The director bung June ho's new movie has been shattering every box office record that exists for foreign language film it's called parasite and yeah you could call it a satire on economic inequality but really it's just a thrilling and unsettling film about trying to you hear what surprised him the most about his reaction to the film that's coming up a little bit later on but 1st our Thursday headliner this week has totally reinvented the songs of Bob Dylan for a musical and maybe the most surprising part of it Bob's on board you hear some live music and the story behind working with Bob Dylan coming up right now on Q. RINGBACK I'm Tracy k. Smith and this is the slowdown. In a science lesson I once sat through years ago it was hypothesized that humans developed the practice of kissing from the primitive urge to lick the salt off one another's bodies perhaps said salt was needed for nutrition or maybe just tasty and eventually we found our way to the better pleasure of lips meeting lamps I wonder what that moment was like the 1st kiss of our species slow tentative shy or ravenous outrageous the way teenagers kiss one another in public making everyone around them feel exposed. Do you remember what it felt like to anticipate the rapture of your 1st kiss to chase after it in your mind as if it were something lingering just ahead in the distance something you'd have to hurry to catch the 1st time I kissed my husband we were sitting on the couch in my Brooklyn apartment the moment our lips found each other the song coming through my speakers flared into rapture it sounded like the clouds parting the heavens awakening we both laughed perhaps we laughed because we knew it was the kiss that would give way to a lifetime of kisses Is it too and to say that when we kiss now I still feel something like what that silly song proclaimed and I'm not just swapping smooches with my man nightly before bed my children command me to give them kiss after kiss kisses to foreheads and cheeks noses and chins hands bellies even feet they'll grow up soon and want their space so I treasure this ritual as the gift that it is today's poem is Last Kiss by Jane. And it's bittersweet what I take away from it is the reminder to cherish every bliss because nothing not even the joy of kissing lasts forever last kiss by Jane. 1st and your seventies and alone you read that those who count such things say an average person kisses for a total of 2 weeks and a lifetime and you realize your 2 weeks was up some time ago suddenly there is kissing everywhere you look and you learn that cows kiss and squirrels Pathans snails and near cats and you are overcome with sorrow and an overwhelming desire to kiss to be kissed and you learn that's called Basso Rexy and you have it you watch the lips of strangers in the supermarket wonder if one would want to kiss you you know now that a minute of kissing burns $26.00 calories and that a man lives up to 5 years longer if he kisses his lover before he goes to work you want to tell someone that and what's worse unlike the 1st kiss the last slipped by a noted it might have been a spring day when daffodils answered the sun's invitation or an autumn day when everything else was burning or simply a day you took out the garbage did a load of wash then someone comes and takes your hand and you remember words to a song you thought you'd never hear again and you remember all those sunsets you forgot to watch and the smell of woods in rain and you remember the river the river how it presses its mouth again and again to the swollen sea. The slowdown as a production American Public Media partnership with the poetry. You're listening to q. On c.b.c. Radio one Sirius x and 169 from Public Radio International also known as p.r.i. I'm Tom power you know I love a band you know I love a singer songwriter you know I love a solo artist but I don't know I get so much more excited when I come in for work on a Thursday and we have like a stage show we have like a musical we have a play happening in our studio and I'm so excited to say today's a Thursday headliner is the cast from girl from the north country they're about to perform some new version songs that you may have heard before if this is the 1st time you're hearing about a girl from the north country it's a musical made up of new arrangements of Bob Dylan songs so let's get right to it here's the cast right now performing a great Bob Dylan song that I don't get I don't think it's song enough it's called true love tends to forget live on cue. She. Judy. To see the flow can. You knew. When these new. Pieces. And finally we. Choose. To answer to. 'd 'd Sarah says her hair. I mean what are you going to do with that so good that is some of the cast of Girl From The North Country Katie Braden and Jane Casey Rachel John and Gloria Obi I knew that's the new version of Bob Dylan's true love tends to forget live on cue I think it's on street legal but that's not a big record that's so cool to hear that that's a Thursday headline of this week girl from the north country is a musical set in Minnesota in the 1930 s. You may not know this but Bob Dylan's originally from Minnesota it's about a family that runs a boarding house during the Great Depression and how their lives intersect with the guests who stay there right now as the cast by in studio with me I'm happy to say we have the playwright on the line from a studio in Dublin Ireland Conor MacPherson joins us on q. Conor high has a cone not too bad so like well what was your reaction when you get asked to or approached with the idea of turning Bob Dylan songs into a musical. Shock and dismay probably thinking this is doesn't sound like a very good idea. And I suppose I had because I had no experience of musicals I I guess I imagined that they were looking to soar return you know Bob Dylan's News him to FICA big song and dance extravaganza and so initially I source and not a good idea no thank you and then I was walking along just I live right beside the sea here in Dublin I was walking along there a few days after I had a conversation and I suddenly just saw in my head like a like. A guest house in in a soda in the 1930 s. And I thought oh rats if you know it was a kind of like a Eugene O'Neill kind of play that had you know set in the thirty's that the characters saying Bob Dylan songs with you know in a kind of feeling of that time of wonders or something that they'd be interested in so I just wrote a little 2 page little idea out and sent it off and. About 3 days later I got to I got a call to say that Bob Dylan really loved that idea and he wanted me to do it and I could