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Korean Films and that Fourth Act

C4lukin2

Banned
I am just wondering here, and maybe it is just me.

I really liked Parasite, but it had like a ten minute 4th act that I thought really dragged the film down.

And it is consistent with a lot of the better known Korean films that made it to the US.

Snowpiercer, Oldboy, The Host.... There always seems to be a fourth act. Which beyond being unnecessary, does not clarify anything. You are still left with the questions you had at the end of the third act. It is like an extra act that just muddles the themes and story more.

So instead of just leaving it to your imagination, there is an extra 10 to 20 minutes of exposition that still do not lead to a decisive conclusion.

Just a thought. But I think most of the Korean films I have watched, could do without that extra epilogue.
 

DonJorginho

Banned
I am just wondering here, and maybe it is just me.

I really liked Parasite, but it had like a ten minute 4th act that I thought really dragged the film down.

And it is consistent with a lot of the better known Korean films that made it to the US.

Snowpiercer, Oldboy, The Host.... There always seems to be a fourth act. Which beyond being unnecessary, does not clarify anything. You are still left with the questions you had at the end of the third act. It is like an extra act that just muddles the themes and story more.

So instead of just leaving it to your imagination, there is an extra 10 to 20 minutes of exposition that still do not lead to a decisive conclusion.

Just a thought. But I think most of the Korean films I have watched, could do without that extra epilogue.

I agree a lot of Korean films have this same problem, but I would take that anyday over the same American action movie happy ending and panning shot followed by booming dubstep or pop music with title cards and bloopers.
 

C4lukin2

Banned
I agree a lot of Korean films have this same problem, but I would take that anyday over the same American action movie happy ending and panning shot followed by booming dubstep or pop music with title cards and bloopers.

Yeah I was not saying that it is a bad thing, or that Korean films should become more like American films.

Just that, there is a weird tendency, as someone else stated, to Return of the King films. You can maintain all of that originality, and great storytelling, without some unnecessary epilogue or 4th act as I described it earlier.
 
The final scene in Parasite has a strong metaphorical meaning about people wanting to redeem their parents, and that's in line with one of the many questions in the movie about the parents leaning on their children/their children having to carry their parents. The drive by the main character is to simply free his father from the cage he put himself in for being both exploited and exploitative. Therefore he can never be successful as we define it, he's a slave to the past.

I agree that Oldboy dragged at the end and that's the biggest blemish with the film. Parasite just keeps punching you all the way through the credits.
 
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