At the birthday party, the son goes down the stairs with the stone, he drops it and ends up getting smashed with it.
I heard people say his intention was to kill the poor man/wife. My own guess is that he wanted to pass the stone to them, to help them.
This is still the only thing that I'm uncertain of. Upon initially watching it, I thought he was intending to kill, just to help out his father and sister after what they had been through, but I also heard people say he was intending to pass it along to help them, and I think I like that better. I plan on watching it again, before too long.
shareI agree with this as I thought the same. It's interesting that others have said he was intending to pass it along to help them, but wouldn't it be for college or advanced education?
share"...but wouldn't it be for college or advanced education?"
You're talking about the rock? In the beginning, I believe it was said to bring wealth and success, or something along those lines.
I initially thought he was planning to kill them, but it is open to interpretation.
shareIn Bong's script - available here
https://deadline.com/2020/01/parasite-script-bong-joon-ho-screenplay-read-it-1202819558/
- the stone *isn't* dropped, instead Ki-Woo raises it over Mun-Kwang's head to strike but can't bring himself to go ahead with killing her (at the same moment Kun-Sae slips his noose over Ki-Woo's head).
How Bong ended up staging and shooting the scene introduces more potential for ambiguity about what Ki-Woo was doing... but really it makes most sense to think of the filmed scene as having Ki-Woo's second thoughts & humanity kick in after he dropped the stone, i.e., just a little earlier than in the script. Ki-Woo's intentions were strictly defensive of his own family/murderous up till then. After all, if they *weren't* then Ki-Woo would have yelled down to the sub-basement dwellers that he was coming to wish them well/give them a gift & for them not to be afraid, aggressive, etc..
Unfortunately, Ki-Woo's actor has said some things in interviews that don't fit either the film or the script, confusing this issue I'm afraid.
Oh, I didn't think for a moment that he was trying to kill them. Not sure how I feel about this. I just thought he was taking the stone to them as a peace offering. I mean, why would he choose such an inconvenient murder weapon? The stone makes perfect sense as a gift, but very little as a murder weapon. Why would he go through all that trouble?
share@Magnolia86. You may have forgotten a few things.
1. About half-way through the film the Kims see another drunk urinating outside their apartment. Ki-Woo grabs the stone saying 'That asshole's dead' and starts to rush outside. His sister says mockingly 'Ki-Woos's on the rampage' (in the translated script it's, 'Oh, no. Here comes the rage
machine' and the mom chimes in, 'Why’s he acting tough all of a sudden? Is he trying to kill someone?'). The father of course steps in to save Ki-Woo from his righteous/family-defending rage, so that Ki-Woo ends up using a water-bottle instead of the stone. This is pretty heavy fore-shadowing.
2. When Ki-Woo & his father (post-flood) try to get to sleep on the gymnasium floor they talk. Ki-Woo is clearly disturbed: he's clutching the stone, says he thinks it's talking to him, clinging to him, etc.. And Ki-Woo wants to know what his father's plan is for dealing with the people/crisis in the Parks' sub-basement. Ki-Tek gives his speech about why you should never have plans including saying, 'If you don’t have a plan, you can’t fail. You can’t do anything wrong. Whether you kill someone or betray your country. Nothing fucking matters. You understand?' Ki-Woo hugs the stone and says he knows everything's his fault but that he'll take care of everything. All of this is *very* ominous.
In sum, then, Bong's script and film are precision-constructed. There's nothing especially inconvenient about the stone as a murder weapon in my view (and there's nothing *actually* valuable about it that would make it a good gift for desperados!) & the whole point is that Ki-Woo has become weirdly attached to the stone as a symbol. He literally can't and won't use anything else to take care of his family.
Hope that helps.
Thank you for the thorough reply. I had, indeed, forgotten about that bit with the drunk guy. You are right; it actually was heavy foreshadowing, now that I think about it. As for number two, I did get that weird vibe from that scene, but maybe because I didn't have that "rampage" moment in my mind, I didn't consider his intention to be hostile. But I do think that the stone could have made sense as a gift, since it was supposed to bring wealth to whoever owned it.
But you've changed my mind. Your explanation is sound.
This is the best reply about this. I didn't for once think he was going to give it to them as a gift. Ki-Woo was a hustler from the beginning, even with trying to get hired at the pizza place. He would never give away something that he thought would bring him and his family wealth.
The second they were running through the rain and Ki-Woo stopped at the stairs, that's when I knew he was going to try to kill them. It was the only thing he could do to save his family. Without them being alive their plan would have continued without fault.
For sure he was trying to kill them. Why be so stealthy and sneak in as quietly as possible if you have such good intentions?
shareHe had no plan. He had recently learned from his dad that no plan was better than any plan.
shareKevin's intention was to kill them.
Prior to him going down, he talked about how despite the party being a last minute arrangement, everybody who showed up looked nice and belonged. This is in contrast to him, who actually has to work to fit into the lives of the rich. A flood came and took away everything that his family own. If you look at the scene in the gymnasium, even the clothes on their backs were donations from others. Yet despite this, the rich people were ready to party after the flood.
This is why Kevin asked if he looked like he belonged. He was going to take the rock to finish the job so that he could cement his place within the lives of the rich.
how do you kill two birds with one stone?
share