movie review; Parasite (2019)

The movie introduced us to Kim’s family who live in a semi-basement. Their poor circumstances slowly revealed through the son and daughter (Ki-woo and Ki-jeong) difficulties to find the Wi-Fi connection in their decent home, the jobless father (Ki-taek) and the mother (Chung-sook) who took the job in folding pizza’s boxes.

The progress then took place when the son’s friend, Min-hyuk came to their home and gave a scholar’s rock that believed could bring wealth as a gift from his grandfather. (Note: this rock is one of the symbolism in this movie). Later, he offered the son a job to replace him as an English’s tutor because he furthered his study abroad.

The son had to pretend as a college student to take over the job being the tutor for the wealthy Park’s family teenage daughter, Da-hye. Once he was hired, he began to ‘infiltrate’ the rest of his family members as Park’s sophisticated skilled workers and unrelated to one another. This is when film, Parasite gained its name as the rich Parks acted as the host and the Kims as the parasite that eventually causing harm.

A dark comedy thriller film that represents the discrimination between labour working class and high, wealthy class in the world of capitalist.

10 out of 10!

1. Song: I want to highlight the specific song used in one of the film’s montage titled ‘The Belt of Faith’. The music applied in this sequence is perfectly fitting in from the very first moment the son received the information to get rid off the housekeeper (so, his mom could take the job in Parks) to the very last scene they finally succeed.

2. Cinematography: The route of camerawork worked amazingly, it was well-executed to manifest the character’s emotion, the little details represented and live up the setting that focussing on the difference between classes. The audience felt absorbed into the world itself because of the camera’s focal point that knew where to reveal the message of this film.

3. Character’s development: Each character from the Kims to Parks was all fleshed out throughout the movie. Both representation of the poor and the rich class was top-notch. The dialogue/script was thought provoking and make the audiences wonder which side should they be because there was no real distinguishable hero or anti-hero. The line that separated black and white was blurred and left the rest in grey. And that’s really how reality worked, in grey.

4. Dynamic interaction: As I mentioned above, the script was well written. Each line from the character revealed a bit of foreshadow and built up of the character. For the character’s background developed from the word they said and then proved by the action. I would also like to highlight the interaction between the son and father of Kims regarding their life situation. It revolved around having a planned out life or not. (Note: This is the core’s film, in order to survive the capitalism system.)

5. Plot line: From intro to rising to climax to falling to resolution, everything was well developed. It’s slowly build tension from the start and I love how the story picking up, it’s not fast or felt rushed but the pace and timing were just nice to let the audience savoured each moment. The build of sub plot hinted with a lot of little details and foreshadow technique used here that would give the memorable impact when reaching the main plot. Plot twist was something you should expect, but you didn’t! The hint given, and I had that ‘I should see it coming’ moment. The film also had its originality. It radiated strangely unique kind of mode and tone. (‘dark but funny, at the same time so you felt guilty for laughing’ kind of vibe)

6. Theme: It highlighted the differences between low and high class. How at the first we thought the Kims ‘invasion’ into the Parks’ life was the act of a parasite but the film revealed that it didn’t matter which class you were in but you also become the parasite to the other. It’s a movie when the end credit showed up, you still think about whether is it possible to live without harming one another? A film that tried to make us understand the real-life situation either parasite or the host, we still could coexist together.

Parasite, a film of little details, foreshadow and most importantly, symbolism.

• Scholar’s rock (the symbol of wealth, the son holding to the idea but at the turn of final event he let go to the water represents reality).
• Rain (brought inconvenience to the poor but for the rich, it is considered as a blessing).
• Native Americans tribe (referred to the son of Kims who loved the culture of American Indians, we all know the story how they’re actually been invaded in their homeland)