Parasite is one of those films that is best to go into knowing very little about it. I’ve struggled with exactly how to review the movie without giving away too much because my experience with it beforehand, beyond hearing the universal acclaim for the project, was restricted to seeing one trailer that gave very little away. A blank slate is best as you head into the movie because its many twists, turns & surprises make for a truly magnificent cinematic experience. By the time Parasite wrapped, it quickly became my favorite film of the year because it surprised me like no other movie has this year and left a lingering presence in my mind long after it was over. I couldn’t shake Parasite, and it’s a testament to director Bong Joon Ho, who shares screenwriting credit with Han Jin Won, that he and all involved were able to make a film so wonderfully focused yet can bounce around from genre to genre without ever losing its way. You can’t put Parasite in just one category, and its narrative strengths allow the film to move as it creates its complicated, but surprisingly, topical and relatable tale of the haves and the have nots.
Judging from the title, you would think that Parasite would be about monsters. You wouldn’t be entirely wrong in thinking this since director Bong Joon Ho is best known for his creature features The Host & Okja (I know him more for the criminally underrated Snowpiercer). Perhaps our knowledge of his previous work allowed him to sneak in with the first element of surprise. The trailers, which suggest some “horror” twist, also play on these conventions as we wait for some monster to reveal itself. The “monsters” in Parasite aren’t of the non-human variety, and the real creature here is the class struggle between those who are thriving on the social-economic ladder versus those who are living nearly below the poverty level. Once these two worlds collide, we realize that there are no traditional villains here, but Bong Joon Ho has created a social commentary that makes us question what side we would fall on. This is all intensified by a growing and escalating tension that never loses sight of the film’s real motivations. Still, it makes for an engrossingly compelling thriller as we draw towards the climax.
Parasite throws us into its story by introducing us to the Kim family. The father, Ki-taek (Kang-ho Song), and mother, Chung-sook (Hyae Jin Chang), are unemployed and seemingly happy to be in that state, perhaps due to their growing age and ability to merely accept their circumstances. The son, Ki-woo (Woo-sik Choi), has college aspirations but isn’t as cynical or forward as his older sister, Ki-jung (So-dam Park). The younger members of the Kim family do want more for themselves as their youth allows them to think of the possibilities of what having more could mean for them and their family. There is some hope that comes when Ki-woo is presented with an opportunity to work as an English tutor for the Park family. The Park family is the exact opposite of the Kim family. While seemingly good people much like the Kims, the Park family lives a life of excess and luxury in a world that the Kim family could only dream of inhabiting. Ki-woo begins instructing the Park’s daughter Da-hye (Jung Ziso) and soon he meets more of the family which includes mom and dad, Yeon-kyo (Yeo-jeong Jo) and Dong-ik (Sun-kyun Lee) and their energetic son. Since the family has more wealth than good sense, this allows Ki-woo to set off an elaborate con that could help his struggling family. Soon enough, Ki-jung is inserted as an art teacher for the couple’s rambunctious young son, Ki-taek fills in as the family chauffeur, and Chung-sook becomes the family housekeeper, all without revealing to the affluent couple that all their new hires are related. Soon the Kims are the “parasites” that are leeching off the Park’s, but the scam looks to hit a snag when a secret in the Park family basement threatens to reveal the fraud.
It may seem like I gave away a lot of what transpires, but this is the barebones part of the story. There is a thrill watching the Kim family execute a con that would make the Ocean’s 11 crew jealous, but the drawback is only part of the story. The last thirty minutes or so of the film is when Parasite takes a big turn, and before you know it you’re on the edge of your seat, wondering how all of this will play out. For me, there was no “I called it” moment. Each escalating turn in Parasite is a surprise.
Parasite does have a lot to say about the unsustainability of the class schism in Korean society, a problem that is indeed not regulated to that region. I’ll admit that I can have a hard time with foreign films because there is a bit of a disconnect in terms of relatability. The themes in Parasite resonate because these are problems that see here every day and depending on who’s watching you’re either the Kim family, struggling to survive, or the Park family, targets of those who want what you have. The film expertly doesn’t paint either side as the “bad guy”. We know what the Kim family is doing is wrong, but their motivations are pure, while the Park family, who could quickly come off as proud and arrogant, are merely the right family as well who happens to live comfortably. They’re guilty of turning their nose up a bit to circumstances they don’t comprehend, but we never lose sight that these are good people too.
Wrapped in the social commentary is a film that transcends genres on many levels. At times Parasite is quite funny as it has a grand time escalating the con, and before you know it, the film has veered into thriller territory with uncommon intelligence and building tension. The twists and turns are never outlandish and absurd or merely added for shock value. There is a purpose to every corner of this story. Lastly, like any good film with characters we care about, the film is also at times rather heartbreaking. Since everyone exists in a bit of a grey area, we feel for their circumstances and honestly want a positive outcome for everyone. In a story with so many curves, we know that something will unravel, and by the end of it, you’re left with this overwhelming connection to the characters and their plight.
Parasite is so expertly structured and honestly, the best film I’ve seen this year. In my whole time critiquing films, a foreign film has never been top of the year, but this is likely to change as 2019 comes to a close. There is a relatability to the overall story, and yet it’s so turned on its head that you don’t get what you expect. The delight of Parasite is watching it ping-pong from one genre to another as it defies expectations. There is no pigeonholing Parasite, its ambitions are for too high for that, but this is a film that also makes you think. Where do you stand on the class struggle? What side do you identify with? Also, most importantly, what happens when one class system begins to lose respect for the other? There is nothing like Parasite out there this year, and it commands your attention.
