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The next movie that we want to talk about is… PARASITE!

PARASITE

Gisaengchung, Joon-ho Bong, 2019

Parasite(Gisaengchung, director; Joonho Bong), a black comedy about a family of clever scammers from South Korea’s underclass, won the Palme d’Or top prize at Cannes. It has played to critical acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film is a black comedy, tragic social commentary, suspense thriller and brutal bloodbath all rolled into one, and Bong has become a director who is a genre all of his own.

In Parasite, as well as his previous films Okja, Snowpiercer and The Host, Bong swiftly switches its tone, so that a light-hearted comedy becomes a devastating tragedy at a moment’s notice.

This movie connotes a lot and gives us much things to think about.

Let’s look at this movie deeply.

※Caution: Don’t read this article if you don’t want spoilers※

#Synopsis

Parasite is a family tragicomedy between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim(Ki-taek) family.

Ki-taek’s family of four is close, but fully unemployed, with a bleak future ahead of them. The son Ki-woo is recommended by his friend, a student at a prestigious university, for a well-paid tutoring job, spawning hopes of a regular income. Carrying the expectations of all his family, Ki-woo heads to the Park family home for an interview. Arriving at the house of Mr. Park, the owner of a global IT firm, Ki-woo meets Mrs.Park(Yeon-kyo), the beautiful young lady of the house. But following this first meeting between the two families, an unstoppable string of mishaps lies in wait.

#Plan

You will find a word “plan” a lot in the movie. PLAN is one of the most important mediums in the movie.

First of all, it all starts with a plan of Ki-woo. Afterwards, Ki-jeong and their mother make thorough plans. But it started to have some problems with the plan from the middle of the movie. Then, his father Ki-taek tells his son that he has a plan. At that time, Ki-woo believed his father, but then Ki-taek changed his mind. He says there’s a no-plan. Ki-taek says that even if you plan something, nothing will work out as it planned. This is a metaphor for the rich Park family and the poor Kim family. Including Mr.Park, who is a president of a big company, Park’s family always lives with a plan. On the other hand, Kim’s family who have no jobs and no plans live without any plans. As Ki-woo came in to Park’s house, his life seems to be with some plans, but eventually his plan ends in vain. The ending of the movie shows with a huge plan of Ki-woo. However, it’s just a plan of the lower class which could not come true..

#Up and Down

From the beginning to the ending, the movie is a metaphor for the upper and lower classes.

Director Bong is good at making this comparison. In his previous film ‘Snowpiercer’ he covered the gap between the rich and the poor on the train. Also, In the other film ‘Okja’, there was a proper comparison between the warmth of the mountain girl and the coldness of the city. Anyway, the movie ‘Parasite’ shows the rich at the top and the poor on the bottom.

The rich’s house, which is on the hill and even goes up the stairs in the house, and the poor’s basement where they can see the outside when look up through the window from underground.

Mr.Park who has fled to a hilltop house to escape from the heavy rain, and Ki-taek who need to go into the down stairs where the heavy rain stays.

And another group of low-class people hiding underground.

#The Meaning of the title ‘Parasite’

When I first heard about the parasite, I thought it would be a bizarre or a mystery movie about worms. But, in fact, the movie title means people who live like parasite. In the movie, Kim’s family go into Park’s house one by one, and live their lives parasitic. At the beginning of the movie, it shows an insect called camel cricket, which hairworms live in it as a parasite. Discovering a camel cricket shows a meaning of the title ‘parasite’.

#Smell

Smell is often mentioned in the movie. The smell can be seen as the perspective to the lower class. Mr. Park says the the driver Ki-taek smells like a dried radish. And Da-song says that Kim’s family smells the same.

At this point, the movie wants to say that people judge the others by their smell; class. At the latter part of the movie, Mrs. Park(Yeon-kyo) pinched her nose when she smelled Ki-taek who wore vintage clothes because of the flood. It’s an ironic scene while Yeon-kyo lifting her legs up in the car and heading it to Ki-taek’s head, but also pinching her nose. Moreover, when Mr. park talks about Ki-taek that he’s all good, but he doesn’t smell good, it makes Ki-taek feel very bad.

Eventually, the movie evaluates people by their smell and rank them by the smell – The smell of the rich, the smell of the poor.

At the end of the movie, Gi-taek realized that himself is judged by the smell.

When a husband of a housekeeper is dead, Mr. Park just pinched his nose at him and only cared about his son, even though he saw Ki-jeong is dying. At this point, Ki-taek clearly recognized what ‘smell’ represents, and ran to Mr. Park with a knife.

#Indian

Park’s son, Da-song played the role of an Indian since he started to play the Cup Scout. In this movie, the meaning of the Indian is a metaphorical representation of the family Park who were taken away things from their land, and Kim’s family can be seen as the Europeans who drove the Indians away. Also, Da-song’s Indian tent is another symbol that contrast the rich and the poor, whereas Da-song’s Indian tent is rain-proof and Kim’s house is swept away by rain.

Bong, a director of Parasite, before said that he wants to make people think hundreds of things. After watched this movie, I had thousands of thoughts in my head, and Bong’s wish seemed to be come true to many people, including me.

My review is not an answer for the movie. If you have another opinion, pleas freely share your nice ideas and comment it. Thanks for reading my posting 🙂

CREDITS

BONG Joon Ho – Director

BONG Joon Ho – Script / Dialogue

Jin-Won HAN – Script / Dialogue

HONG Kyung Pyo – Cinematography

Ha-Jun LEE – Set decorator

Se-Yeon CHOI – Costumes designer

Jae-Il JUNG – Music

Yang JINMO – Film Editor

Tae Young CHOI – Sound

 

CASTING

Song KANG-HO – Ki-taek

Sun Kyun LEE – MR PARK

Yeo Jeong CHO – YEON-KYO

Woo Shik CHOI – KI-WOO

So-Dam PARK – KI-JUNG

Jung-Eun LEE – MOON-GWANG

Hyae Jin CHANG – CHUNG-SOOK 

Jung ZISO – DA-HYE

Hyeon-Jun JUNG – DA-SONG

PARASITE, 2019