Parasite

Considering Bong Joon-Ho’s previous film credits, which include Okja and The Host, it would be forgivable to assume his 2019 film Parasite would also be a horror film with some sort of disgusting creature latching onto somebody and feeding off of them. Indeed there is such a film by that very same name that was Demi Moore’s debut in 1982. Titles aside, these films are nothing alike. The parasite in Bong’s film is not some mutated monster but one far more realistic and universally relatable, too. You see, everywhere in the world there is a divide between the haves and the have-nots and, given a chance, the have-nots will latch onto the haves and try to leech off of them. Thus we get the parasite in Parasite.

The Kim family lives in a semi-basement flat in Seoul, South Korea. The parents are unemployed and have little drive to change that, earning a pittance doing odd jobs like folding pizza boxes and mooching off the neighbor’s wi-fi. The son, Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) is given an opportunity to make some money when his friend, Min-hyuk (Park Seo-joon), decides to study abroad. Min-hyuk tutors English for Da-hye (Jung Ji-so), the daughter of the wealthy Park family and recommends Ki-woo as his replacement. Ki-woo, with the help of his sister, Kim Ki-jung (Park So-dam), forge a university certificate and he is hired for the job. Ki-woo notices that the Park’s have an artistic son and sees an opportunity to get his sister also hired, posing as an art instructor. The mother, Choi Yeon-gyo (Cho Yeo-jeong) is “simple,” as Min-hyuk puts it, and is easily manipulated into hiring the “art instructor.” 

Through further scheming the rest of the family is also hired in short order, their relationship to each other going unknown to the Park family. Kim frames the chauffeur of impropriety and gets her father hired in his place and the family takes advantage of the longterm housekeeper’s food allergies to remove her in favor their mother. Everything seems to be going smoothly for the Kim family until one day when the Park family goes on a camping trip together and the Kim’s take full advantage of the empty place, lounging around drinking the expensive liquor and making pigs of themselves. When the old housekeeper, Gook Moon-gwang (Lee Jung-eun) shows up unannounced and discovers the scheme all hell breaks loose. 

This is a story about social divides. As such it has a universal theme that transcends cultural divisions and speaks for any nationality. It matters not that this film was made about Koreans. It could just as easily have been about South Africans, Japanese, or North Americans. The wage disparities exist in every country and can be understood by nearly everyone. Film, by its very nature, is limited in how much time and detail it can get into and so Bong Joon-ho does have to resort in shorthand to get the message across but he does so in such a way that it rarely feels like that. The Kim family live in absolute squaller, running around their underground apartment looking for just one bar of wi-fi they can latch on to just so they can have access to free internet. Some of this is out of necessity as they use the internet to pick up odd jobs but they also use it for frivolous purposes, too. The apartment is shown as barely habitable, complete with one non-private toilet on a ledge along a back wall. Late in the film a flood will occur and the whole apartment will be submerged almost to the roof, sewage backing up out of that toilet right into the apartment. It is unlikely this is the first time this has happened.

In contrast, the Park family lives in a huge house behind locked gates. Everything is luxuriant. The fridge is stocked with Voss water, fruit and plenty of expensive cuts of meat. Even the youngest kid, the artistic Da-song (Jung Hyeon-jun) has a bedroom practically bigger than the Kim’s entire apartment. Choi doesn’t have to work and just lives in all this luxury. The father, Dong-ik (Lee Sun-kyun) says he loves her but undercuts that expression of affection leaving the impression that he doesn’t truly love her, at least not fully. “You can call it love,” he states and leaves it at that. The only time we see either of them express any real passion for each other it is in a brief, raw moment of animal-like lust that comes out of nowhere and is over just as quickly. 

This film has been described as a horror film and there are some elements to that, especially in the second half but it would be more accurate to describe it as a thriller. There are some crazy developments late in the film that are completely out of left field and are barely hinted at leading up to them. Once the big surprise is revealed the film’s tone shifts some and it never quite goes back to that earlier tone. It is also here that we lose any respect for Mr. Park that we may have had. He has a disdain for the lower class, attributing a smell to them that he is vocal about. He says this to his wife in reference to his new chauffeur, unaware that Mr. Kim is within earshot. Their son, Da-song picks up the same thing, saying he smells it on the others, too. 

Things spiral out of control in the final act and it would be a disservice to spoil that here. Needless to say things get dark and violent in the end. Bong Joon-ho is no stranger to violent moments in his movies and this film is no exception. The climax is shocking and goes in several unexpected directions. Afterwards, there is a prolonged epilogue that feels a bit unnecessary, hammering home the film’s overall message of wealth disparity. It’s the one part of the film where that message feels too on the nose like Bong Joon-ho wanted to make sure we got what he was preaching. It’s a minor misstep but stands out for being the closing scene. That aside, he has crafted a masterpiece of moralizing about a very real issue that plagues the whole world over, something that can be seen in virtually every culture, and does so in an entertaining and surprising way. In a year with some truly great films vying for the top spot at the Academy Awards, this one stood out and took home the coveted Best Picture Award. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Kwak Sin-ae and Bong Joon-ho (won)

Best Director: Bong Joon-ho (won)

Best Original Screenplay: Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won (won)

Best International Feature Film: South Korea (won)

Best Film Editing: Yang Jon-mo

Best Production Design: Lee Ha-jun and Cho Won-woo

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Release Date: May 30, 2019

Running Time: 132 Minutes

Rated R

Starring: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam and Jang Hye-jin

Directed By: Bong Joon-ho