It’s really fun to see an obviously talented director put it all together. Bong Joon Ho has been in and around my life for a few years now. I’ve always liked his films – The Host, Snowpiercer, Okja – but something was always off when I was watching, frustratingly so, because Ho got oh so close. I don’t think anyone else will have to wonder, because Parasite finally rewards Bong Joon Ho’s potential with a fantastic movie experience.
Parasite is about the poor, struggling Kim family: father Ki-taek (Song Kang Ho), mother Chung-sook (Jang Hye Jin), daughter Ki-Jung (Park So Dam) and son Ki-woo (Choi Woo-Sik). The family hustles to make ends meet, barely living in their little underground bunker of an apartment. One day, Ki-woo’s friend asks Ki-woo to take an English tutoring job for Da-Hye Park (Jung Ji-So), daughter of the uber rich Park family. This family is so rich that they need a driver, a housekeeper, and a tutor for their youngest child. How convenient, since there are 4 Kim’s and the mother Yeon-kyo (Jo Yeo-Jeong) is hilariously trustworthy.
Like all of Bong Joon Ho’s other films, Parasite is a combination of different movie genres woven into one. The loose through line plays very much like a thriller, with the facade the Kim family has crafted for the Park family threatened on all sides. However, Ho usually nails his intros. It’s when he weaves in other genres and transitions between them where he usually struggles. However, in Parasite, Ho weaves in and out of genres like a brilliant NASCAR driver. The big turn is halfway through the movie; after that, the director makes Parasite at any one time: a thriller, a comedy, a farce, a horror movie, and a mystery. And each time the genre shifts, there’s Bong Joon Ho to change his musical score, or camerawork, or set design, to make sure each scene in Parasite hits home.That genre weaving elevates Parasite beyond even the most brilliant storytelling, and gives the movie a forward momentum and propulsion that is constantly compelling and effortlessly earning your attention.
I think Parasite works more than other Bong Joon Ho movies because of how deep and well thought out his screenplay is. There’s thematic staging EVERYWHERE, starting with the fact that the Kim’s live in a subbasement where drunk’s piss at night, while the Park’s live uphill in this ideal, sterile environment. There’s a gift the Kim’s get that’s so deep in how symbolic it is to the family you could spend hours discussing its meanings. Like all great films too, the title, leaves your brain racing. Who is the parasite? What is being leeched? That can change in the movie moment to moment. But relationship dynamics between the rich and the poor are Parasite’s straight and narrow. Every scene in the movie comments on that central discussion Ho wants to have. And like in most great films, there are no easy answers, and the answers we do get just lead to further questions to keep the conversation exciting and continual. The richness on display grows even deeper with the big turn in Parasite’s middle and provides newer, deeper layers of class discussion that build and build to the movie’s rousing climax.
Parasite is a movie that reminds me how special movies can truly be. Bong Joon Ho’s quest for the perfect movie is complete. I don’t know what is in the water in South Korea, but their run the last few years (this film, The Handmaiden, Burning) is only rivaled by Mexico’s (Roma, The Shape of Water, Birdman). I look forward to this weird rivalry; Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro Inarritu, Guillermo del Toro, the camera’s in your lot!