美国国家公共电台 NPR The Hit Movie 'Parasite' Puts Basement Structures In Structural Inequality

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

The South Korean movie "Parasite¹" is an international sensation, and that is partly for its universal themes like the conflicts between rich and poor. In other ways, the film is specific to South Korea. One example, says NPR's Neda Ulaby, has to do with architecture.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE²: "Parasite's" action puddles³ between a gleaming modernist mansion⁴ floating in the hills of Seoul and a squalid basement apartment where Wi-Fi is a luxury.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PARASITE")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, speaking in Korean).

ULABY: The mansion could be in Berlin, Dubai, LA, anywhere. The basement apartment is Seoul 100%, says Gina Kim, who grew up in South Korea.

GINA KIM: Yeah, the basement unit (laughter).

ULABY: Kim works as a filmmaker and professor at UCLA. These basement apartments, she says, date from the days of the nuclear standoff between the U.S. and the Soviet⁵ Union after the Korean War.

KIM: And they started to build bunkers in all the buildings, even in big apartment buildings.

ULABY: There's a real bunker in the movie. But renting out these semi-basement bunkers was illegal, she says. They were filled with mold and pests and prone⁶ to floods. But South Korea, in just decades, went from being one of the world's poorest economies to the 11th largest. Kim says the government had to legalize these semi-underground apartments to accommodate workers pouring in, but that did not mean semi-basement units became desirable.

KIM: People can look into them. People pee on the windows. People park their cars, blocking whatever little sunlight they can have.

BOON⁷ JONG-HO: (Speaking in Korean).

ULABY: "Parasite" director Boon Jong-ho says the family in the basement wants to rise, but they're mired⁸ in the muck, literally⁹ and figuratively.

BOON: (Through interpreter) These semi-basement homes are only half underground. That's very similar to the psychology¹⁰ of our protagonists¹¹. We became a wealthy country very fast, and people who weren't able to board that fast train towards wealth, they feel lost. And they feel a sense of inferiority. And the economy is not just about numbers. It also carries a lot of emotion as well.

ULABY: Anxiety over South Korea's economic situation is part of its popular culture. This 2008 indie rock hit, "Cheap Coffee," concerns young people failed by dreams of class mobility¹².

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHEAP COFFEE")

CHANG KIHA: (Singing in Korean).

KIM: This kind of goes like, I drink a cup of cheap coffee. It's not even lukewarm, but I still get heartburn.

ULABY: The metaphors¹³ here, says Gina Kim, are not especially subtle. But then again, neither is the story in "Parasite" and around the world of structural¹⁴ inequality.

Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

1 parasite   

n.寄生虫；寄生菌；食客

参考例句：

• The lazy man was a parasite on his family.那懒汉是家里的寄生虫。
• I don't want to be a parasite.I must earn my own way in life.我不想做寄生虫，我要自己养活自己。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 puddles   

n.水坑， （尤指道路上的）雨水坑( puddle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The puddles had coalesced into a small stream. 地面上水洼子里的水汇流成了一条小溪。
• The road was filled with puddles from the rain. 雨后路面到处是一坑坑的积水。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 mansion   

n.大厦，大楼；宅第

参考例句：

• The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
• The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。

5 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

6 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

7 boon   

n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠

参考例句：

• A car is a real boon when you live in the country.在郊外居住，有辆汽车确实极为方便。
• These machines have proved a real boon to disabled people.事实证明这些机器让残疾人受益匪浅。

8 mired   

abbr.microreciprocal degree 迈尔德（色温单位）v.深陷( mire的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The country was mired in recession. 这个国家陷入了经济衰退的困境。
• The most brilliant leadership can be mired in detail. 最有才干的领导也会陷于拘泥琐事的困境中。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

10 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

11 protagonists   

n.（戏剧的）主角( protagonist的名词复数 )；（故事的）主人公；现实事件（尤指冲突和争端的）主要参与者；领导者

参考例句：

• Mrs Pankhurst was one of the chief protagonists of women's rights. 潘克赫斯特太太是女权的主要倡导者之一。 来自辞典例句
• This reflects that Feng Menglong heartily sympathized with these protagonists. 这反映出冯梦龙由衷地同情书中的这些主要人物。 来自互联网

12 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

13 metaphors   

隐喻( metaphor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I can only represent it to you by metaphors. 我只能用隐喻来向你描述它。
• Thus, She's an angel and He's a lion in battle are metaphors. 因此她是天使，他是雄狮都是比喻说法。

14 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。