Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, is a dramatic thriller that surprises its audience when they least expect it, from the humorous tone changing to the dramatic storytelling, to the scenery that captures both the dramatizations of the differential class system that not only exists in South Korea, but is prevalent across multiple countries, including the United States, in which it surpassed expectations by taking home four oscars, while being nominated for six. During the course of its runtime, we are faced with social and political themes that don’t blatantly challenge our ideals, but rather face us with the harsh reality we live.
The Kim family, who serve as the protagonists of the film, live in a half-basement home, which are known to be fairly cheap residences for those who are too poor to afford more, or for those to willingly choose to live there while they go to grad school, or save money for a better living. The film contrasts the poor and rich lifestyle when the Kim family infiltrates the Park family’s home, where the audience then infers that the Kim family must be the “parasites” that the film title refers to for the overarching theme. It is not until the second act that we realize there is a possibility that the third family (the family of the former housekeeper, which is Mun-kwang and her husband, Kun-sae) are the real parasites, residing in the Park’s residence to harbor the fugitive husband, Kun-sae, and have Mun-kwang deliver food to him throughout the day when the Parks are absent. As the film comes to a close, the real parasite unravels; the feeling of hope. It is in the final act, where the dystopian theme takes hold of Ki-woo, who envisions himself to complete his elaborate scheme to fruition to save his father, Ki-taek from the underground bunker, just as soon as he can earn enough money to purchase the Park’s family home. It is then, that the final shot occurs, where we see Ki-woo writing the letter in the half-basement home in which we then realize, it is just a dream, and there is no hope for him to recover his fugitive father, Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho), and continue to mourn the death of his sister, Ki-jung (Park So-dam). This dystopian themed is also embedded in the reappearing scholar stone (suseok) , which signifies as a symbol of hope for Ki-woo to help his family out of poverty, and to live a better lifestyle. It is only until his demise, that we find the rock only served Ki-woo by “bashing his skull in.”
Critic, Brody, gave both praise and criticism to the film, only because, “It links up all too perfectly,” and I don’t disagree. It is hard to believe that the Parks would be so oblivious as to not notice the overthrow of their employees over the course of a year, when they’ve been with them for years. It was detailed by E. Alex Jung, Vulture Magazine, that the rich are not bad people, but are in fact oblivious to others around them, because they are so focused on moving on with their own life. This can be made as a possible argument for their ignorance, but I think that thought only extends to their outer circle of strangers, whereas their servants, are interacting with them closely on a daily basis. Brody then proceeds to detail how, “Its characters lack density and substance, because their traits melt into an unexceptional blandness excerpt when they stand out for derision.” Although I believe this to be true, that character development was neglected, I don’t think that was a goal for Bong Joon-ho, because it would have been unnecessary to include such information, other than what was necessary to advance the plot of the film, because this is not a story about the Kims specifically, but more about a class system between the rich and poor as a supporting theme, with the narrative being the driving force to interest its audience. The only benefit the audience would get from character development, would be to add information to make us more sympathetic towards them during their downfall, but Joon-ho wanted to keep the sympathy balanced amongst all parties, stating, “I focus on characters that are fascinating and make you want to explore more.” At first glance, this infers that he’d prefer to include more character development, but what if, he means to say, each character appears so fascinating through their dialogue and actions, that balances all their viewpoints, since no one character is specifically being targeted for detailed representation? To follow this theory of character development, he said he uses the foreground and background in film to introduce new characteristic traits to each character, that is described by their movement within the frame, whether that means eavesdropping on another’s conversation, or if that is sneaking behind someone else.
Parasite is the movie that took the world by storm, both locally and internationally, with a reoccurring star lead, Song Kang-ho, whom delivered a brilliant performance of humor, terror, anxiety, and anger. It is both a fan favorite, and a critical acclaim in multiple countries. It challenges not how we change the world, but the reality in which we’ve made it become. The best effect to rise out of an international film, being claimed as a “masterpiece” to many, is that it will now influence the mass majority to allow foreign films to garner equal attention to their country’s own films. Parasite is in many ways, a multi-layered cinematic experience, and it challenges its competing directors to give even more attention to symbolism, socio-political thematics, and riveting storytelling.
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