Parasite (2019)

After two films done primarily in English in 2013’s Snowpiercer and the 2017 Netflix release Okja, Bong Joon-ho returns to purely Korean-language filmmaking for the first time since 2009 with his black comic satire, Parasite, arguably the best film in his distinguished career. It’s a film that Bong feels contains nuances and specific details that will not be readily understood 100% by audiences outside of South Korea. Perhaps that is overstated. Parasite has received acclaim from all corners of the world, gathering many accolades outside of Bong’s native country. The film unanimously won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and Best Picture (the first foreign-language film to do so), Best International Film (formerly Best Foreign Language Film), and Best Director at the 2020 Academy Awards, all firsts for a Korean film.

Parasite continues Bong’s themes of social classes and the divides that occur because of financial inequality among people, not only within society but in building up family dynamics. His film centers on two families of four. The primary one that we follow is an unfortunate but street-smart family living in a semi-basement with a window overlooking an alley that drunks use as a bathroom. Korea’s top character actor and Bong’s favorite, Song Kang-ho, plays Kim Ki-taek, the father in the low-income family that has no breadwinners due to the lack of good-paying jobs (the latest gig finds them folding pizza boxes). Poverty has become so pervasive that the family works overtime to find ways to not spend money, hijacking wifi from neighbors and resorting to forgery to gain credentials from schools they couldn’t even dream of being able to afford. They also leave the window open as the fumigator draws near. “Free fumigation!” they proclaim, inundating their apartment with unhealthy chemicals.

Things take a turn for the better when Ki-taek’s son, Ki-woo, gets a temporary job replacing a good friend as the tutor for Da-hye, a teenage daughter of the well-to-do family. In their stately home, Ki-woo woos the young woman who develops a crush on him, just like she did the prior tutor, and convinces the naive mother that he has the skills necessary for the job. When Ki-woo learns that the young son in the wealthy family, Da-song, needs an art tutor, he brings in his sister for the job, pretending to be Ki-woo’s old college friend.

Class rage is a potent topic for these times, though still a touchy one among many people who feel that the rich are not inherently evil, and instead, should be admired and emulated. To that end, Bong does not paint the wealthy family as evil or deserving of being fleeced. Instead, they live a life of safety and obliviousness that makes them ignorant of the plights of the people in their employ, seeing the tutors, drivers, and housekeepers are there only because they are paying them. The low-income family has a conversation proclaiming the wealthy family as nice, but determine that they are nice because they are rich, not rich because they are nice. If the poor become rich, they might live be nice too with worry and strife removed from their lives.

The line that gets crossed is the notion that the poor have a specific smell to them that the rich don’t have. Da-song astutely determines that all of the workers they’ve just hired seem to have the same scent, which makes sense given they are all from the same family home, use the same soap, same detergent, and eat the same foods. But Da-song’s father, Dong-ik, takes it one step further by connecting the smell of his newly hired driver to the smell of people who ride the subway. And he can’t stand that smell. Ki-taek determines that what Dong-ik must find offensive to his nose is the smell of poverty, something his wife soon finds unpalatable enough to crack open the window in the backseat not to have to smell.

Bong does not paint the low-income family in wholly sympathetic light either, showing them to be uncaring about their work ethic and feeling like the best things in life should come at no price. The title of the film itself, Parasite, exploits the snooty view of the poor that has shaped over the last half-century, especially in recent years, that those who live in poverty are somehow lazy freeloaders who don’t want to work hard to become rich. Of course, it plays against a theme of the film, which is that birth and luck have more to do with one’s wealth than just working hard. Many have toiled and still been unable to make it out of poverty. Meanwhile, many who have succeeded in acquiring wealth may hardly have to work at all.

But who is to blame for all of this? Throughout history, there have been many approaches: monarchies and democracies, capitalism to communism. All have come up with ways to handle wealth distribution within society, and each one of them has produced ills. South Korea, in particular, has a unique blend of capitalism, socialism, and communism in its economic structure, which often can generate a good deal of friction among classes as to which approach is ideal for the populace. Bong doesn’t suggest there is a way that will work, only that what currently exists does not, as economic disparity frequently breeds resentment, fear, and anger among people of the same nation. And the more gap, the more likely the potential for violence.

Bong Joon-ho conceived of the idea for his story in 2013 as he was wrapping Snowpiercer. He had the class friction aspect in mind but wanted to tell that story with a realistic storyline that didn’t rely on science fiction. He drew many elements from some personal experience. As with Ki-woo, Joon-ho worked as a tutor in college. He observed first-hand the environment of the rich and those of the poor, and how they contrast each other. His girlfriend (now wife) tutored English to a wealthy family and brought in Bong to tutor math, even though he claims his math skills are terrible, similar to the events of the first half of Parasite.

Although a dark comedy with dramatic weight, Bong tones down some of the eccentric characterizations that permeate some of his other works. We get invested in the impoverished family and their schemes to earn money, not quite sympathizing with them until later, when they get a taste of the high life that they can walk through as visitors but never as peers. That lack of judgment on the characters is what makes the drama work, as we don’t have a rooting interest in one side prevailing over the other. We know that whatever team wins if one wins at all, there is little to be gained in resorting to extremes. Society will continue on the current path regardless of what one or two families may do about it, at least until the inevitable revolution, as history has taught us so well.

The quality of the film is superb from the rich-in-depth cinematography by Hong Kyung-po and the pitch-perfect score from Jung Jae-il. Both complement each other seamlessly, especially as they join with Lee Ha-jun’s jaw-dropping production design concepts.  The contrast between the two abodes, the semi-basement and its intrusive and claustrophobic style and the architectural marvel that is the spacious and protected mansion, is striking, but still beautifully shot and orchestrated in both cases.

While Bong Joon-ho is an undeniably brilliant and talented filmmaker, he has often had difficulty finding traction beyond cinephiles due to the oft-wild tonal shifts of his films. He gets it mostly right here, though some viewers may feel that the climax of the movie in which things come to a head goes further than it should in delivering its thematic payoff. Disbelief became strained for me during a couple of moments come into play involving the use of morse code that seems exceedingly convenient, but not enough to disregard the resonance offered for the message.

Still, for those adequately rooted in the characters and their plights, there is a level of high interest in seeing what will shake out from the confrontations when the dust settles. For those who maintain that connection with the material, the ending reveals the film to be a tragedy regarding society. It explores the notion that the difference between the haves and have-nots has more to do with circumstances than sheer determination.

Continuing to make enjoyable and challenging works, Parasite ends up being one of the top films of 2019. Its potency in revealing the underlying tension between those of wealth and those of disparity, sadly, is one of those universal themes as we’ve crossed into the 21st Century that holds weight in most parts of the world. Also, the clinging to hope as something that can be tangibly resolved just by sheer belief is one of the tragedies of the film, as life often does not conform to those who wish to live the lives of their dreams. At some point, much of this is out of our ability to control.

Qwipster’s rating: A

MPAA Rated: R for language, some violence, and sexual content
Run time: 132 min.

Cast: Choi Woo Sik, Song Kang Ho, Cho Yeo Jeong, Lee Sun Kyun, Park So Dam, Lee Jung Eun, Jung Ji-so, Chang Hye Jin, Park Myeong-Hoon, Jung Hyun-jun
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Screenplay: Bong Joon-ho, Jin Won Han