Parasite (2019)

Few films arrive with quite the weight of expectation that Parasite carried by the time it reached international audiences in 2019. Produced by Barunson E&A and written and directed by Bong Joon Ho, the film tells the story of the Kim family, four unemployed adults living in a cramped semi-basement flat, who gradually infiltrate the household of the wealthy Park family, one by one, under false pretences. What begins as a darkly comic caper shifts register more than once over its 133-minute runtime, pulling the audience through comedy, tension, and something approaching horror before the credits roll. It is, in the most straightforward sense, a film about class and the invisible walls money builds, though it never settles for being only that.

Bong Joon Ho had been building to something like this for two decades by the time Parasite arrived. His earlier work, including Memories of Murder, had already demonstrated a rare ability to blend genre with social observation, and Korean cinema as a whole had been producing some of the most formally inventive and emotionally uncompromising films anywhere in the world during the same period, as titles like The Handmaiden had shown. Parasite sits comfortably in that tradition, and its distinction at the 2020 Academy Awards, where it became the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture, brought a global spotlight to Korean cinema that, frankly, it had long deserved. The film's success was more than a commercial moment; it was a reckoning for an industry that had spent years treating subtitles as a barrier rather than a bridge.

The ensemble cast is one of the film's genuine strengths. Song Kang-ho, one of South Korea's most recognisable and versatile screen presences, leads the Kim family as the quietly scheming patriarch Ki-taek, and his performance is the kind that anchors the film's tonal shifts without ever calling attention to itself. Lee Sun-kyun and Cho Yeo-jeong play the Parks with a polished but unremarkable obliviousness that makes the satire land rather than sermonise. Choi Woo-shik and Park So-dam round out the younger generation of the Kim family, and the chemistry between the four family members gives the film its warm, conspiratorial pulse even when things grow darker. Together, they carry a script that asks a great deal of its performers in terms of tone, and they deliver.

2 hours of set-up for a 5 minute nuclear ending. Parasite is quintessential Korean cinema; slow burn storytelling, absurd plot twists, and a finale so frantic it leaves you staring at the credits wondering what the hell just happened. Bong Joon-ho masterfully weaves dark comedy, thriller, and social satire into something uniquely gripping. The way the film shifts tones so quickly, sometimes within the same scene is insane, yet it works flawlessly. The class commentary isn’t subtle, but it doesn’t need to be. The stark contrast between the struggling Kim family and the obliviously privileged Parks is unsettlingly real. It's probably much easier to relate to if you're a Korean person watching this. It’s tense, funny, shocking, and completely unpredictable. You think you know where it's going... until you don’t. By the time it reaches its climax, it’s pure cinematic chaos. One of the best films of the 21st century, no doubt. I marked it down because I feel like it was just TOO much of a slow-burn. This wasn't Oldboy, where the pacing is flawless, this is basically cooking Christmas Dinner for an entire day to eat the meal in 10 minutes.

That pacing question is a real one, and I don't think it's easily dismissed just because the film's reputation is so enormous. For me, the slow accumulation of detail in the first half is doing genuine work, building the architecture that the finale tears apart so violently, but there is a stretch somewhere in the middle where the film asks for more patience than it always earns. I've felt similarly watching other thrillers that lean on slow burn as a kind of structural virtue in itself, and sometimes it is, and sometimes it is simply slow. The ending, when it comes, is extraordinary in a way that not many films manage, which makes the contrast with that long middle section all the more pointed. It is, in the end, a film I admire more than I purely love, which is its own kind of complicated relationship to have with something this well made. Worth every minute, but bring a cushion for the wait.

Rating: ★★★★  | Year: 2019  | Watched: 2023-11-16

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Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for Parasite (2019) on YouTube

Where to watch

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