just do whatever I wanted hold on so you get a call that Bob Dylan is on board with your mean that must've been amazing for you . It was kind of frightening because I thought oh really because I suppose with bob dylan he's the one predictable that you I didn't kind of what to expect but I suppose you got to expect the unexpected which is Bob Dylan just suddenly says Why don't you do whatever you like with my music which is just kind of stunning offer and very shocking but. Very exciting and the heat and then a couple of days after that I got sent from his manager's office in New York I just got sent all of his albums it was like a 50 albums arrived at my door Wow Were you a big fan beforehand. I was a fan of Bob Dylan big music fan I love love all kinds of music and you know like a lot of people you know if you're into music you know all about Bob Dylan and you know read books about Bob Dylan but I probably only had like about 6 of his albums I would say I didn't you know I wasn't like a crazy you know right across all the decades kind of Qana served Bob Dylan but then when I was listening to the albums that they sent me I realize wow this guy has really been an amazing journey through through many decades and there are songs on every album from every decade which are as good as anything that you know anybody is ever going to write so he said he's just a superlative artist and if you're just joining us I'm Tom Power kind of Macpherson is my guest he's the playwright behind the musical girl from the north country there reimagines the music of Bob Dylan If you're just tuning in he was just telling us a pretty amazing story about a game being approached of a do this agreeing to do it and then finding out that Bob Dylan himself is onboard and essentially back up a truck of Bob Dylan records and music and you know I'm really songs to your to your door. I want to talk about how you chose some songs that I was really surprised by be really happy with in just a 2nd but I mean where do you start when you get you know the catalog at your doorstep of maybe the most prolific songwriter of our time. I loaded the mall open to my my i Pod which is probably a very old fashioned instrument. But I loaded them all up on there and I just went for long walks I would listened to everything and every time there was a song that I didn't know that I that I really liked I just kind of stored away in my head and I said I'm going to use that one and. That was kind of how I did it just anything that spoke to me on the one hit me on the level I thought well if it hits me there it'll hit an audience there and that was that was how I went about it really I mean and that means going to some some. Some records that people sometimes kind of discuss aren't incredibly happy with all the time sort of debatable Bob Dylan albums but I think what you've done here is you've taken some songs that maybe we don't pay enough attention to you know when we're we're to be paying attention to Hurricane or or blowing in the wind or something like that and really shed some light on some lesser known Bob Dylan songs was that part of the intent. Well it wasn't really my intention at all I mean I just I just wanted to I just wanted to make sure that I knew you know where all the good music was and I just listened to everything and there was good music everywhere of course and so I you know that was that was all I could do was to it was was to it was to take it so I found out I got really I thought I found that he was really on far common through for me anyway through the late seventy's into the early eighty's he really went through a big change. There and actually he had into his kind of born again Christian phase for a few albums and was kind of amazing about that is I think that most people when they think about that with Bob Dylan it's almost a kind of comedic footnote in his career for a lot of cool rock and roll dude's But actually what you're missing is the great artist became really inspired at a certain point and just totally followed his his muse where ever it was going to take him and of course it's full of gold nuggets just great great songwriting and it also takes on a great b. Flavor in around their real gospel flavor so we have a we've a number of songs from around our period too. Which is I find those songs were particularly exciting in the musical takes place in Duluth Minnesota where Bob Dylan is from its 2nd during the Great Depression in 1034 of the decade before he was born has as Bob seen is Bob seen the show. Well I mean the thing is that. You know I just get great support from him through his company so just whatever we're doing he really likes it I don't impinge on his previously but he's really really supporting us I'm glad to hear it but you know on your mind were other non Bob Dylan fans on your mind too in creating these musicals I figure you know people who maybe aren't necessarily into his music you want to get them to go see it as well. Well look you know he's not just he's not just some some you know flash in the pan he's a guy he's just like a tremendous one of the great artists of the 20th century and 21st century he's alive now and he's a Nobel he's the only singer I know of has won the Nobel Prize for literature but also he's just such a terrific songwriter his songs seem simple That's the funny thing is like when you hear Bob Dylan song you think you know if I sat down for 10 minutes I could probably write a song like that you know that's what everybody kind of things but I try and do it you know try and do it for you will never be able to do it and that is great genius it see it seems so simple yet everything he does it's not a big flashy move but it's always the right move musically and it's always gets gets you know. So he's kind of struck by lightning I think there's just something about him that's you know really touched by something and I don't know special or divine and it's his vibration is still still going through the world I think you know kind of the band's hair the performers are here they're about to do tight connection to my heart has anybody seen my love from the musical Anything you want to say about it this is a song from 1905 I think. Les really not considered one of Bob's finest albums by the officiant I doze and maybe some to do with you know Bob was always trying to change with the times and the production on the album is pretty eighty's but just listen to this song just listen to how good this song is and I defy you to tell me anyone who's written you know songs that like this for for 40 years of a career to thank so much for your time thank you performing live in our studio Here's some of the cast from the musical girl from North Country with that song Conor was just talking about tight connection to my heart has anybody seen my love . Do. You son too soon I mean you do. Things. And needs to. Run. Out every wasn't. That is some of the cast of girl from the north country singing tight connection to my heart has. Anybody seen my love by Bob Dylan my i.q. But that was amazing thank you so much that was so great a girl from the north country is having its Canadian premiere in Toronto Ontario right now it runs until November 20. 