Bong Joon-Ho’s “Parasite” moves like a rollercoaster. That is the best way to describe how its tension builds and crests, before releasing in an exhilarating back-half that had me on the edge–if not falling out–of my seat. Fair warning: like any intense, good ride, it’ll leave you a bit winded. But even after you depart the park, you’ll notice “Parasite” lingering, having attached itself to your mind like the creatures it’s named after. In the two weeks since my screening, I haven’t been able to get this movie out of my head.
A rollercoaster is an apt image, considering “Parasite’s” fascination with elevation. There are those that live below: they are the Kim family. Their patriarch is the gentle, if lost Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho), there’s his wife Chung Sook (Jang Hye-jin), and their two kids Ki-woo and Ki-jung (Choi Woo-shik and Park So-dam). They live in a cramped semi-basement, folding pizza boxes for petty cash and scrounging for free WiFi from a nearby café by pressing their phones to the top corner of their tiny bathroom. There do not seem to be any bootstraps for the Kims to pull themselves up by.
Then there are those that live above: they are the Park family, and their tidy mansion sits at the very top of the socioeconomic hill. Their patriarch is the condescending Mr. Park, there’s his wife, the seemingly oblivious Mrs. Park, and their two kids, Da-hye and Da-song. But the rich can’t make do on their own, of course. And so we meet the family’s hired help: their hovering housekeeper, their driver, and their daughter’s English tutor.
The latter provides the link between the families: Min, the tutor, is leaving Seoul to study at an American university for the semester. He’s old friends with the Kim’s eldest, and a few forged documents later, Ki-woo finds himself walking uphill towards the Park house. “Fake it till you make it” is good advice for anyone entering a possibly hostile environment, and Ki-woo excels, posing as an Oxford-educated educator. But it isn’t long before he realizes the potential the household holds–soon, all sorts of positions are opening up in the Park domestic network, positions that are quickly filled by members of the Kim family.
It’s at this point that my summary must come to a full stop–“Parasite” will be a near-flawless movie regardless, but the less you know the better. Still, it’s not a spoiler to say that watching the Kim family con the Parks is a ton of fun. Fun “Parasite” earns—there are plenty of rip-roaring heist movies, and plenty of thoughtful, allegorical exposés on class, but as the fun fades and the tension builds, you realize this is a rare picture that’s as entertaining as it is provocative.
We got something else along these lines last March, when Jordan Peele’s “Us” burst into theaters, taking no prisoners. “Parasite,” meanwhile, emerges as a tighter, more intricate expression of a lot of these same ideas, just as angry and eventually, just as apocalyptic. This isn’t a put-down of Peele—“Us” was great. This is something even better.
This shouldn’t come as an enormous shock. After all, Bong Joon-Ho is a more experienced filmmaker who’s been helming feature films for the past two decades, and he’s already taken a stab at visualizing the gap between rich and poor in the propulsive “Snowpiercer.” But part of what makes “Parasite” such a triumph is that you can feel Bong iterating and building on his prior work, finally truly firing on all cylinders.
Collaborating again with co-writer Han Jin-won and cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo–who shot last year’s stunning “Burning”–every beat is staged with meticulous precision. There are moments that are downright Hitchcockian, as Bong’s frames never fail to foreshadow each expert twist and turn. You won’t predict where this thing is going. Bong’s also working again with actor Song Kang-ho, who delivers just one of the many superb performances “Parasite” boasts. There simply isn’t a weak link on either side of the camera.
American audiences are notoriously stingy when it comes to turning out for foreign films. What’s with our collective aversion to subtitles? It’s nonsensical. Still, I can’t help but hope, nay, trust, that this film will prove an exception. A word of warning: if you do decide to leave your comfort zone for “Parasite”–and you really should–just don’t forget to breathe on the way down.
