Parasite delivers what many modern American productions fail to do: it offers us a sublimely twisted and devilishly deep ocean of manipulation and lies. Parasite is now showing in cinemas nationwide.
Parasite:
An organism that lives in or on an organism of another species (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the other’s expense.
Winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite is as close to cinematic perfection as possible. Parasite not only dissects the inequalities at the heart of South Korean life, inequalities that are largely airbrushed away in favour of positive imagery, but also ebbs and flows with deliciously dark humour, twisted surprises and stunning performances.
The Kim family, Ki-Taek (Kang-ho Song), his wife Chung-sook (Hye-jin Jang), and their college-aged kids, Ki-Woo (Choi Woo-Shik) and Ki-Jung (Park So-dam), live on the very edges of Korean society in a cramped, below-pavement-level flat where passers-by urinate on their windows. To escape this underground prison of inequality, the family eagerly searches for opportunities to earn more money, taking on anything that comes along, believing that the good times are coming. Therefore, when a chance encounter with an old college friend sees Ki-Woo offered an opportunity that could transform family life, he snaps it up.
Ki-Woo is to pose as a university-educated English tutor for the teenage daughter of a wealthy city family (The Parks), with his role offering entry to a luxury family life he has only ever dreamed of. More importantly, Ki-Woo’s position allows him to manipulate the creation of other jobs for the rest of his family. It is not long before the whole Kim tribe is working for the Parks, bathing in their newfound social status. However, as the Kim family settle into their new roles, events are about to spiral out of control, as secrets are exposed, opportunities are squandered, and the dark reality of privilege and power is laid bare.
Bong Joon-Ho’s love letter to Hitchcock and Shakespeare is a sublimely dark social satire that draws on elements of classic theatrical tragedy as it unpicks themes of inequality, manipulation, secrets, and lies. Bong Joon-Ho slices through the social structures of capitalism that divide our society into two distinct halves, the haves and the have-nots, with the precision and skill of a brain surgeon. Laced with nerve-shredding tension and laugh-out-loud comedy, Parasite delivers what many modern American productions fail to do: it offers us a sublimely twisted and devilishly deep ocean of manipulation and lies.
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