Parasite – Gisaengchung (2019)

Directed by: Bong Joon-ho | 131 minutes | comedy, drama | Actors: Kang-ho Song, Sun-kyun Lee, Yeo-jeong Jo, Woo-sik Choi, So-dam Park, Jeong-eun Lee, Hye-jin Jang, Ji-hye Lee, Ji-so Jung, Myeong-hoon Park, Seo-joon Park, Keun-rok Park

The WiFi of the upstairs neighbor has a new password. After years of parasitising her internet, the Kim family is over in one fell swoop with the free internet fun. They keep the ends together somewhat by folding pizza boxes. But it is certainly not a fat pot. Outside, a drunk man regularly pees against the facade. It has little to do with a palace, but the family bravely stands firm.

In Bong Joon-Ho’s ‘Parasite’, we meet the four-member Park family as outcasts at the bottom of South Korean society. The parents barely have a job, the children don’t go to school, and then their WiFi is also taken away. Until a friend of son Ki-Woo reports. He is going abroad for a few months and is looking for someone who can take over his English lessons for a teenage girl. An additional advantage is that she is a child of very wealthy parents.

As soon as Kim Ki-Woo enters this Park family, he suddenly sees a wealth of possibilities in the extremely luxurious (and secured) villa. Doesn’t that wise waitress need to be replaced by now? And is the slightly too charming driver completely kosher? Fortunately, Ki-Woo has some alternatives to the Park family in its immediate vicinity, without the wealthy family having any idea of ​​their background or family ties.

A classic invasion thriller, you might say, but ‘Parasite’ is far too rich to be crammed into such a box. In fact, you can sprinkle with labels like ‘Hitchcockian thriller’; ‘satiric horror’ or ‘witty tragicomedy’: it would probably only do the Golden Palm winner and his spiritual father unnecessarily short. In any case, it is almost impossible to summarize the brilliance of the film here in these short terms. Whether it’s the masterful cinematography, penetrating acting or insane art direction goes: ‘Parasite’ fills all the boxes to the most impenetrable corners.

Moreover, ‘Parasite’ is an exceptionally successful cocktail of socially critical arthouse with genuine blockbuster entertainment. Although it must be said that this was already the case in Bong’s earlier work, just think of his socially critical blockbuster ‘Snowpiercer’ (2013), where a train symbolized the divided class society.

It should come as no surprise that this accusation against capitalism is also central to ‘Parasite’. Bong Joon-Ho makes no bones about it either: you have to be a very bad listener to miss the message of the film. This is by no means to say that the film becomes caricature or black and white for even a moment. The main characters are anything but heroes: the shades of gray always win.

To say more about the plot or interpretations of ‘Parasite’ would actually be a shame. This is a film that you should consume without too much prior knowledge. Whether you like it as a home invasionhorror, as a compelling thriller or as a pitch-black comedy: in the end there is very little to laugh about in the final. But Bong Joon-Ho has already hit all his arrows by then. An undisputed (visual) masterpiece that entertains, moves and disrupts: ‘Parasite’ is without doubt the film highlight of 2019.