Parasite Movie Review

“They’re nice because they’re rich.” - Kim Chung-sook

Parasite is the latest Korean language film from director Bong Joon-ho.  It’s a satire that tells the story of the poverty-ridden Kim family, as they all get jobs working in various positions for the extremely rich Park family.  But little does the Park family know, the entire Kim family is scamming them the whole time, and leeching off of their funds, their food, and even their house, hence the title Parasite.

I took my dad to see this film, and it was sort of a milestone for both of us, because my dad, up until Parasite, had never seen a foreign film in his life, and I had never experienced a foreign film in a theater setting before.  I think it’s safe to say that we were both genuinely captivated by Parasite not only during the film, but also long after the film had ended.  This movie inspired a long discussion between my father and I that lasted for a great chunk of the one-and-a-half hour car ride home.  I was so happy that I got to be there to see my dad watch his first foreign film, but I was even more happy that his first foreign film happened to be this particular movie.

If you guys have never seen a foreign film before, I can’t think of a better one to start out with than Parasite.  The story alone is incredibly intriguing, but the way that Bong Joon-ho decides to tell the story is something else entirely.  From what I’ve seen of his works, he always presents his material in a very unique, different, and completely original way.  This film is no exception.  The main theme of Parasite is that of class and social status.  Rich versus poor.  This is not a new theme for Bong Joon-ho, and he explored it in the 2013 film Snowpiercer as well.  But it’s presented so differently in Parasite, that it doesn’t feel like something we’ve already seen.

The characters are so well realized, and probably my favorite character in the whole film is that of Ki-taek, the patriarch of the Kim family.  There is something really intriguing about his dedication, and what he is willing to do to get what he wants.  Another thing I adored about this film was how Bong made the two family’s living arrangements incredibly symbolic.  The house belonging to the Kim family is dusty, dirty, and below ground, which means that it is subject to frequent flooding.  Meanwhile, the Park household is high on a hill, with a beautiful yard, and in order to get to the house, you have to go up many large flights of stairs.  So not only are the Kims lower than the Parks in terms of social status, they are also lower than them in a very literal, geographic sense.

The score is beautiful, and is easily my favorite film score so far this year.  It is made up of mainly piano, and strings, which are both very common elements in Korean film scores.  The style of the score gives me chills, and made me think of how much music enhances a film.  Can you imagine if a film like Star Wars didn’t have any music in it?  Music gives films a sense of life, and the music in Parasite is easily the best film score I have heard this year.

The cinematography is truly a thing to behold, and the craftsmanship of each shot is something that we don’t usually get in many American films anymore.  I have always said that foreign filmmakers know something about film that we as Americans don’t.  A lot of American filmmakers nowadays are more concerned about making films that are blatant cash grabs, instead of making films for the sake of providing quality entertainment.  Foreign filmmakers put out films far less frequently than Americans do, and yet, I would argue that the quality of most foreign films is far greater in general than most American films today.  Think of the last time that you saw an American film that was as beautiful in terms of artistic quality as a film like Oldboy, City Of God, Kung Fu Hustle, or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  You don’t get American films like those very often.

Probably my favorite aspect of Parasite is the humor.  There are so many lines of dialogue and physical jokes that had me dying of laughter.  The film is loaded with humor that is incredibly dark or dry, and I loved that.  The film also knows how to balance the humor with extreme tension, suspense, violence, thrills, sadness, and powerful moments.  Make no mistake, while this movie is unbelievably funny, it also gets really dark, depressing, and even scary at some points.  It’s wildly realistic, and I loved it for that reason.

In terms of flaws, there are very few.  I did notice some very minor plot holes, and I also thought that the film should’ve ended fifteen or twenty seconds earlier than it did.  There was one final shot that didn’t quite feel like it belonged, and I wish that they wouldn’t have included it in the film.  But in terms of things I found wrong with the movie, that was it.  I absolutely adored Parasite, and thought that it was brilliant.  This is a film that I would gladly watch again, and it’s a film I would love to show to people who don’t care for foreign films, because I think it just might change their mind.

Rating: R

Grade: A