

Patriarchy, again: the warm lashes of rain upon two glowing Asian figures. Not quite as phallic as the oblongs of the cityscape they overlooked, they mustered up an unmistakably male energy, twins of blue and red, lotuses and stripes entangled in a merry symphony within. Look, how those yellows accentuate the integrity of the whole - and that lower bit looks like Korean royal mint, but how can it be? She's pretty sure this tribute is Chinese.