Parasite (2019) Review

“Parasite” Korean Theatrical poster

Director: Bong Joon-Ho
Cast: Song Kang-Ho, Jang Hye-Jin, Choi Woo-Sik, Park So-Dam, Lee Sun-Kyun, Cho Yeo-Jeong, Jung Ji-So, Jeong Hyun-Jun, Lee Jung-Eun, Park Seo-Joon
Running Time: 131 min.

By Paul Bramhall

The following review for Parasite was originally posted on COF in July of 2019. Because the film took home four Academy Awards at the recent 2020 Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Film and Best Original Screenplay), we decided to re-post it. 

If there’s any director out there whose work refuses to be categorised into any one genre, it’s Bong Joon-ho. Whether it be a monster rampaging along the Han River in The Host, a constantly moving train hurtling through a frozen Earth in Snowpiercer, or following the journey of a giant pig in Okja, his movies are always much more than what they appear to be on the surface. Usually imbued with a social commentary that incorporates pitch black humor and unexpected consequences, both of these elements come to the fore in the director’s latest production, Parasite.

It’s the first time for Joon-ho to return to a pure Korean production since Mother, made 10 years earlier. In between there’s been flirtations with Hollywood for the Chris Evans starring Snowpiercer, and with Okja he appeared to understand the benefits of making a Netflix movie even more than Netflix itself, leveraging the platform to be given complete creative freedom in a way no other director has. However there’s an undeniable excitement not only to see him back on home soil, but also working once more with leading man Song Kang-ho. This is the fourth time for them to work together, having previously collaborated on Memories of Murder, The Host, and Snowpiercer, with Kang-ho headlining all but the latter.

In Parasite he plays the patriarch of a family living on the bottom rungs of Korean society. The family of four live in a ‘semi-basement’, a dingy dwelling nestled in the corner of a dead-end street, its sole narrow window subject to drunken salary men regularly relieving themselves nearby after a few tipples too many. Despite their circumstances, the family unit is an undeniably cheerful one, their unemployed status temporarily put on hold one evening when a pizza store outsources the folding of its pizza boxes, and the discovery of a wi-fi signal (even if it is next to the toilet) heralding a reason to celebrate with cheap beer.

When the opportunity arises for the son, played by Choi Wooshik (Big Match), to take over privately tutoring a rich families daughter in English, it opens up a world of modernist mansions set in the hillsides of Seoul, complete with live-in housemaids and neurotic housewives. Wooshik proves to be a quick-witted individual, equal parts highly intelligent and opportunistic, and soon finds the trust he builds with the mother (Jo Yeo-jung, The Concubine) as a means to find gainful employment for the rest of the family. This starts with his sister (Park So-dam, Run-off), who enters under the guise of a U.S. educated art major now specialising in art therapy, an approach Yeo-jung believes will benefit their hyper energetic son.

To go into any more detail on the plot of Parasite would no doubt spoil the ride, a fact enforced when director Joon-ho made his own personal appeal in a short clip released in June 2019, requesting for those who have seen it not to give away any spoilers for others. The fact that a director would go on-camera requesting audiences to refrain from spoilers may make it seem like Parasite comes loaded with a twist on the magnitude of The Sixth Sense, however this is far from the case. Rather, the rest of the plot plays out by slowly revealing a number of unexpected truths about the household our thrifty family gradually find themselves a part of, and its these that pack Parasite with its emotional punches.

Joon-ho is a director whose name and movies will always be associated with kick-starting the Korean Wave, and the domestic setting that Parasite unfolds in harks back in some ways to his 2000 debut Barking Dogs Never Bite. Kang-ho’s role also feels like he’s come full circle from the similarly themed The Quiet Family, Kim Jee-woon’s 1998 black comedy, in which he could well be argued to be playing the role that Wooshik has taken on here. Like a pair of dancers that know each other’s strengths inside out, Joon-ho provides Kang-ho with his best role since Thirst. While he rarely puts in a bad performance, most of the roles Kang-ho has played in recent years haven’t exactly stretched his acting muscles, leaving those of us who’ve been waiting for a return to his performance in the likes of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance frequently disappointed.

Like all of the classic movies mentioned, the most challenging aspect for the audience in watching Parasite is that there are no good or bad guys to root for or against. Kang-ho and the rest of the family do what they need to do in order to survive and put bread on the table, and are never driven by sinister motives. Likewise for their ‘host’ family, as the well-off patriarch played by Lee Sun-kyun (A Special Lady), his CEO status may make him slightly aloof and seemingly takes his lifestyle for granted, however neither of these things make him an inherently bad person.

The moral ambiguities that unfold throughout Parasite serve to keep the tension constantly bubbling just underneath the service, and the question of how much where we stand in society is based on circumstance or luck is never far away. Perhaps Parasite’s greatest achievement though, is how much of a fantastic ensemble piece it is. Ensemble acting has always been a key component in many of Joon-ho’s best work, from the family looking to save a loved one in The Host, to the relationship between the various passengers in Snowpiercer, and here Joon-ho’s orchestration of his performers is another prime example of a master at work.

Wooshik has worked with Joon-ho before in Okja, however he did little else apart from irritate in The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion, so his role here feels somewhat redemptive, and he owns the screen whenever on it. Likewise for rising star Park So-dam, who after turns in the supernatural horrors The Priests and Silenced in 2015, here clocks in her most mature role to date, and she owns it. After being a Hong Sang-soo mainstay for many years, I thought we’d be seeing a lot more of Lee Sun-kyun after his frantic turn in 2013’s A Hard Day, but he’s mostly remained a solid player in largely unremarkable productions, so to see him here feels like a role worthy of his talent. Playing his daughter, Hyun Seung-min hasn’t done much since her role in 2015’s The Tiger: An Old Hunter’s Tale, however she’s clearly a talented actress, and based on her performance here I hope we’ll be seeing more from her in the future.

Combined with the cinematography of Hong Kyung-pyo, who apart from also lensing Joon-ho’s Mother and Snowpiercer, was also the man behind the camera for the likes of such classics as Burning, The Wailing, and The Good. The Bad. The Weird, Parasite looks fantastic. The camera isn’t only there to capture the images onscreen, but also serves to add layers of depth to the situations that unfold before us. Stairs pop up frequently in Parasite, an omnipresent feature in any movie shot in Seoul due to the nature of the landscape, but here they’re given an extra layer of meaning by Kyung-pyo’s lensing.

Parasite became the first Korean production to walk away with the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, an accolade which is well deserved. Like the best of Joon-ho’s work, over the course of its 130 minute runtime I found myself laughing, cringing, and every other emotion that’s possible to be wrung out of a human. The level of creativity and boldness that permeated the Korean film industry in the early 2000’s has been lacking in recent years, so for many of us Parasite will serve as a reminder as to why we fell in love with Korean cinema in the first place.

While some may find Joon-ho’s critique of the social classes lacking subtlety, it’s an element that’s always been a part of his work, although admittedly never pushed to the forefront quite like it is here. It’s an approach which will likely divide fans of the auteur, depending on what titles in his filmography resonate the most. One thing that can’t be argued though, is that it’s unmistakably a movie which could only have been made by Joon-ho, and here’s hoping anything he makes after this will also have an opportunity to be shown on the big screen, as that’s where his movies belong.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 10/10