Parasite – Review

Parasite

Directed by: Bong Joon Ho

Runtime: 132 minutes

All unemployed and living in filth, Parasite follows a South Korean family as they lie and manipulate to change their lives for the better. With an exceptional leapfrog between genres, Parasite kept me guessing at the genre and tone for the entire film. With truly flawed characters from every angle, the film creatively garners your sympathy for different people throughout, underscored by a strong message of social class and cultural issues present in South Korea.

The genre shift throughout is one of the film’s strongest elements, as the film enjoys jolting you from comedy to drama to thriller all in the space of a few minutes. As the Kim family’s plan to take over the glamorous lives of the Park family begins to take shape, you are brought into their poverty in a lower-level level of an unnamed city in South Korea. You begin to root for the family as the son, Ki-woo, finally catches a break with some work as a tutor for the wealthy family. Thereafter, the Kims demonstrate their natural talent to survive as they lie and manipulate their way into the house. However, just when you think you understand the tone of the film—presented as light comedy nuanced with social commentary—the film flips on its head and never turns back. The moment it seems as if the comedic premise has achieved its purpose, it quickly unravels, sending the family and their adversaries into chaos as both try to cover up the truth and gain control of the situation.

Parasite is a beautifully written screenplay with an exceptional conversational tone that displays its larger-than-life characters as believable entities. Even though I watched the film with subtitles, the dialogue remains solid throughout and translates the drama and tension well. While hiding in the house on the Parks’ return, the characters endure through the genre shifts, remaining consistent and believable throughout. It becomes clear that the characters weren’t simply created to exist within a particular genre or style but were real people who coped differently based on the situation. As the social class differences between the Kims and Parks come to the forefront of the story, I did start to feel a little ignorant of the tensions present in South Korea, but the film doesn’t preach on the specifics; it simply makes the personal implications of its issues obvious through the storytelling and climax of the film.

Parasite is well composed and beautifully shot. In the primary setting of the Parks’ house, there are several shots that could have their still images hung in art galleries. Director Bong Joon Ho uses the house to create spaces and divides between characters and class throughout, and in the second act uses it as a representation of a prison that the Kims and their adversaries have created through their own greed and desire for a better life.

As the director has stated himself, if you can get over the very small barrier of the subtitles, Parasite is an extremely powerful film with the ability to pull you from genre to genre with compelling characters and creative storytelling that educates while simultaneously enthralling you.