“Keep your eyes on
the road!” is what a concerned Mr. Park exclaimed to his driver. He was talking to Mr. Kim, one of the main
characters in Bong Joon Ho’s thriller, Parasite, and the scene was
signature of the director’s knack for building suspense; given that Mr. Kim had
a habit of looking back while driving.
It’s no secret that the film, set in a Korean city, analyzes classism. However, family, naivete/innocence, and
criminology are also addressed. Although
the plot is mostly solid, the end is hard to take as serious as the first 75%
of the movie, producing a rather meh aftertaste.
Parasite begins in
the Kim domicile, where Ki-Woo (the son) is trying to connect to a neighbor’s
wi-fi signal on his phone, given they don’t have internet. After walking around he’s eventually
successful, but the scene alludes to the meager lifestyle of this family, which
consist of: Ki-Woo’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kim, and his sister Ki-Jung. We later get a sense of not only the Kim’s
employment status, but also their propensity for deceit: when Ki-Woo and his
sister convince their employer to accept the pizza boxes they’d folded.
That evening
Ki-Woo goes out for a drink with his friend, Min-hyuk, who is tutoring a girl
from an affluent family. He informs
Ki-Woo that he’s leaving to study abroad and suggests he takes over his job, an
idea initially met with reluctance.
However, Min-hyuk insists that Ki-Woo’s English is above average and that
he can fake the rest. He also proposes
enlisting Ki-Jung (the sister)’s Photoshop skills to forge any necessary documents. Finally, he mentions that the girl’s mother
is “simple-minded,” in a tone that alludes to later drama.
Ki-Woo’s interview
goes well and before leaving, he’s even able to convince the mother, Mrs. Park,
to hire his sister as an art tutor for her son.
What he doesn’t tell her is that they are related, a detail that
confirms Min-hyuk’s description or her naivete.
Ki-Jung’s first lesson is also a success and after it’s over she gets a
ride from the family chauffeur; during which, she removes her panties and leaves
them in the car, to get him fired. Her
plan works and, in a similar manner to Ki-Woo, she convinces Mrs. Park to hire
an “acquaintance”, who’s really her father.
After meeting with Mr. Park, Mr. Kim assumes the role of driver;
consequently, most of his interactions occur with Mr. Park rather than his
wife. Nevertheless, his ruse works, and
with Ki-Jung’s help, he manages to convince Mrs. Parks that the housekeeper,
Moon-Kwang, has Tuberculosis. This gets
her fired as well, and Mr. Kim recommends his wife for the role, to which Mr.
Park obliges.
One day the Parks
go on a camping trip, and the Kim’s decide to have dinner in their vacant
house, during which they drink and argue.
Their celebration is interrupted by the doorbell: it is Moon-Kwang, and
she pleads to come in to retrieve an item she left. Mrs. Kim reluctantly allows her in, after
which she rushes to the cellar and then reveals a secret stairway; she heads
down it, followed by a nervous Mrs. Kim, and unbeknownst to her, the rest of
the Kim family. It turns out
Moon-Kwang’s husband lives in the basement and thrives off food rations
supplied by Moon-Kwang. Mrs. Kim
initially threatens to oust them but then the Kim family, who’d been
eavesdropping, falls down the stairs, leading to a blackmail standoff.
Their quarrel is
cut short when the Parks call home to say they’re returning due to the
rain. There’s a quick battle for power
but the Kim’s manage to lock them back downstairs, fatally injuring Moon-Kwang
in the process. After cleaning up and
staying hidden to avoid the Parks, who sleep in the living room that evening to
watch their son camp in the yard, Mr. Kim, Ki-Woo and Ki-Jung manage to slip
out. They run home to find their
neighborhood flooding, so they end up sleeping in a gymnasium.
The next day the Parks have a party in their
yard for Da-Song, their son. The Kim’s
all attend, continuing to pretend they don’t know each other. Out of guilt, Ki-Woo goes to check on Moon-Kwang
but is attacked by the husband; he knocks Ki-Woo out and escapes to the party
where he stabs Ki-Jung and a utensil fight ensues between he and Mrs. Kim. She wins and through a strange twist of
events Mr. Kim fatally stabs Mr. Park and flees the scene. After being released from the hospital Ki-Woo
discovers that his father is living under the Parks home and writes him a
letter promising to buy the property.
For starters, it was sobering to witness the squalor with which the Kim’s exist
in. Ironically, one of the most chilling
moments of Parasite was when Mr. Kim gloats about the family’s good fortune,
exclaiming “When an opening for a security guard attracts 500 university
grads…Our entire family got hired!”. This
was especially salient, given the anxiety I’ve been feeling about the value of
a degree in America, as I alluded to in another post.
Additionally,
there was a subtle use of symbolism that may have eluded some viewers: in their
podcast episode “Tuberculean Chic” historians suggest the bacteria that causes tuberculosis
has parasitic behavior; this makes me wonder if Mr. Kim’s “diagnosis” of
Moon-Kwang is a reference to the film’s title. I also liked Ho’s use of foreboding to add
depth to the story: an example of this is when Mr. Park accuses Moon-Kwang of “eating
enough for two”, which is dramatic irony; since we later discover she’s
feeding her husband downstairs.
Aesthetically
speaking, my favorite part was when Da-song was talking via radio with Mr.
Park, who was watching him from the couch; his flashlight penetrating the tent,
contrasting with the night sky. This
reminded of the kids fighting over the flashlight in Jurassic Park,
which is my favorite movie.
In terms of thematics,
I appreciate that Parasite addresses issues of poverty from a non-American
lens. The only issue I have is that,
considering how homogeneous Asia is, an assessment of classism there will
probably never give as dramatic results as it would in America. This is because, as the film shows, there are
at least circumstances where a member of the Park family could blend in with
their “superior” counterparts. Ki-Woo’s
question of “Will I fit in?” when observing the party from above was kind of a
stretch: given that there were no striking differences that reveal his class;
the question doesn’t have the same effect as an African-American character
asking that question about a white event.
Regardless, Bong Joon Ho did the best he could given the setting.
On a more critical
note, Parasite begins to require too much imagination, and ultimately descends
into mediocrity after the climax. My
first issue is with Ki-Woo’s friend, Min-hyuk, who is proposed as this
high-achiever: considering the Kim’s have no qualms about deceiving and even
killing others to get their way, the notion that they’d be such close friends,
although possible, is unfeasible. Even
if I wanted to suspend that disbelief, more is asked of the viewer when
Moon-Kwang’s husband goes on a violent rampage: I feel like the motive for a
killing spree is a lot more specific than media implies and, again, not enough
is done to make his violence believable.
Likelihood is further pushed to the limits when Mr. Kim then stabs Mr.
Park in response to his facial expression when reaching under the corpse.
Though overrated, Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite
is worth watching, and at the time of this post, is available on Hulu. It’s beautifully shot, full of thematic
elements and manages to touch on an increasingly important issue:
classism. However, due to the setting
Parasite’s main point is a little constrained and it even veers on the side of
silly towards the end. Overall, I’d give
it a 7.5/10 and would suggest 2008’s best picture winner Slumdog Millionaire
for a better assessment of Asian poverty.
That's it for this review and, as always: stay pissed.
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