OVP: Parasite (2019)

Film: Parasite (2019)
Stars: Song Kang-ho, Jang Hye-Jin, Choo Woo-Shik, Park So-dam, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-Jeong
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Oscar History: 6 nominations/4 wins (Best Picture*, Director*, Film Editing, International Feature Film-South Korea*, Production Design, Original Screenplay*)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

One of the cooler but occasionally odd things about writing a blog about film is that, because I see so many movies, I sometimes forget whether I liked a film or not.  When prepping to write this article, I went back and read some of the other things I'd written about Bong Joon-ho on this blog, and suddenly realized that Snowpiercer, a film in my head I'd only focused on the negative, was a movie I actually gave a positive review the first time I saw it.  The indulgences of the film started to outweigh the compelling narrative and the strong supporting work of the cast.  This lack of memory may have been partially why I was so shocked to adore Parasite, though I doubt even if I recalled my fondness for Snowpiercer that it would have put a damper on such a film.  Parasite is a chilling, thoughtful, and fascinating picture, one that plays with our expectations and genuinely doesn't show where we're going until the final shot of the movie.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film revolves around the Kim family, the father Ki-taek (Song), his wife Park Chung-sook (Jang), his son Ki-woo (Choi), and daughter Ki-Jeong (Park).  They live on the outskirts of society, frequently unemployed (at the beginning of the film they're hunting for free WiFi, and are trying to make money by folding boxes for a pizza delivery company together as a family unit), but have dreams for their future.  One day Ki-woo's wealthy friend wants him to tutor a rich teenage girl whom he has designs on marrying eventually, assuming that Ki-woo won't try to become romantically involved with her (as you can guess, he does).  But this potential blossoming romance isn't the catalyst for the film-it's the opportunity Ki-woo sees in the gullible wealthy people who employ him, particularly Yeon-gyo (Cho), a silly woman who is easily manipulated by the Kim family into employing all of them, without realizing that they're all related.  Soon they are living some facsimile version of the high life.  They aren't as wealthy as the Park family who employs them, and occasionally have to endure some patronizing from their employers, but they are all employed, well-paid, and have access to a gorgeous mansion.  Their lies come back to haunt them, though, when the housekeeper they got fired comes back, and reveals a horrifying secret-she's been keeping her husband in an underground bunker (that the Parks have no idea exists) in the house, as he's wanted by loan sharks and has literally been living there for four years, going mad.

This is a twist that could make-or-break a movie.  Up until this point the film feels a bit like a caper film, a series of con artists giving their comeuppance to a group of spoiled but ultimately innocuous rich members of society.  The movie turns on its head with it, and Bong frames this scene as if we're literally about to see a monster or a horrifying serial killer's chamber-I cannot stress how gripping & fantastic this sequence is.  After this moment, the movie is a different tale, as we start to see the lengths that the Kim family will go to to ensure they get to stay on their slightly elevated plane, and we also see what they've done to this housekeeper by essentially getting her fired (she dies from an accidental head wound eventually).  The final third of the film also reveals the cruelty of the Parks, with us realizing that Mr. Park views the Kim family as essentially vermin, something he can take pity on but doesn't really view as human beings like himself, and his wife while less vicious, also views them as less-than.  In the last moments of the movie, we get Bong's penchant for violence in his pictures thrown at our screens, as a series of attacks from the housekeeper's husband (trying to kill the Kims, and succeeding in killing Ki-Jeong) occurs, and then Mr. Kim, in a blind rage when his employer largely dismisses the death of his daughter (not realizing she's his daughter) and sniffs with disgust at the housekeeper's husband in the same way he does at Mr. Kim, stabs him in a blind rage, seeing him for the heartless bigot that he is.  In the end, Mr. Kim becomes the housekeeper's husband, retreating into the bunker to live the rest of his days, while his wife and son hope to someday buy the house to let him out.

The movie has a lot to say about money and social status, but let's start with it stylistically-it's a home run.  While I liked Snowpiercer, I loved Parasite, with its perfectly constructed three-act story structure and the way that it telegraphs everything without you necessarily noticing the little hints that are about to come to this tale.  The acting is uniformly good, with special credence to Cho's dismissed housewife and Choi's horny, still-not-entirely-aware-of-how-the-world-works son.  And the set design is superb-watching the ways that we contrast the dingy but lived-in world of the Kims home with the opulence of the Park house (not to mention that bunker).  If this was an American film, it'd be an easy nomination for Best Production Design at the Oscars.

But it's the conversation about wealth that is provocative and challenging in the movie.  Bong doesn't provide easy answers here, but he does want to play with your expectations.  We spend the first third of the film watching the Kims latch onto the Park family, trying to each get access to cash that could at the very least improve their situation somewhat.  We don't feel bad for the Parks (they have plenty), but when the fired housekeeper comes in, we realize that they've essentially ruined her life to make theirs somewhat better (they had three jobs before they took hers, so it was more greed than necessity that caused them to take her position), but we also see a look at their future.  Despite stable employment for years, she's literally bringing scraps back to her family in the basement, never really escaping her station even through hard work.  Bong's conversation here is about the dream of living a better life, and the obstacles that you face to get there, particularly increasingly impossible ones when the system is stacked against you.  The Park children have private tutors, unlimited privilege, and access to anything they want; even when the Kims gain a foothold, they are shown how little say they have in such a conversation, always getting pushed down.  This never feels like a social issue film, in that this message is being delivered by impassioned speeches and self-revelations, but it's all there, neat-and-trim, an indictment of a caste system that claims upward mobility is possible...but takes no account for the many hindrances that are put in place to ensure you fail.