"Parasite" Film Review by Evan Li

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Rarely has it that a foreign language film has made it to the forefront of the Oscars, but the most notable is clearly Parasite, a film that won four Academy Awards, making it the first foreign language film to win the award for Best Picture. Parasite is a 2019 South Korean film directed by Bong Joon-ho, a prestigious film director that has created prolific distinguished foreign language films like Parasite, such as Snowpiercer, The Host, and Okja.

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Parasite begins introducing the Kim family - Ki-taek, the father; Chung-sook, the mother; Ki-jung, the daughter; and Ki-woo, the son. They live in a basement apartment and work as pizza box folders to try to make ends meet. As a result, they live a very impoverished lifestyle. This all changes when they discover an opportunity to gain wealth and get out of their current living situation by taking advantage of the Park family, who live in a beautifully furnished house, and live a wealthy and haughty lifestyle, essentially the opposite of the Kim’s. The Park family consists of Dong-ik, the father; Yeon-gyo, the mother; Da-hye, the daughter; and Da-song, the son. Ki-woo is given the opportunity to tutor Da-hye, and manipulates the Park family into hiring his other family members into their family by lying about knowing connections and introducing his family members to the Park family in a way that does not evoke suspicion from the Park family. As a result, Ki-jung is instated as an art therapist for Da-song. The remaining jobs of Chung-sook being appointed housekeeper and Ki-taek being appointed chauffeur are obtained very much illegally by framing the original people of the jobs with fraudulent crimes harsh enough to be fired by the Park family.

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All in all, I think that every actor and actress did a phenomenal job at portraying the characters they were playing, but one scene that especially stood out to me is when during the snippet of the film when Ki-jung and Ki-woo struggle to connect to the Wi-Fi of their upstairs neighbor, effectively stealing their reception acting as a parasite, like in the movie name. Another recurring scene where we can see the judgment of Ki-taek’s bodily scent by the Park family can be found over and over again, as it puts Ki-taek in a deep position of resentment and shame, leading him to be ashamed of his scent.

This film is named Parasite because it represents a symbolic parasite of the Kim family “infecting” the Park family, as it would seem in the perspective of today’s society. As the director Joon-ho says, “Because the story is about the poor family infiltrating and creeping into the rich house, it seems very obvious that Parasite refers to the poor family, and I think that's why the marketing team was a little hesitant. But if you look at it the other way, you can say that rich families, they're also parasites in terms of labor. They can't even wash dishes, they can't drive themselves, so they leech off the poor family's labor. So both are parasites.”

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The main issues of Parasite are class conflict, social inequality, and wealth disparity. These are central issues in South Korea and in America likewise, as the income gap between the people living in poverty like the Kim’s and the people flourishing in assets like the Park’s has become too wide of an issue to ignore, causing further erupting issues to mount at the forefront of societal discrimination and injustice alike. All in all, the gorgeous cinematography does the bulk of the storytelling and captures the raw emotion evoked from these characters that are played, and the divides between them show what is happening in the real world, in a way — it symbolizes the depiction of capitalism, and the devastating impacts it has on people in poverty like the Kim family, while benefiting wealthy families like the Park family. It is a story told by people who have lived opposite experiences than the other, and by twisted fate that two families that should have never crossed paths, did. The film shows that when society is encompassed by these issues of class conflict, social inequality, and wealth disparity, if left to simmer, leads to consequences like this, to both parties. This story has been beautifully executed by Bong Joon-ho, as expected.

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This movie just goes to show, foreign language films like Parasite can evoke philosophical thinking from members of society who are able to watch this R-rated film, and this movie serves as a wakeup call to all of us not to create a society in which we live the same way the characters do in Parasite, whether it be the Kim or the Park family. Pretty clever of Joon-ho, to create a metaphorical name for this masterpiece with such a quick-witted double meaning.

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Evan Li is a rising junior at Cleveland High School in Seattle, Washington, and spends his time immersed in and reviewing different types of media, including films, music, and literature. He strongly recommends A24 movies.