Title: Parasite
Directed by: Bong Joon Ho
Rating: 4.5/5.0
“๐๐-๐ฌ๐ค๐ค, ๐ฎ๐ค๐ช ๐ ๐ฃ๐ค๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ค๐ ๐ฅ๐ก๐๐ฃ ๐ฃ๐๐ซ๐๐ง ๐๐๐๐ก๐จ? ๐๐ค ๐ฅ๐ก๐๐ฃ ๐๐ฉ ๐๐ก๐ก.”
“๐๐ ๐ฌ๐ ๐ข๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ก๐๐ฃ, ๐ก๐๐๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ซ๐๐ง ๐ฌ๐ค๐ง๐ ๐จ ๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ฌ๐๐ฎ.”
We watched again another Bong Joon Ho masterpiece. This director is well-know for his films Snowpiercer, Okja, and The Host. If you haven’t seen those film yet, I highly encourage you to do so. If I’m gonna describe Bong’s works then it’s satirical at best. From Okja which was some super breed of satire for consumerist and business culture against bucolic agriculture to this new entry Parasite that targets classicism and puts spotlight on the culture of divide.
๐๐จ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐๐ง๐๐ข ๐ ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ฐ๐ซ๐จ๐ง๐ !
Parasite revolves around two families from two different classes: the Kims who leeches off their neighbor one bar wifi and only had one decent mediocre job of folding pizza boxes and the Parks, an elite family and non-suspecting about what is happening around the house they bought and the people they employed. The fun (ha!) started when Min (cameo played by Park Seojun) recommended Ki-woo (Kims) to tutor the student he was tutoring in an affluent family since he is going to study abroad. Enlisting her sisters help (Park Sodam), they forge his credentials and landed the job. This sparked the ‘stages’ the Kims orchestrated for the Parks to employ all of them, mother, father, and his sister. Conflict arises when the old housekeeper came back to ‘fetch something she left’ resulting to the Kims secret to be discovered.
In all honesty, I thought this film was a horror suspense kinda film that’s why I keep on putting it off for the meantime. The whole ambiance of the film suggests an underlying ominous vibe: scary but exciting. Even the poster kinda gives off this Human Centipede vibe (err…I still cringe). Bong’s works are kinda bizarre in its nature but I always enjoyed the depth of the satires more that I thought I would. This film is uncensored, filled with dark humor at best.
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐๐ข๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฅ๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐๐ฌ
Despite the tight shots of the difference of the Kim’s basement to the Park’s cutting-edge lifestyle, there’s a parallel in the form of their pursue for a better life: one thrives to grab opportunities for her family from being less than perfect to the point of being a pushover and the other one thrives to alleviate their sewage household situation to the point of conning the people that gave them the opportunity to do so. And this is no surprise to us anymore. The decline of humanity. The question is which family do you sympathize the most? And with what reason?
It stimulate the mindset of the rise of the repressed and brought the spotlight to the depression and desperation from utter poverty. It makes you feel the respite of having at least a good standing in life. Because you can see that the Ki-woo and Ki-jung have the abilities — smart, inventive and creative — but unfortunately don’t have the resources and better opportunities. There is also the strong depiction of prejudice to the poor from Mr. Park’s comment on Mr. Kim’s smell.
Bong created a world to cheer for the underdogs but as Mr. Kim said, “๐ก๐๐๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ซ๐๐ง ๐ฌ๐ค๐ง๐ ๐จ ๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ฌ๐๐ฎ.”
ART BY MAKADE 