Neon
The history of South Korean cinema is an interesting one, with a lot of difficulty until the release of a few critical hits, chief among them Oldboy for garnering foreign interest. But a few filmmakers also grew out of the smaller industry and now there is a thriving film life there. There are the crime dramas, the romances, the comedies, some of which I’ve seen this year. But Parasite is one of the best out of the country in all its cinematic history.
Parasite comes from director (and co-writer) Bong Joon-ho, known for such odd, sci-fi styled movies as Okja and Snowpiercer. Both could be highly unpleasant but still comical at times, although Snowpiercer was a far darker tale. Here in Parasite we follow a family in modern day South Korea, the poor Kim family living in a sub-basement in the city slums.
A classic family, the father Kim Ki-Taek (Song Kang-ho) is out of work, his wife Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin) also out of work, and his son Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) and daughter Ki-jeong (Park So-dam) both flunked their university or school entrance exams and are stuck with very low paying jobs. But everything changes when Ki-woo gets an opportunity from an old friend to be an English tutor for the daughter of the wealthy Park family. And why? Because his friend trusts him not to take advantage of the young, teenage girl like others would.
With some clever lies and mild identity crimes, Ki-woo impresses Mrs. Park (Cho Yeo-jeong) and especially the daughter Da-hye (Jung Ji-so), who is immediately taken with the older boy. So much for that, right? But the Park family also has a young son who is a bit off but loves to draw, so Ki-woo gets the inspiration to trick Mrs. Park to hire his sister as a ‘friend of a friend’ to be an art tutor.
This leads to a series of darkly comedic heist-style moments as the whole family tricks their way into positions with the family, including getting the old driver and housekeeper fired. But it’s never so simple as it all being wonderful, as we keep seeing the stark differences between family and workers. At first we think the Kim family are the parasites of the richer Parks, but it’s not so easy, is it? The system itself makes the Parks parasites of the less fortunate to prop themselves up.
Mr. Park never lets us forget the line between employee and trust, with little hints that build heavily over the movie. And the darkness comes back to haunt everyone as the movie climaxes in the final act, with a tragic, almost expected conclusion to the madcap adventure.
Like the very best dramedies around, Parasite tricks you into being invested with charismatic performances and pitch perfect comedic dialogue. Until the movie pulls the rug out from under you and the emotions turn on a dime to the tragic. The movie showcases a fantastic set of tragicomic performances from the Kim family actors, with the hidden pain of Kim Ki-taek, sly determination of Chung-sook, flippant confidence of Ki-jeong, and emotional depths of Ki-woo.
Bong Joon-ho knows how to make things look interesting, with tableaus that share space with comic and action oriented scenes, with times that you root for things that should scare you, and times where you might question the system as it fails everyone. Parasite (despite its foreign subtitles) is simply one of those movies that people need to see, although it’s no family movie. It may slide off you, but perhaps instead it will sink in.
Parasite has a run time of 2 hours 12 minutes and is rated R for language, some violence and sexual content.
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