Parasite, a South Korean dark comedy thriller directed and written by the innovative Bong Joon-Ho of Snowpiercer and Memories of Murder fame, is a huge massive box office success, hitting record numbers for a Korean film worldwide and is critically acclaimed one as well.
As opposed to what the title suggests, the movie is more of a symbiotic relationship. It highlights the caste differences and is fraught with subtle metaphoric scenes that focus on the extremes of capitalism and sheds some light on how the two are co-existent.
Parasite is about the Kims, a family of four that lives underground in a basement of sorts and are reliant on others for fulfilling their basic needs. Things change for the better when the son, Ki-Woo gets a chance to tutor the daughter of a very rich and gullible family, the Parks. The setting of the Parks house is in stark contrast to the Kims, showing the different strata of the society they both belong to.
Ki-Woo slowly tries to get the current employees of the Parks fired and projects his family in such a way to fill in those vacancies and create an amicable relationship. This eventually leads to volatile complications and the story heats up.
Parasite sets up metaphors which are beautifully brought in later over the duration of the film. This film also succeeds in keeping you on the edge of your seat until the very last second. Every line of dialogue hits home, leaving you awestruck and making you laud Bong Joon-Ho for such a compelling and carefully dictated screenplay.
Parasite cannot be classified as belonging to a specific genre as this film takes a nice hard look at society and the system set in place where the poverty-stricken families are badly attacked while the elites keep scaling greater heights. It makes you question this system and you would probably struggle to find out the real antagonist. Is it the Kim family for leeching off the Parks unethically? Or is it the Parks who treat their employees with an elitist mind set as that is the root cause for so many evil deeds. This film makes you question it all and leaves it up to you to find the answer.
Parasite was selected for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards and went on to win four Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, International Feature Film and Original Screenplay. It was the first film that is alien to Hollywood to win the award for Best Picture in the history of Oscar awards. Bong Joon-ho won in all the three categories that he was nominated for. So do not miss this masterpiece of a film that many do call the Film of The Decade!
