2019’s Parasite, directed
by Bong Joon-ho.
Starring Song Kang-Ho, Jang Hye-jin, Park So-dam, Choi
Woo-shik, Lee Sun Gyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Jeong Ji-so, Jeong Hyun-joon, Lee Jeong-eun,
and Park Myung-hoon.
What is it about?
Set in present day Korea, a nuclear family of grifters eke
out an existence in the gig economy. Lead by Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-Ho), wife Kim
Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin), son Kim Ki-woo (Park So-dam), and daughter Kim Ki-jeong
(Choi Woo-shik), they target the Parks, a wealthy family (and housekeeper), to
work their next job. Successful completion of their marks, whom are plenty nice
in personality and thus easy targets, offers a chance at climbing the ladder of
social mobility- but also for surprises.
Why is it worth seeing?
Being eclectic, in how one chooses to balance tones through
genres, can be fraught with peril. Too many directions, and the result can feel
like a 52 car pile up on the highway, but too few, and crucial flash bulb
memories can be squandered. Director and co-writer Bong Joon-ho, after such
nimble works as Memories of Murder, The Host, and Okja, brings all the stops- I haven’t been so entranced by the
amount of ground covered in a film since 2016’s masterful The Handmaiden. Galloping over the descriptors needed for a
thriller, black comedy, social satire, horror, and drama, it’s a breathlessly
smooth ride (full of laughs and gasps). But unlike Park Chan-Wook’s twisted work
about a shades of Rashomen inspired same
sex romance, the focus here is on family matters. 3 respective families, all
dynamic and possessing their own motivations and desires, clamp onto one
another throughout. It’s one of the reasons it resounds so strongly.
The script, written by Joon-ho and Han Jin-won, introduces us to the Kim family, a group of have nots, initially shown being comfortable with breathing in street-side toxic fumes to save the money needed to fumigate their sub basement’s stink bug infestation. Through the fumes, we learn that the parents may have once held more promise, maybe even had plans beyond prowling around their home trying to graft onto someone else’s wi-fi. They wish success for their children, themselves no strangers to using their ample street smarts for their survival, and always for more for their now humbled family. Their interior life feels perfectly moulded by the outside’s world preference for outsourcing and downsizing, a gig economy nightmare that creates vast opportunities for exploitation of the rich over the less advantaged. The Park family, perhaps a more traditional definition of a nuclear family (full of promise and continued success), are the haves, employing others to be in service to them, an unusual mixture of comfortable servitude and thankless employment in occasionally awkward settings. But they (usually) aren’t mere bourgeois clowns. Their advantages have enabled them to act in a way that poor people often can’t afford to- to try to be kind to others. This juxtaposition of people fighting to have the rights of human beings is the perfect way to express class warfare, and the symbiotic relationships related to the resulting imbalance.
That warfare is fought in one of the most lovely interiors ever committed to film. Production designer, Lee Ha-jun, with the aid of cinematographer, Hong Kyung-pyo, create one of the more interesting settings in which a home becomes a modern palace of envy, an Architectural Digest overlay of creature comforts, packed full of secrets and lies, of freedom and imprisonment. It may not be a character, but it’s difficult to surmise what doesn’t happen within these walls, full of art work and history and intrigue. With these features in his back pocket, Joon-ho’s tendencies for shooting captivating shots of his actors provides an embarrassment of riches for lovers of the cinematic. The sequence where a family scurries downwards, soaked in both failure and rain, is magnificent, culminating in the shot of the year, a plumber’s ode to despair. But despite the genre hopping, and topics that are heavy, with some truly bizarre left turns and a number of laughs, the result never feels exhausting- instead it’s exhilarating. Filled with great performances, in particular Song Kang-ho, as the scheming but impulsive father of the Kim family, and Lee Jung-eun as the Park family’s complicated housekeeper, it’s the stuff Oscar buzz is made of.
The script, written by Joon-ho and Han Jin-won, introduces us to the Kim family, a group of have nots, initially shown being comfortable with breathing in street-side toxic fumes to save the money needed to fumigate their sub basement’s stink bug infestation. Through the fumes, we learn that the parents may have once held more promise, maybe even had plans beyond prowling around their home trying to graft onto someone else’s wi-fi. They wish success for their children, themselves no strangers to using their ample street smarts for their survival, and always for more for their now humbled family. Their interior life feels perfectly moulded by the outside’s world preference for outsourcing and downsizing, a gig economy nightmare that creates vast opportunities for exploitation of the rich over the less advantaged. The Park family, perhaps a more traditional definition of a nuclear family (full of promise and continued success), are the haves, employing others to be in service to them, an unusual mixture of comfortable servitude and thankless employment in occasionally awkward settings. But they (usually) aren’t mere bourgeois clowns. Their advantages have enabled them to act in a way that poor people often can’t afford to- to try to be kind to others. This juxtaposition of people fighting to have the rights of human beings is the perfect way to express class warfare, and the symbiotic relationships related to the resulting imbalance.
That warfare is fought in one of the most lovely interiors ever committed to film. Production designer, Lee Ha-jun, with the aid of cinematographer, Hong Kyung-pyo, create one of the more interesting settings in which a home becomes a modern palace of envy, an Architectural Digest overlay of creature comforts, packed full of secrets and lies, of freedom and imprisonment. It may not be a character, but it’s difficult to surmise what doesn’t happen within these walls, full of art work and history and intrigue. With these features in his back pocket, Joon-ho’s tendencies for shooting captivating shots of his actors provides an embarrassment of riches for lovers of the cinematic. The sequence where a family scurries downwards, soaked in both failure and rain, is magnificent, culminating in the shot of the year, a plumber’s ode to despair. But despite the genre hopping, and topics that are heavy, with some truly bizarre left turns and a number of laughs, the result never feels exhausting- instead it’s exhilarating. Filled with great performances, in particular Song Kang-ho, as the scheming but impulsive father of the Kim family, and Lee Jung-eun as the Park family’s complicated housekeeper, it’s the stuff Oscar buzz is made of.
Critically acclaimed and financially overachieving in a mono
culture where comic books and sequels reign supreme, Parasite is that rare example of a gifted filmmaker peaking precisely at the time when they’re being
recognized for it. It’s deserved, in a practically flawless film kind of way.
God DAMN this was a great movie!
ReplyDeleteMy favourite of 2019!
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