Movie Review : Parasite (2019)
* This review contains spoilers *
Korean film Parasite caused a major surprise last month. First by getting nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Then by winning it, becoming the first non-English movie to be crowned. That means something because the Oscars are usually a self-congratulatory Hollywood circle jerk where film people give awards to one another with little to no consideration for outsiders. What happened here? Is Parasite so good that it became inevitable like Thanos? Say what you want about the Oscars, but they gave me the extra motivation I needed to watch the damn thing.
Parasite tells the story of a sympathetic downtrodden family, trying to make ends meet by any means necessary. One day, they finally strike gold when Ki-Woo (Woo-sik Choi)’s friend recommends him to take over the tutorship of a wealthy young girl. Before you know it, the entire family hustles its way into the Park family home by conning them into firing their driver, housekeeper and hiring an “art therapist” for their young son. Their life take a turn for the better until one fateful weekend where the Parks leave for a camping trip and shit hits the proverbial fan.
There’s a lot to unpack here.
First, I love Bong Joon Ho’s portrayal of poverty. The Kim family aren’t beggars. They just live in a shitty place and constantly have to find creative ways to pay the bills. In the first scene of Parasite, they fold pizza boxes for money. By making them sympathetic hustlers rather than tragic figures, Ho exposes in a non-preachy way the mechanics that land you in a difficult spot. You never become “a poor person”. You just suddenly lose your source of income and end up dragging your entire family to a terrible basement apartment because they depend on you.
Another really important detail that makes Parasite work so well is that the Kim family is deceitful, but not dishonest. They con their way into the Park household only to earnestly do their job. It’s a matter of survival. A lot of people who discussed Parasite while I hadn’t seen it called it a “fuck the rich” and a class warfare movie. While this isn’t technically false, it’s not what the film really is. The Kim family spends the majority of Parasite trying to please the Parks. It’s the imbalance of power between them that become insanely frustrating.
Parasite never explicitly tells you “fuck the rich” but it shows you why you should say it.
So, who’s the titular parasite in this story? There’s been a lot of pseudo-intellectual conversation about that topic online. I mean, there’s a literal parasite living in a forgotten nuclear bunker under the house. Sure, there could be metaphorical parasites too, but a parasite is an organism that lives inside a host (the Park house) and that eventually threaten his health. I suppose it’s a class warfare term of endearment? I don’t like the Parks anymore than you do, but can you call them parasites if you don’t even know how they earn their money? C’mon!
Parasite is a very good movie. It was easily the best movie nominated for this year’s Academy Award for Best Picture. That type of movie isn’t historically rewarded by Hollywood, but whatever convinced them to make the right decision this year is a good thing. It’s smart, full of amazing surprises and most important, it’s an entertaining and non-preachy movie about economic inequity. I don’t think it’s historically great, but it was indeed one of the best films of 2019. Now, why was it crowned and Jordan Peele’s Us virtually ignored? That, I don’t fucking know.
8.3/10