8th is. There still 3 months to go and $29000.00 and we've already had a decade's worth of stupid news so this week we will stop to marvel at what's already happened. Give you a review of some of the more shocking moments in a shocking year plus a never before heard talk with. Fleming join us for The News Quiz Wait Wait Don't Tell me from n.p.r. . That Saturday morning at 9 am right here on. The Rush has retired from touring. And bassist of the band has been busy cataloguing photographing and writing about his collection of guitars for getting these big beautiful book bass We will talk all about it on the next conversations from the World Cafe Saturday at 2 pm part of our new Saturday afternoon lineup you can find out all about it on our website www dot org. You're listening to q. On c.b.c. Radio one Sirius x.m. 169 and from Public Radio International My name's Tom. Have you heard about the film parasite if you haven't you should probably check it out because the response to the movie has just been wild It all started at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Audiences gave Paris a 6 minute standing ovation they hooted they hollered they chanted then the director. Parasite one of the festival's top prize goes to. People singing from that point on parasite became this unstoppable force tickets just instantly vanished at the Toronto International Film Festival when it opened in New York in Los Angeles this past weekend there were lineups around the block it ended of setting a few different box office records and there's a lot of talk that parasite may infiltrate the Oscars this year to no one I tell you not even the director saw this coming June how is the director and yes some other very famous films a Snowpiercer and. The little piggies will be the ancestors of all new species but we. Can't shut the parasite is entirely in Korean It's a thriller about 2 families one rich and one poor and how they wormed their way into each other's lives. Calls it a tragic comedy and for him those 2 things can't exist without one another tragedy and comedy I reached director bond in our New York City studio we spoke to him with help from his interpreter Sharon chai. Ready ready I'm excited action action direct director bong Hi How are you I'm 35 and I mean you know you know when my producer 1st described this film to me she came up to my desk and she said I said you know what's parasite like and she said it's kind of starts as a screwball comedy and then turns into a nightmare and I didn't really know what she meant and then I watched it last night and I went yeah that's that's that's exactly it would do they've got a point there is great comment. Is quite precise but maybe but maybe a nightmare is some kind of enjoyable. I hope it's a one of those nightmares that you wake up and you go I wish I had written that one down. Could come out and for me of course if I could inspire other filmmakers through this nightmare that would be great you said that there are 3 components to all your films including parasite fear anxiety and humor What's the connection between all these things. Who say God to you what about us whole You each other in the ghetto I think the 3 components always rely on each other when you have a comedic moment and then fear overwhelms you the fear as Max maximize and when you feel fear and you get anxious and song the you know you have a comedic moment that also relaxes the audience but during was clean no I think will always shooting the film I actually. Try to that it just happened but in naturally during or the process of my filmmaking Yeah I do know what you mean but I love what you said there I love that idea that when you're when you're at your most scared you know the laughs are bigger and when you're feeling your most joyful that's when this the fear is to you know it is the most intense. I think it would have been easy I mean this film and I don't want to give too much away at all I want people to go in kind of blind like I did but I think it would have this bill kind of deals with 2 families a very poor family a very. A rich family and typically when these 2 extremes are in a film one is the good guys and one is the bad guys but I got to tell you the entire time I was watching this film I wasn't sure who to root for so it's the tell me about making this film with no player villains actually it's something like. The life neighbors it's barely. It's always very difficult to find out the Leo and Joe or the. Evil of them in our daily lives or all mixed. Almost all people in the world to stay in the some kind of grey Jones so could. You know which to ponder on. I think the film really just honestly mirrors that kind of reality that we live in but nonetheless you have these plot comedic elements and then the film ends with a tragedy and I think you can ask well then why does why does this film and it was such a tragedy when there aren't any villains that's a that's a bit mean that's an interesting question I found I found myself again not entirely sure who to root for and I wonder if you have any perspective on why in films or in narratives that are typically about class oftentimes there are pretty clear heroes and villains. Because you know I wonder. So I wanted to tell the story with a more subtle and realistic approach and more than anything else I really wanted to be honest I think even in our own lives it's difficult to define who's on our side and who our enemies are we just you know fight with each other I miss that chaos and that's something that I wanted to marry with parasite I also found it interesting like when you said you want to take a subtle approach telling the story you know the scent like in the way the bodies of the family smell even comes up you know like even when the family is pretending to be rich. It's the their smell is what gives them away what were you trying to say but pointing out the the older the body odor of the 2 families one rich one poor or little more you. Want to know why is all of them sort of when they go tipp