Bong Joon-ho films have always been hit-or-miss with me. Even in the films of his that I've liked, including "Mother" and "Memories of Murder," there's an emphasis on grotesquerie that's never sat quite right with me. He's got a certain sensibility and sense of humor that I've never been entirely on the same wavelength with. In "Parasite," however, it felt like everything finally clicked.
The Kim family is comprised of father Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho), mother Choong Sook (Jang Hye-jin), son Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) and daughter Ki-jeong (Park So-Dam). They live in a dank basement apartment and scrape by on menial jobs. The parents can't seem to find steady work, and their young adult offspring haven't been able to get into the schools they want, despite being smart and talented. In every way, they're disadvantaged and unlucky. Then one day, Ki-woo's friend Min-Hyuk (Park Seo-joon) sets him up with a tutoring job for the wealthy Park family. Mrs. Park (Jo Yeo-jeong) is gullible and anxious, and Ki-woo is able to lie his way into the household, becoming an English tutor for teenage daughter Da-hye (Hyun Seung-min). Mr. Park (Lee Sun-kyun) and young son Da-song (Jung Hyun-joon) are similarly oblivious, as Ki-woo uses his position to help the rest of his family.
"Parasite" is a fable about the haves and the have-nots, and how they interact - or fail to. I think we can classify this as a genre film, because of certain wildly implausible developments, but it's a social allegory in the same realm as recent movies like "mother!" and "Us." "Parasite" is more grounded, though, with characters that are more well-rounded and morally ambiguous. We're clearly meant to sympathize with everyone, despite their faults. The Parks seem insensitive and cold, but they never really do anything wrong, and it's not their fault that they're oblivious of their privilege. What the Kims are doing is clearly terrible, but at the same time the rules of the system are so heavily weighted against them, conning their way to success feels excusable. In the first half of the film, it's easy to root for the Kims as they maneuver their way into better circumstances. And then Bong Joon-ho pulls the rug out from under us, and forces the audience to confront the awful consequences.
I want to avoid spoilers, but the twists and turns of the plotting here are excellent. There's some violence and some very nasty dark secrets that come out, but it's the well-timed farce that really makes the picture. Bong Joon-ho's black humor and penchant for the morbid are out in full force, and it works here because it fits so well with what Bong is doing thematically. A good deal of the film's power comes from just the simple contrast of the Parks' picture perfect family life with the Kims' increasingly dire straits, and the worse and worse measures they have to take to keep up appearances. There's a fantastic use of physical space, with most of the action taking place in the Parks' palatial house, which eventually becomes a giant metaphor for the absurdity and ugliness of the socioeconomic divide.
The performances are great all around. Song Kang-ho is a perfect paternal sad-sack, kindly but nursing deeper hurts. Jo Yeo-jeong does most of the heavy lifting where the satire is concerned, turning Mrs. Park into a perfect caricature of nervous naivete and helicopter parenting. She's insufferable and pitiful by turns, and so much of the movie is dependant on her epic tunnel vision. Choi Woo-shik gives the film its heart as Ki-woo, who really does just want to help his family, and Park So-Dam is coolly admirable as his unflappable sister. I also want to point out Lee Jung-eun as the Parks' grandmotherly housekeeper, who is more than meets the eye. To say more, alas, is spoiler territory.
The last few Bong Joon-ho social allegories, namely the fantastical "Snowpiercer" and "Okja," didn't sit so well with me because the worldbuilding felt slapdash, and the human element was lacking. Here, "Parasite" has similar aims, but with the stronger characters, smaller scale metaphors, and more touching central relationships, it works so much better. There's a specificity to the Kims' woes that hits harder, and a recognizable context to their resentments that really helps them get under the skin. If Bong continues to make films in this vein, I hope he sticks with modern Korean settings and issues. That seems to be where he does his best work.
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