Source - The Korea Herald
“A comedy without clowns and a tragedy without villains”
The ideal way to experience South Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho’s awards-garlanded, international box-office smash is with as little prior knowledge as possible.
So if you’re reading this before seeing the film, and you’ve managed to avoid the whirlwind of publicity it has attracted since winning the Oscar Awards last May, it may be simpler to just stop and head straight to the cinema.
Because, at the risk of adding to the hype, Parasite really is the kind of remarkable experience that makes modern movie-going such a joy. I saw it for the Seventh time yesterday and I’m now desperate to view the black-and-white version that Bong recently unveiled at the Rotterdam film festival.
Introduction
Movie's Name - Parasite (2019)
Rating - R (Sexual Content|Language|Some Violence)
Genre - Drama, Mystery, Comedy
Original Language - Korean
Director - Bong Joon-ho
Release Date (Theaters) - Nov 1, 2019
Runtime - 2h 12m
The Cast
Song Kang-ho as Kim Ki-taek (Mr Kim; Gim Gitaek)
Lee Sun-kyun as Park Dong-ik (Nathan)
Cho Yeo-jeong as Choi Yeon-gyo
Choi Woo-shik as Kim Ki-woo (Kevin)
Park So-dam as Kim Ki-jung (Jessica)
Jang Hye-jin as Chung-sook
Park Myung-hoon as Oh Geun-sae
Park Keun-rok as Yoon
Park Seo-joon as Min-hyuk
Synopsis - Spoiler Alert!
Parasite is more Shakespearean than Hitchockian – a tale of two families from opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, told with the trademark genre-fluidity that has seen Bong’s back catalog slip seamlessly from murder mystery, via monster movie, to dystopian future-fantasy and beyond.
We first meet the Kim family, headed by father Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) and mother Chung-sook (Chang Hyae-jin), in their lowly semi-basement home; hunting for stray Wi-Fi coverage and leaving their windows open to benefit from bug-killing street fumigation. They have nothing but one another and a shared sense of hard-scrabble entrepreneurism.
So when son Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) is faced with an unexpected opportunity to home-tutor a rich schoolgirl, he gets his gifted artist sister, Ki-jung (Park So-dam), to forge a college certificate, bluffing his way into the job and into the home of the Park family.
An architectural wonder perched high above the slums of Seoul, with views not of urinating drunks but of luxurious lawns and starlit skies, this wealthy house is everything the Kims’ pokey dwelling is not: elegant, angular and weirdly isolated.
While aloof businessman Mr Park (Lee Sun-kyun) is at work, his anxious, uptight wife, Yeon-kyo (Cho Yeo-jeong), tends to their coquettish daughter and hyperactive young son.
It’s a lifestyle that relies upon hired help: tutors, a chauffeur and, most importantly, a devoted housekeeper Moon-gwang (Lee Jung-eun), who stayed with the building after its original architect owner moved out.
Spying an opening, Ki-woo (newly dubbed “Kevin”) realises that his own family could easily fill such roles, and hatches a plan that will invigorate the Kims into the privileged lives and home of the Parks.
The Kim family may live in sewage-flooded squalor, but they are clearly every bit as smart as, and a lot more united than, the Parks, who turn their noses up at the smell of “people who ride the subway”.
Similarly, while the smug Mr Park is habitually depicted ascending the stairs of his ultra-modern home, and the Kims are pictured scampering down city steps to their own underworld apartment, it’s clear who holds the dramatic high ground.
About the Movie
Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) and his family live in a pokey, underground house and are generally unemployed. When we meet them, the family is perturbed that their access to free wifi has been cut short. Obviously not able to afford their own, they have been sponging off their neighbor’s connection.
In fact, even as a fumigation is carried out on their street, Kim tells his family to leave the windows open so they can have a free extermination of the insects in their house, despite almost choking on the fumes.
On some days, they get by with temporary jobs like fixing pizza boxes. So when his son Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) is offered by a friend to be set up as an English tutor to the daughter of a wealthy Mr. Park (Lee Sun-kyun), he agrees.
Only hitch, Kim Ki-woo doesn’t have a college degree having failed his university exams and armed with a forged degree document, Kim makes an easy impression on Mr. Park’s wife, Yeon-kyo (Cho Yeo-jeong) and their teenage daughter, Park Da-hye (Jung ji-so).
There’s also their nine-year-old son, Park Da-song (Jung Hyeong), scampering around the house, who Yeon-kyo believes has untapped potential as an artist. With one foot firmly inside the Park household, Kim Ki-jeong craftily places his sister as Da-song’s art teacher cum therapist.
Yeon-kyo’s naive and gullible nature makes this inclusion quite smooth. Soon with some careful scheming, fake identities and a well-rehearsed plan even his parents, Kim Ki-taek and Chung sook (Chang Hyae-jin) are employed in the household.
Personal Verdict
"Parasite" is a marvelously entertaining film in terms of narrative, but there’s also so much going on underneath about how the rich use the poor to survive in ways that I can’t completely spoil here (the best writing about this movie will likely come after it’s released).
Suffice to say, the wealthy in any country survive on the labor of the poor, whether it’s the housekeepers, tutors, and drivers they employ, or something much darker. Kim's family will be reminded of that chasm and the cruelty of inequity in ways you couldn’t possibly predict.
The social commentary of "Parasite" leads to chaos, but it never feels like a didactic message movie. It is somehow, and I’m still not even really sure how, both joyous and depressing at the same time. Stick with me here.
"Parasite" is so perfectly calibrated that there’s joy to be had in just experiencing every confident frame of it, but then that’s tempered by thinking about what Bong is unpacking here and saying about society, especially with the perfect, absolutely haunting final scenes.
It’s a conversation starter in ways we only get a few times a year, and further reminder that Bong Joon-ho is one of the best filmmakers working today. You’ve never seen a movie quite like “Parasite”.
For me, Parasite is best described as a melancholy ghost story, albeit one disguised beneath umpteen layers of superbly designed (and impeccably photographed) generic mutations.
Thrillingly played by a flawless ensemble cast who hit every note and harmonic resonance of Bong and co-writer Han Jin-won’s multi tonal script, it’s a tragicomic masterclass that will get under your skin and eat away at your cinematic soul.
The Bottom Line
With not a moment that seems unnecessary or extra, ‘Parasite’ is exceptionally well-paced and edited (Yang Jin-mo). Director Bong Jon-ho masterfully constructs stylized, dramatic sequences set to a brilliant background score (Jung Jae-il) as the film rapidly moves from one plot point to another. It results in a gripping yet poignant watch.
With an insightful and searing exploration of human behavior, ‘Parasite’ is a masterfully crafted film that is a definite must watch.
My ratings for the movie - 5 on 5
Watch the Movie on Amazon Prime - Parasite
Written By - Resmita Barai
Edited By - Umme-Aiman
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