“Parasite” Balances Pure Entertainment and Insightful Commentary

Parasite is one of the weirdest, most insightful, entertaining and thrilling movies of the year. We’re introduced to the Kim family, living in their below-ground home, clamoring for bootleg wifi from the cafe above them; they find they can only get it in the corner of their bathroom sitting on their elevated toilet. A recurring “bit” is the drunk man who always pees outside the window they have where they can see onto the street-level, which eventually leads to a water vs. pee battle between the drunk man, Ki-woo and Mr. Kim. The Kims are a family of four: Mr. Kim, Mrs. Kim, their son Ki-Woo (english name Kevin), and their daughter Ki-jung (english name Jennifer). The family is crass, manipulative, vulgar, and crafty. Kickstarting the movie’s events, Ki-woo’s best friend comes over to tell him that he’s going abroad and would like Ki-woo to take his place as an English tutor for a wealthy family he’s been working for recently. He tells Ki-woo he came to him specifically, instead of one of his “university friends” because he knew he could trust him not to hit on the girl he’s been tutoring because he’s grown to genuinely like her – he plans on asking her out properly once she gets to university. This of course sets the audience up to believe that Ki-woo is an upstanding friend, making it even more hilarious as his true character is teased out throughout the rest of the movie. Once Ki-woo’s friend gives the Kim family a “prosperity rock” and departs, we’re on the rollercoaster journey of the Kim’s as they try and achieve that prosperity.

Ki-woo had been told that Mrs. Park was a “simple” woman and upon arriving at the Park’s residence, a grand house in the middle of the densely packed city of Seoul, he begins his plan to insert his own family into the Park’s. Conveniently, each of the Park’s required assistance of sorts – the daughter needed an English tutor, the son needed an art therapist, the father a driver and the mother a housekeeper. Of course, two of those four positions were already filled by good workers, but that wasn’t going to stop the Kims. The next hour is a hysterical, wonderful comedy of errors as the Kim’s lie and manipulate their way into the Park household. Once the dust had settled and the Kim’s had successfully ousted the current Park staff, all seemed well for a little while. This is a spoiler-free article but let’s just say when the old housekeeper comes knocking at the door, you very much get the feeling of “DON’T GO INTO THE BASEMENT IT’S NOT SAFE” and no doubt that is certainly the feeling the director wanted to evoke. It’s an incredible moment where the movie shifts from comedy to thriller. 

The last hour of this movie is so unique because part the horror isn’t just violence, but social commentary. There are two extremely potent (pun intended) moments for me where the class disparity becomes most clear. First, is the theme of smell throughout the movie. The Park family constantly complains about the Kims’ smell, specifically, Mr. Park complaining about Mr. Kim smelling “like subway” in the car. At the climax of the movie, even during the traumatizing moments occurring in front of everyone’s eyes, Mr. Park still is horrified by the ripe smell of the Kims, forcing Mr. Kim to snap. It seemed absurd that while watching such a chaotic moment, Mr. Park would still find time to be disgusted by the poor. It demonstrates such a lack of understanding and empathy. This theme is emphasized further after the city experiences a massive storm – the Kim’s basement home is completely flooded to the point where the only thing above water is their above ground toilet that is literally spouting shit.

The genius director, Bong Joon-ho, takes this opportunity to add in another moment of levity – we see Ki-jung sitting on the exploding toilet, just smoking a cigarette. She looks so ridiculous because it’s such a sad scene but also oddly funny. Anyways, after the night from hell, the Kim’s are displaced from their home like hundreds of other poor Koreans and must sleep in a gym for the night. We hear Ki-woo and Mr. Kim have a heart-to-heart where Ki-woo is essentially looking to his Dad in hopes for a concrete plan that will get them through these hard times. Mr. Kim responds that he doesn’t see the point in making plans because nothing in life ever goes according to plan. A pessimistic view on life that I assume one would feel after losing both your hope and home. After such a dark night, the Kim’s are forced to return to the Park’s for the son Da-hong’s birthday party. The Parks make a comment to their other rich guests about how the rain was great and gave Da-hong a fun excuse to camp outside. I think that the look on Mr. Kim’s face when Mrs. Park says that encapsulated the whole story. His horror at her complete lack of vision beyond herself is the true center of the movie. I feel like it helps show how cut off from reality the Parks are – that even in a time of hardship, they can still be so blind to those around them. The Kims, like hundreds of others, were displaced from their homes and were put through hell due to the rain, yet to the Park’s it was just a fun excuse for Da-hong to have a fun night outside. It was such a clear example of the inability to understand the other’s perspective. 

At the end, my companions and I had a few lingering questions that took some time to piece together and answer. Why did they make the Parks so gullible and “simple”? What was up with the Boy Scouts theme? What’s the bigger meaning behind Mr. Kim’s No Plans speech? Do we think Ki-woo will be able to transcend his father’s pessimistic outlook on life? What does it say that Ki-woo had the foresight to try and make plans for his future? Does that mean Bong wants us to know that Mr. Kim’s way of thinking is wrong? We eventually came to the conclusion that the Parks were made to be kind of stupid, despite Mr. Park obviously being a very smart man, because their privilege makes them blind to others. Everything has worked out pretty well for the Parks in their life so far: they live in a great, beautiful house and have a family that they love and appreciate. So why would they think that people are out to get them or actively working to manipulate them? Regarding the Scouts theme, someone I went with realized that the Boy Scout motto is “Be Prepared” which is in direct opposition with Mr. Kim’s “no plans” speech. The only one who actually knew the truth was Da-hong, but his fear kept him from saying anything. At the end of the movie, we learn that both Ki-woo and Mr. Kim are forced to abandon the no plans way of life to learn the skills the Boy Scouts represent. The movie ends with Ki-woo fully embracing this “be prepared” mentality and making plans for himself to become successful and save his father, ending on a mix of dark and light notes, which seems apt for the movie. 

I walked out of the theater more excitedly than I had leaving a movie in a while. I exclaimed to the people I was with that I LOVED the movie. At the most basic level, the spectacle was off the charts. On a deeper level, the themes of class war, rage, future plans, and compassion kept me up at night. The movie is (hopefully) a shoo-in for Best International Film at the Oscars – which would be South Korean’s first win ever. In addition, the movie could rack up Best Picture and Best Director nominations at the Academy Awards. The movie already won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the most prestigious award at the festival. I’d be more than happy to see this movie achieve awards success – no movie I’ve seen in a while has been both so entertaining and thought-provoking. I fully plan on going back to watch more of Bong’s work and I look forward to continuing the conversation about this movie and thinking through more of the themes as we head towards Oscar’s season.