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Review : Parasite (2019)

Certain films that pass through the hallowed path that is Cannes Film Festival tend to generate monster levels of buzz, and Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is no exception to that lucky rule.  The buzz around this film was so thick, in fact, that I decided to check this one out simply on the strength of the general publics’ word of mouth.  Without reading a review of or seeing a trailer for this film, I walked into my screening, and spoiler alert : my mind was blown. 

In South Korea, a family lives in a cramped, semi-basement level apartment, communcally struggling to make the ends meet.  After meeting with his friend Min (Park Seo-joon), Kim (Choi Woo-shik) lands an opportunity to tutor Park Da-hye (Jung Ji-so), the daughter of wealthy parents Park Dong-ik (Lee Sun-kyun) and Choi Yeon-gyo (Cho Yeo-jeng).  After visiting the family’s lavish home, designed by famed architect (and former resident) Namgoong, Kim is hooked, and immediately enacts plans to employ his family to Park Da-hye’s family in a myriad of sneaky ways.  After learning that Park Da-hye’s younger brother Park Da-song (Jung Hyun-joon) is an aspiring ‘artist’, Kim convinces Choi Yeon-gyo to hire Kim Ki-jeong (Park So-dam) as his art tutor, under the guise that she is a friend of a friend.  Quickly, the siblings find a way to get Park Dong-ik’s personal driver Yoon (Park Geun-Rok) fired and replaced by their father Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho).  After a bit of research and sabotage, the siblings also managed to get legacy housekeeper Moon-gwang (Lee Jung-eun) fired and replaced with their mother Kim Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin).  With Kim’s family in place, and having convinced the family they are employed to that they are strangers, the group begins having visions of occupying a home like the Namgoong home.  Their world is shattered, however, when Moon-gwang returns under strange circumstances during a family camping trip in honor of Park Da-song’s birthday, and the fallout causes waves that are felt by all families connected to the home.

This film is a whip-smart, darkly comedic look at materialism and classicism, with a pinch of suspense and tension sprinkled in by way of deceit on multiple levels.  The Park family, while charming in their own right, clearly value objects more than people, with their fascination on American objects (read : consumerism) permeating to the point that they don the Kim family with American names, as if they are toys/servants.  Despite this subtle power move, the levels of deceit used by the Kim family throw the power struggle on its head, with their ruse being implemented so quickly and efficiently that an artificial trust is built between the two parties.  The classicism is presented via the extremely wide divide that exist between the help and the helped, with both the Kim family and Moon-gwang hiding ENORMOUS secrets literally right under the nose of the Park family due partly to the poorer familys’ need to do whatever they must to survive, and partly to the blind eye that the Park family turns on the poor and the old, with Park Dong-ik literally being repulsed by the smell of the old and the poor. 

This film would not work nearly as well as it does without the monstrous presence that the house exudes, with its notorious reputation as a product of a famous architect serving as a distraction to its own set of deep secrets.  The design of the home fits the decadence of the Park family, with its breathtaking aura being fueled by a mixture of simple (but grand) design that houses a litany of objects and a beautifully manicured lawn.  Moon-gwang’s return, however, opens a door that is both figurative and literal, showing that even those that are implementing a dangerous ruse have room to be surprised and shocked.  The home gives the Park family such a sense of comfort that it almost forms a literal haze around them, with young Park Da-song being the most perceptive member of the family due to his age and innocence being a strong protector against the fog of materialism and the jadedness that life experience creates.  

The writing in this film is textured and tight, with plenty of seeds planted that pay off brilliantly throughout the run of the movie.  The characters are as intelligent as they are funny, which allows them to play slightly over the top without sacrificing a sense of realism or damaging the ever-present tension that grows as the story unfolds.  The cinematography is fluid and flowing, as the camera moves among those that inhabit the world of the film like an observant spectre (much like some of the characters find themselves eventually doing).  The subtle undertones presented in the film feel like a reward to the audience, as Bong Joon-ho is careful not to spoon feed viewers or beat them over the head with information, relying instead on revealing things slowly and timely as the story progresses.  The balance found in the parallel locations of the semi-basement level apartment and the grand Namgoong home works well, with the big secret that the Namgoong home hides serving as a bridge that connects everyone.  The final half-hour of this film is as gripping and captivating cinema as anything I’ve seen all year.

The Kim family manages to be incredibly engaging despite being the true antagonists of the film (though the film really has no protagonists).  Song Kang-ho finds a way to exude pride that is surrounded by a reservation and acceptance of his squalid situation, with Jang Hye-jin’s strong personality offsetting Song Kang-ho's sadness.  Choi Woo-shik brings a teenage curiosity that he mixes with the eye of a hustler and opportunist, and Park So-dam runs the entire show with a keen mix of an assorted skill set, a sharp and actively observant state of mind, and a chameleon-like personality.  As for the Park family, Jung Ji-so displays a proper level of boy-crazy tendencies, and Jung Hyun-joon lets his child-like mischief fuel his performance, making his character reveals  and callbacks hit harder when they are played.  Lee Sun-kyun exudes a quiet strength fueled by an indifference to nearly everything, and a shallowness that eventually becomes his downfall.  Cho Yeo-jeong is arguably the most sympathetic of all the characters, with the love for her family playing against her deficiencies as a mother, wife and housekeeper, essentially making her a trophy wife with minor levels of autonomy.  Lee Jung-eun plays her opening background roles strongly, making her return to the narrative a reveal that opens entirely new pathways of audience experience, judgement and tension.  Appearances by Park Myung-hoon, Park Geun-Rok, Jung Yi-seo and Park Seo-joon round out the film.

This film is a hard one to talk about without revealing too much, and although I doubt that it would damage the experience of seeing this movie if you go into it with a bit of knowledge, this dish is one that is best served without prior knowledge in order to achieve maximum enjoyment.  If you’re a fan of the work of Yorgos Lanthimos, or you like your humor mixed with a respectable level of shock and subtle social commentary, then Parasite is your film.