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Movie Review: Parasite (2019)
Set in Seoul, it’s about two families who are mirror images of each other, one rich, one poor, and the relationship that develops between them.
We meet the family of Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) first, four adults, all unemployed and living in desperate circumstances. A cramped, smelly semi-basement flat looking up into a rough street. They’re supportive of each other but they haven’t got a hope or a plan. The mother, Chung-sook (Chang Hyae-jin), is an ex-athlete, father Ki-taek (Bong’s regular star Song Kang-ho) has suffered multiple business failures. Both of their children, Ki-woo and his sister Ki-jung (Park So-dam), are smart but have repeatedly failed university entrance exams. They’re so broke their wifi has been cut off and they spend their time trying to get reception by depending upon others.
Then a student friend brings Ki-woo a present, a lucky rock said to bring wealth and offers him a lifeline, the chance to take over his cushy job teaching English to the daughter of a rich family, the Parks. Ki-woo and his sister fake up a university certificate for him to take to the interview.
The Parks’ house is a huge step-up in life, literally. Mr Park (Lee Sun-kyun) is the super-rich CEO of a global tech firm, always polite, leaving his domestic arrangements to his young and beautiful wife Yeon-kyo (the captivating Cho Yeo-jeong).
Ki-woo has soon got his way into the job of tutoring their daughter Da-hye (Jung Ziso). Yeon-kyo tells him that their out-of-control little boy Da-song is an genius but none of his tutors has ever lasted more than a month. Ki-woo spots another opportunity and recommends a much sought-after art therapist Jessica, who is actually his own sister. Also there are still his mother and father to get into the house and find jobs as well, completing the parasite invasion, until it all begins to turn into violence.
Parasite is just terrifically bold filmmaking in so many ways. It freely overrides any genre categorisation. It is now seeming social realism, now a thriller, then horror or fantasy, without ever being confined by any of them.
It is gloriously bold, too, in its physical presentation of the theme of distance between upper and lower classes. Making the poor actually dark and confined, swamped with filth, while the rich rise above them into light, space, and beauty. A good deal of the film actually takes place on the different levels.
Then again the film is beautifully balanced, not just in the casting of the two families and the realisation of their homes, but in the sympathies it evokes. The Parks are not monsters but positively kind, victims in their own way of the increasing polarisation of society, creating distances only to be traversed now through such master-servant relationships.
It's an absolute masterpiece but it's sad to say that we won't be seeing this kind of movie produced in India anytime soon.
Movie Review: Parasite (2019)
Set in Seoul, it’s about two families who are mirror images of each other, one rich, one poor, and the relationship that develops between them.
We meet the family of Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) first, four adults, all unemployed and living in desperate circumstances. A cramped, smelly semi-basement flat looking up into a rough street. They’re supportive of each other but they haven’t got a hope or a plan. The mother, Chung-sook (Chang Hyae-jin), is an ex-athlete, father Ki-taek (Bong’s regular star Song Kang-ho) has suffered multiple business failures. Both of their children, Ki-woo and his sister Ki-jung (Park So-dam), are smart but have repeatedly failed university entrance exams. They’re so broke their wifi has been cut off and they spend their time trying to get reception by depending upon others.
Then a student friend brings Ki-woo a present, a lucky rock said to bring wealth and offers him a lifeline, the chance to take over his cushy job teaching English to the daughter of a rich family, the Parks. Ki-woo and his sister fake up a university certificate for him to take to the interview.
The Parks’ house is a huge step-up in life, literally. Mr Park (Lee Sun-kyun) is the super-rich CEO of a global tech firm, always polite, leaving his domestic arrangements to his young and beautiful wife Yeon-kyo (the captivating Cho Yeo-jeong).
Ki-woo has soon got his way into the job of tutoring their daughter Da-hye (Jung Ziso). Yeon-kyo tells him that their out-of-control little boy Da-song is an genius but none of his tutors has ever lasted more than a month. Ki-woo spots another opportunity and recommends a much sought-after art therapist Jessica, who is actually his own sister. Also there are still his mother and father to get into the house and find jobs as well, completing the parasite invasion, until it all begins to turn into violence.
Parasite is just terrifically bold filmmaking in so many ways. It freely overrides any genre categorisation. It is now seeming social realism, now a thriller, then horror or fantasy, without ever being confined by any of them.
It is gloriously bold, too, in its physical presentation of the theme of distance between upper and lower classes. Making the poor actually dark and confined, swamped with filth, while the rich rise above them into light, space, and beauty. A good deal of the film actually takes place on the different levels.
Then again the film is beautifully balanced, not just in the casting of the two families and the realisation of their homes, but in the sympathies it evokes. The Parks are not monsters but positively kind, victims in their own way of the increasing polarisation of society, creating distances only to be traversed now through such master-servant relationships.
It's an absolute masterpiece but it's sad to say that we won't be seeing this kind of movie produced in India anytime soon.
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