Parasite (A- or 3.5/4 stars)
'Parasite' (directed by Joon-ho Bong) won Cannes' Palme d'Or this past May & enters theaters this fall with some of the best reviews of the year. Having now seen it, I can see why. The film starts by placing a microscope on a lower-class family trying to stay afloat in society, then becomes a clever con game, & concludes with something extremely dark. There are twists, turns, & it arrives at an ending that no one could've expected at the film's start.
'Parasite' introduces us to the Kim family, who lives in a filthy, submerged-underground apartment in a S. Korean city, and ekes out an existence by resorting to scams & odd-jobs to get by. The father, Ki-taek (Kang-ho Song) & mother, Chung-sook (Hye-jin Jang), are unemployed, but nonplussed about it. And their children, nice-guy Ki-woo (Woo-sik Choi) & his cynical sister, Ki-jung (So-dam Park) have flunked their entrance exams into college. Fortunes change, however, when Ki-woo gets the chance to tutor the daughter of the extremely wealthy Park family. This opens the door for the rest of the Kims to infiltrate the Park household. How so, you ask? After Ki-woo ingratiates himself to Mr. Dong-ik Park (Sun-kyun Lee) & his loveably ditzy wife, Mrs. Yeon-kyo Park (Yeo-jeong Jo), Ki-woo & his Kim family scheme for the Park's bratty son to have an art therapist; so Ki-jung steps-in as one.
When the Park family's chauffeur is duped, the Kims scheme to have Mr. Kim step-in as the new driver. And when the Kims scheme to have the Parks fire their long-time, live-in housekeeper, Moon-gwang (Lee Jung Eun), well, you guessed it, Mrs. Kim steps-in to be the new housekeeper. To that, the entire Kim family now lives in the lapse of luxury with their employers, the Parks ... and the Parks have no clue that the Kims are all related {even when Dong-ik observes that they all have the same odor}. And so, the devious, yet oddly sympathetic Kims become the 'parasite' to the clueless Park household. This grand scam works until a bizarre secret hidden in the Park's basement threatens to unmask the Kims as con artists, thereby obliterating the symbiotic relationship. Surprising developments unfold. And the story descends into a maelstrom of shocking violence & stunning grotesquery.
Although the film's themes get heavy-handed near the end, and while that ending put me in a state of shock for a while ... this is one hell of a motion picture. Director Bong (also of Snowpiercer, Okja) has a strong message to convey about class divisions in Korean society (and really, the whole world ... it's a universal message), he blends it into a tragi-comedic thriller of uncommon wit & excellence in building tension. The plot twists are unpredictable without being completely outlandish. And the narrative gripped me in a way that most 'foreign films' fail to do. Heck, it gripped me in a way that most English language films fail to do. And the fact that all the characters exist in a gray zone - not completely good or evil - makes them all the more real.
Parasite is also exceedingly well-constructed. Script-wise, brilliance is exemplified with the opening scene, where we see the Kim family scrambling around their apartment trying to find a bar of wi-fi -- that is universally relatable. It connected us with the Kims. And as the story evolves - where their actions become crueler - we question that connection we formed with them so early on. Because we think the Park family is pretty crumby {and tone-deaf to the strife of the lower-class}, we are almost complicit in the Kim's actions -- that's great writing. And the performance from the cast is superb. By observing these actors, we'd like to think that their characters {from different socio-economic walks of life} could get along. But perhaps not.
The editing of 'Parasite' is also astute; slowly getting us used to the Kims, the Parks, the mechanics of the narrative, the bursts of black comedy, & the eventual unease that occurs during a fateful rainstorm. The pacing of all of this is spot-on. And I did not find the 132 run time to be troubling, whatsoever. This film is shot beautifully with memorable images {a puppy under the bed, a terrifying, ghostly vision in the kitchen, etc}. The production design is ASTOUNDING; where the below-ground Kim apartment - which is demolished in a flood - and the Park's ultra-modern mansion are creations of wonder. Blending dark comedy, satire & violence, Parasite's indictment on society's ills has us questioning ... just who are the parasites, after all?
'Parasite' introduces us to the Kim family, who lives in a filthy, submerged-underground apartment in a S. Korean city, and ekes out an existence by resorting to scams & odd-jobs to get by. The father, Ki-taek (Kang-ho Song) & mother, Chung-sook (Hye-jin Jang), are unemployed, but nonplussed about it. And their children, nice-guy Ki-woo (Woo-sik Choi) & his cynical sister, Ki-jung (So-dam Park) have flunked their entrance exams into college. Fortunes change, however, when Ki-woo gets the chance to tutor the daughter of the extremely wealthy Park family. This opens the door for the rest of the Kims to infiltrate the Park household. How so, you ask? After Ki-woo ingratiates himself to Mr. Dong-ik Park (Sun-kyun Lee) & his loveably ditzy wife, Mrs. Yeon-kyo Park (Yeo-jeong Jo), Ki-woo & his Kim family scheme for the Park's bratty son to have an art therapist; so Ki-jung steps-in as one.
When the Park family's chauffeur is duped, the Kims scheme to have Mr. Kim step-in as the new driver. And when the Kims scheme to have the Parks fire their long-time, live-in housekeeper, Moon-gwang (Lee Jung Eun), well, you guessed it, Mrs. Kim steps-in to be the new housekeeper. To that, the entire Kim family now lives in the lapse of luxury with their employers, the Parks ... and the Parks have no clue that the Kims are all related {even when Dong-ik observes that they all have the same odor}. And so, the devious, yet oddly sympathetic Kims become the 'parasite' to the clueless Park household. This grand scam works until a bizarre secret hidden in the Park's basement threatens to unmask the Kims as con artists, thereby obliterating the symbiotic relationship. Surprising developments unfold. And the story descends into a maelstrom of shocking violence & stunning grotesquery.
Although the film's themes get heavy-handed near the end, and while that ending put me in a state of shock for a while ... this is one hell of a motion picture. Director Bong (also of Snowpiercer, Okja) has a strong message to convey about class divisions in Korean society (and really, the whole world ... it's a universal message), he blends it into a tragi-comedic thriller of uncommon wit & excellence in building tension. The plot twists are unpredictable without being completely outlandish. And the narrative gripped me in a way that most 'foreign films' fail to do. Heck, it gripped me in a way that most English language films fail to do. And the fact that all the characters exist in a gray zone - not completely good or evil - makes them all the more real.
Parasite is also exceedingly well-constructed. Script-wise, brilliance is exemplified with the opening scene, where we see the Kim family scrambling around their apartment trying to find a bar of wi-fi -- that is universally relatable. It connected us with the Kims. And as the story evolves - where their actions become crueler - we question that connection we formed with them so early on. Because we think the Park family is pretty crumby {and tone-deaf to the strife of the lower-class}, we are almost complicit in the Kim's actions -- that's great writing. And the performance from the cast is superb. By observing these actors, we'd like to think that their characters {from different socio-economic walks of life} could get along. But perhaps not.
The editing of 'Parasite' is also astute; slowly getting us used to the Kims, the Parks, the mechanics of the narrative, the bursts of black comedy, & the eventual unease that occurs during a fateful rainstorm. The pacing of all of this is spot-on. And I did not find the 132 run time to be troubling, whatsoever. This film is shot beautifully with memorable images {a puppy under the bed, a terrifying, ghostly vision in the kitchen, etc}. The production design is ASTOUNDING; where the below-ground Kim apartment - which is demolished in a flood - and the Park's ultra-modern mansion are creations of wonder. Blending dark comedy, satire & violence, Parasite's indictment on society's ills has us questioning ... just who are the parasites, after all?