Article Review

With the last Oscars recently coming to a close, it is interesting to look back on the films that won oscars and specifically, winners that surprised everyone, or at least me. The movie that caught me off guard the most was “Parasite.” I expected “Parasite” to a film about a fictional disease that plagued China yet it turned out to be completely different. The best way I can explain “Parasite” is greed and class discrimination that threatens the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan. The article I am reviewing today is “5 Screenwriting Lessons from Bong Joon-Ho’s ‘Parasite’”.  The first lesson that can be learned is that drama is universal. ‘Parasite’s drama was such a hit because it reached so many dynamics, it didn’t only relate to Chinese culture, it was able to relate to all cultures that had a wealth gap. The story of class warfare was perfectly universal. The second lesson that can be learned from ‘Parasite’ is to do your prewriting. Before ‘Parasite’ went into production, it was a treatment that a South Korean company bought. A treatment is a multi-page document written in prose, that tells the story that happens in your screenplay. It is a synopsis, with action, sparse dialogue, and works as a roadmap for the reader, producer, and writer. The writers of ‘parasite’ gave themselves time that would allow them to find the time to make the screenplay the best it could be. They followed the lesson that “When you have a great idea, follow the steps you need to make the actual screenwriting process easier.” The third lesson that can be learned from the making of ‘Parasite’ is that all characters are developed through interaction with others. This means that elaborate backstories are not needed to develop characters. It is much better to allow the characters to show who they are through what the characters do. Allow drama to come from the characters and it will formulate the story. The forth lesson that can be learned from ‘Parasite’ is don’t shy away from metaphor. The movie is about parasitic relationships between families of different economic classes. The movies director sat down for weeks and wrote parasitic relationships so that he would have a thorough understanding of what he wanted to foretell. The fifth lesson that can be learned from the movie ‘Parasite’ is to care about your descriptions and actions. It is extremely important to make sure that every single line in a film is clear, concise, and not messy.

https://nofilmschool.com/parasite-screenplay-lessons