SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Possibly Bong Joon-ho’s magnum opus, ‘Parasite’ is a great showcase of cerebral entertainment with a powerful story, solid performances and dialogue, and an effective visual language.
Film at its best is both entertaining and instructive. It provides an immersion into other people's lives, while imparting lesson or perspective we could use in our own lives. You laugh with (or at) the people you see on the screen, or worry and cheer them on when they struggle. Parasite is unquestionably one of the best films I’ve watched in the past year. While big tent-poles like Avengers: Endgame touched hearts via the serialized progression of its characters across previous films, Parasite also expands minds with a powerful story involving both casual everyday interactions and a profound allegory about societal truths and norms.
Parasite introduces us to the four members of the Kim family: the middle-aged Kim Ki-taek, his wife Chung-sook, their son Ki-woo and daughter Ki-jung. Living in a dingy semi basement apartment, they struggle to make ends meet, latching onto free Wi-Fi, and grudgingly opening their windows to receive free fumigation against pests in their own home. One day Ki-woo is referred to be a private tutor for the daughter of the Park family (a much richer family of four) by his college-going friend. Once there, he sees an opportunity to give his family a big financial boost. Using his smarts, he manipulates the housewife into hiring his sister, mother and father, who pose as fictional strangers to each other, so they may earn more and escape the squalor of their own apartment. The rest of the story involves them attempting to live off the rich family’s resources and goodwill while trying to maintain their dignity as best they can.
The fact that all of the film’s elements, from the cosmetic to the cognitive, come together to create a cohesive experience has been hailed (though mistakenly) a directorial achievement more than anything else. Bong Joon Ho’s attention to the mise en scene elevates the experience and prompts a second viewing. The deliberate positioning of characters and set props in wider shots, for example, imparts a conscious quality to the frame that indicates there is more going on than is simply stated via dialogue. One would expect nothing less from someone who directed and co-wrote Snowpiercer (a woefully overlooked film), where he does the same in a little less subtle manner to infuse what would normally be a 2D fight-fest into a three-dimensional examination of its main character’s motives and what their actions might mean about their place in the social hierarchy.
Apart from the visual language of the filming locations and sets, the symbolism also comes through in choices made about the characters’ physical movements. An example of that is Mr. Kim crawling across the floor like (you guessed it!) a parasite, instead of tip-toeing across the room to avoid being seen or heard by the rich owners just a few feet away. Parasite features an ensemble of actors bringing their A-game. But again, none of their performances outshines the other. In a story-driven film like this no one steals the scene and for good reason. If I were to pick out some notable performances, they would be Song Kang-ho as optimistic nihilist Mr. Kim, Cho Yeo-jeong as the gullible and endearing rich housewife, and the charming and entrepreneurial Ki-jung. Yeo-jeong in particular is excellent. In the hands of a less accomplished actress, her lines would have transformed the character into a caricature of the out-of-touch upper class, but her performance means her character is instead all-too-human, with relatable goals, fears and pleasures.
No one feels like a character in a film. They’re multifaceted human beings with their own values about life and also act hypocritically sometimes, as we all do. The poor family members aren't all good, and the rich family is not all evil either. Everyone attempts, simply, to gain material or social currency, and prevent others from upsetting their comfy life. I was taken by how deftly Bong Joon-Ho incorporates humourous and frightening moments, making it feel more realistic, given the inextricable link between comedic and menacing situations in reality. This also means Parasite is never trapped behind a single genre and helps appeal to a broad audience, as it should. Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won’s screenplay is uber-smart and snappy, simultaneously providing comic relief and biting critiques of human behaviour - whether they are competitive students, servile employees, or overbearing parents.
As a film fan, I often seek out auteurs who have a consistent track record of delivering cerebral and mind-bending entertainment. Having watched Parasite now, I’m happy to add Bong Joon-Ho to a list that includes Christopher Nolan, Denis Villenueve and David Fincher. As it ended, the film left me in thought about many things, including the strength of societal hierarchies and the ability (or difficulty) of people to climb up the ranks, whether via standard education and work or by taking advantage of others. Maybe it’s time for us all to climb that one-inch barrier of subtitles, otherwise we might miss out on intelligent films like this.
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