Campbell Meditation Column – Why are people so excited about the movie, “Parasite”?
Director Bong Joon-ho’s film Parasite was the first foreign film to be awarded an Oscar for Best Picture, winning a total of four of the six categories it was nominated for in this year’s Academy Awards. Many famous filmmakers and actors have praised by Bong Joon-ho for his film, “Parasite”.
North American box office profits for Parasite have been steadily increasing since winning the Academy Awards. In addition, director Bong was invited to major talk shows, such as the Tonight Show. When reading the many movie critiques and reviews, there is a common theme about this movie that allows the audience to be sympathetic to the characters.
Or, as in the title of the movie, the meaning of the word parasite is referring to our own image reflected in modern society. At the end, the protagonists feed off, consume, and use each other while pretending to be nice, kind, and caring. In fact, we are drawing the line against one another other, and we live only by devising how to consume each other.
This film expresses such selfish aspects of human beings very blatantly. Because it is so obvious, the audience feels a sense of vicarious satisfaction or catharsis while watching this movie. The selfish sentiment of wanting to take control of an opponent and wanting to take over everything the opponent has is so very prominently displayed in this movie, so people cannot help but like the movie.
For example, when people listen to a negative story, as regrettable as it may be, they want to know and hear more about it i.e., someone’s divorce, someone’s failed business, and so on. And Parasite is very much along those lines.
Parasite is not based on a true story. Although, it is fantasy and fiction, people express their enthusiasm as this movie is very revealing about the selfish human mind that wants to consume and usurp one others. People admit that they are like parasites, that humans are selfish animals, and people have an agenda that wants to take away from what others have.
The most important thing to think about at this point is the question of whether we should continue to live with that mind. For example, a person cleans himself by taking a shower when his body is dirty or cleans the house when it is dirty.
Likewise, if we know that our mind is dirty, self-centered, and ugly, then we must abandon and discard it. Simply, people don’t know how to do so or where to go in order to let go of their self-centered minds, otherwise you will find that doing so is the most important and urgent thing in the world.
This meditation accurately provides a way to discard the toxic and ugly human mind. Through the step-by-step method which tells us what the human mind is and how to discard it, if everyone throws away their mind and regains the mind of the original nature, that mind is a good mind, one mind, that does not hurt others, and has a heart for each other.
This meditation is the place to go to that can show us how to look within and discard our minds. Only then can we escape from the life of a parasite that consumes and feeds off of others. The actions and lives of the protagonists in the movie are, in some ways, the images of our neighbors, the images of our families, and our own selves.
Now is the time to look back on yourself and throw away the fake self to find the true self. Through this meditation, let’s abandon the false self and repent to find the true self.