Review of Parasite / 기생충, directed by Bong Joon-ho

You know, I knew about Parasite before it blew up in the Western movie world. As someone who’s been deep in the world of Korean cinema for a hot minute now, I never ever expected this Bong Joon-ho movie would end up completely changing the landscape yet again of what movies and entertainment are consumed here in the United States.

Anyways, I first saw Parasite when I snagged a ticket at IFC Center, which was having the North American theatrical premiere release. When I bought my ticket this wasn’t announced, but when I showed up at the theater, there was Song Kang-ho, Park So-dam, and Bong Joon-ho on the stage in front of us with their translators.

They gave a small talk before the movie, then marched out. The lights dimmed, and I was awestruck with what I just watched.

I went on to watch Parasite six more times, with the most recent being the occasion that led to me writing this blog post. I see Parasite as very much a product of Korean cinema and attitudes towards what’s depicted on the screen, but I also see it a product of globalization.

It is Korean in nature, but made with an international audience appeal because most of the issues presented in the film are prominent in most developed societies. There’s a lot to learn from a film like Parasite, but I don’t see it as a representative of South Korean cinema alone.

I’ve rambled enough! Here is my review.

A poor family looks to exploit the wealth of a richer family, but it ends with catastrophic events.

I usually provide a comprehensive summary of the movies and books I watch during this blog posts, but I think Parasite is a different kind of beast. All you need to know going into it that it starts with a poor family slowly fusing with a rich family, pretending they don’t know each other, as workers for them.

They refer people “they know,” but it’s actually just another family member. As they get deeper into the world with the rich family and have to cover their tracks, it leads to them making brutal, even fatal, decisions to keep up the facade. Spoiler: it does not end well.

Anyways, I want to focus on my review and analysis of the film. One of the more interesting things I’ve noted throughout my many watches of this movie is the cyclical nature of things depicted.

The film’s plot gets kickstarted when Park Seo-joon appears in front of Choi Woo-sik’s character telling him that he’s about to go abroad and the girl in the family needs a new tutor.

He talks about how he has a romance with the girl, and that’s exactly what Ki-woo (Choi’s character) ends up doing with the girl. Despite the family trying to get out of their situation, it ends up getting worse for them, and they end up even deeper in the pit than they were to begin with at the end of the film.

For me, it came down to the physics rule that every action has a reaction. This is exactly what happens in the movie, but when the family starts making bad decisions, that’s what ends up making them worse. The rich often get richer by making bad decisions that impact everyone except them, but when the poor ends up making the same choices, they end up screwed over and living even more in poverty.

It’s a vicious cycle that continues, and for every poor and rich family out there, this will continue going on until the end.

There’s also the symbolism of the basement apartment. This is very Korean, but I think if you’re in the United States, you’re going to see how in cities like New York these basement apartments are often the source of deaths in floods.

There are two mirrors in this basement apartment setup: the first is the poor family’s apartment, which does end up flooding, and then there’s the basement bunker the maid’s husband lives in for years.

For the rich, both of these situations could be considered like cockroaches, and for those of us living in luxury of even being middle class, this is still shocking.

This is when the movie starts to twist genres, as one kind of gets lured into a horror feeling, but both of the poor families in this case are leeching off of the rich. They’re literally parasites trying to take whatever they can get. Both have their differing reasons, but in order to feel like they can survive, they attach themselves to the wealthy.

Without the presence of the wealthier family in the movie, their existence would be threatened. And that’s a sad reality for a lot of people, although the film takes it a step further and shows how it can have terrible consequences.

Then there’s a reference where Ki-woo has a delusion at the end of the movie where he thinks he can work hard and liberate the remaining members of the family. We all know this is unlikely to happen, and it’s a direct reference to how many of us delude ourselves thinking that if we keep our heads down and keep going, then we’ll make. That’s the most realistic part of the movie, and it’s a drop back into reality to end with.

Overall Thoughts

Parasite is a brilliant movie with so many layers. In this blog post I wanted to keep it brief, but you could spend so much time thinking about the symbolism of the rock, for example, or how only the poorer people resort to violence in the middle of the birthday party.

Bong did himself good with this one, and I remember how in awe I left the IFC Center that mild October night all those years ago.

I think I’m still chasing that feeling when it comes to the movies I watch, even after professionally working as a film critic for two years now.

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