Parasite (2019) - Movie Review

Bong Joon-ho is one of those filmmakers where, while it’s difficult to pin down the exact kind of films he makes in terms of genre, you still know one of his works when you see it. Whether it’s the monster trappings of The Host, the kid and their pet narrative of Okja, or the globalist frenzy of Snowpiercer, his blend of poignant social commentary and modestly batshit specifics make him one of the most interesting international directors I’ve come across. And his latest continues with that trend, marking his first return to all-Korean settings and cast since breaking onto the global stage with Snowpiercer, the result of which is one of his best efforts yet.

The premise here is pure farce material, focusing on a hard-done-by family living below or damn close to the poverty line. Through a series of increasingly convoluted tricks and plans, they all end up under the employ of an upper-class family, while keeping their familial connection a secret. This kind of setup built on lies on top of lies is rife with anarchic comedy potential, and as things grow more and more insane in true Bong Joon-ho fashion, it results in the heartiest, murkiest laughs I’ve had all year.

But underneath the plentiful laughs and variably cheeky machinations to keep the plot going, there is a far more dour, far more serious vein that somehow manages to balance out the more riotous moments. Much like Lee Chang-dong’s Burning from earlier this year, this is a narrative that sets out to look at the living conditions of the South Korean under-class, depressive nihilism in tow.

It taps into the usual ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ mantra familiar to anyone who’s had to look for employment and basically twists its neck until the head pops off. The lengths that the Kim family go to just to survive in their sub-basement apartment are both heartbreaking and kind of ridiculous in a strangely relatable sense. Doubly so once it sets in just how far others are willing to go for the same reasons.

We see the standards for poverty in the setting, and once we get a better look at the more well-off, it reaches a weird point of revulsion. The Park family, so content with their surroundings and so oblivious to anything else around them, end up epitomising not just Korea’s upper crust but those elsewhere as well. These people, who view the poor with disgust and perverse voyeurism, make it far too difficult to judge the Kims for how much they keep bullshitting their way into the Parks’ abode. And when coupled with some jarring but ultimately accurate North Korean imagery, it really hits home just how bad things are in the class divide.

It’s a whirling vortex of the bizarre, the sombre and the downright hilarious where, no matter how fucking weird things turn out in the narrative, it never loses its centre. Hell, the duration between the film’s comedic climax and the actual conclusion makes for a real sobering-up period, where you come down from the tremendous laughter high to be hit with the cold stone of reality. A reality that the film pulls no punches in showing in all its quietly grim detail.

It left me with a similar impression that The Favourite did: I spent most of the time laughing my arse off, but by the time the credits were rolling, I wasn’t laughing anymore. All I felt was the need for some grave contemplation on the way back home. And feeling privileged that I even had a home to go back to.