NY Mysteries January 24, 2020

BongJoon-ho’s Parasite is a Korean movie that is very witty and very violent. Its sly humor, bloody violence  and social satire work.  The rich family could have been transported from Westchester. The U. S. influence is shown through the mansion of the rich couple, including a teepee ordered from the U. S. The other family lives in dire poverty. They eke out a living folding pizza boxes and stealing wifi from a nearby store until one of them lands a tutoring job with the rich family. In rapid succession members of the poor family replace the housekeeper and driver of the rich. The poor teenage daughter, a budding con artist, pretends to be a psychologist  and lands a well paying job analyzing the rich family’s young son who keeps spilling the beans about the poor (They all smell alike.) but no one listens. It’s a real movie.

Jim Lehrer died on Thursday. He was the Public Broadcasting Service anchor for many years and was respected for his thorough and fair analysis. 

Jim Lehrer’s Rules

  • Do nothing I cannot defend.
  • Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.
  • Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
  • Assume the viewer is as smart and caring and good a person as I am.
  • Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
  • Assume personal lives are a private matter until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.
  • Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories and clearly label everything
  • Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions. No one should be allowed to attack another anonymously.
  • “I am not in the entertainment business.”

 

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a Windsor School teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who  accuses her of lying? Her father who’s fled to Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner was stabbed. He feels remorse over screwing up an important case. His corrupt boss is a trustee of the Windsor School. His girlfriend married his boss. And his daughter quit college.