PARASITE
****
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Screenwriters: Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won.
Principal cast:
Song Kang Ho
Lee Sun Kyun
Cho Yeo Jeong
Choi Woo Shik
Jang Hye Jin
Park So Dam
Country: South Korea
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 132 mins.
Australian release date: 27 June 2019
Previewed: In season at the Chauvel Cinema, Sydney.
One thing you can be sure of when choosing to see a Bong Joon Ho film, you’re in for a highly original story that you’re unlikely to have seen before. That said, his latest movie, Parasite, does initially seem to share some similarities to the recent Japanese film, Shoplifters, before diverging widely, and wildly, from that narrative and you know you’re solidly back in Bong’s strange universe. Since The Host in 2006, most of his films have been exhibited in Australia and we’ve been able to see Mother, Snowpiercer and Okja since then. All have been unique and, if there’s a link between them, it would appear to be the importance of family and, to some degree, matters relating to social hierarchy and class.
In Parasite, which won both the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or and the $60,000 Sydney Film Prize this year, we are once again immersed in the family or, in this case, two families, the Kims and the Parks. Both are classic nuclear set-ups, with two parents and two children, a boy and a girl, but that’s where the similarities end; the Parks are uber-wealthy and live in a palatial, architect-designed mansion in the suburbs, while the Kims share a tiny, almost subterranean apartment in an impoverished part of the city. When the college-age son of the Kims, Ki-woo aka ‘Kevin’ (Choi Woo Shik), gets a job tutoring the Parks’ teenage daughter, Hye (Jung Ji So), he quickly realises he’s onto a good thing and Mrs. Park (Cho Yeo Jeong) is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Taking advantage of the situation, he plots to get his sister, ‘Jessica’ (Park So Dam), employed as art teacher/therapist to Song (Jung Hyun Joon), the Parks’ hyper-active young son. From there, it’s not too long before the entire Kim family has inveigled itself into the Park household, like a parasite invading its host, and they seem to have made it to easy street. As Mrs. Kim (Jang Hye Jin) says, “Money is an iron. All the creases get ironed out.” They’re laughing, until the Parks’ previous housekeeper turns up one rainy night saying she left something behind in the basement of the house, and suddenly they’re not laughing any more.
Bong’s script, co-written with Han Jin Won, borders on the slapstick at times before it takes a distinctly dark turn, and it messes with your emotions. The Kims are likeable ratbags, rather than truly evil, and yet you can’t help sympathising with the Parks, whose naivete is no match for the devious machinations of their scheming employees. Once again, the scenario also examines issues of class and there’s a very funny running gag about the smell of the proletariat that develops into a crucial plot point. The performances from the ensemble cast are uniformly splendid and it’s difficult to single out any particular member for an accolade; all are excellent. The wide-screen format suits the settings, particularly in the juxtaposition of the two families’ home environments, and the film is crisply shot, beautifully framed and skilfully lit. It looks a treat.
Parasite, as the name suggests, gets under your skin. You can guarantee that you won’t see another film like it this year.
Screenwriters: Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won.
Principal cast:
Song Kang Ho
Lee Sun Kyun
Cho Yeo Jeong
Choi Woo Shik
Jang Hye Jin
Park So Dam
Country: South Korea
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 132 mins.
Australian release date: 27 June 2019
Previewed: In season at the Chauvel Cinema, Sydney.
One thing you can be sure of when choosing to see a Bong Joon Ho film, you’re in for a highly original story that you’re unlikely to have seen before. That said, his latest movie, Parasite, does initially seem to share some similarities to the recent Japanese film, Shoplifters, before diverging widely, and wildly, from that narrative and you know you’re solidly back in Bong’s strange universe. Since The Host in 2006, most of his films have been exhibited in Australia and we’ve been able to see Mother, Snowpiercer and Okja since then. All have been unique and, if there’s a link between them, it would appear to be the importance of family and, to some degree, matters relating to social hierarchy and class.
In Parasite, which won both the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or and the $60,000 Sydney Film Prize this year, we are once again immersed in the family or, in this case, two families, the Kims and the Parks. Both are classic nuclear set-ups, with two parents and two children, a boy and a girl, but that’s where the similarities end; the Parks are uber-wealthy and live in a palatial, architect-designed mansion in the suburbs, while the Kims share a tiny, almost subterranean apartment in an impoverished part of the city. When the college-age son of the Kims, Ki-woo aka ‘Kevin’ (Choi Woo Shik), gets a job tutoring the Parks’ teenage daughter, Hye (Jung Ji So), he quickly realises he’s onto a good thing and Mrs. Park (Cho Yeo Jeong) is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Taking advantage of the situation, he plots to get his sister, ‘Jessica’ (Park So Dam), employed as art teacher/therapist to Song (Jung Hyun Joon), the Parks’ hyper-active young son. From there, it’s not too long before the entire Kim family has inveigled itself into the Park household, like a parasite invading its host, and they seem to have made it to easy street. As Mrs. Kim (Jang Hye Jin) says, “Money is an iron. All the creases get ironed out.” They’re laughing, until the Parks’ previous housekeeper turns up one rainy night saying she left something behind in the basement of the house, and suddenly they’re not laughing any more.
Bong’s script, co-written with Han Jin Won, borders on the slapstick at times before it takes a distinctly dark turn, and it messes with your emotions. The Kims are likeable ratbags, rather than truly evil, and yet you can’t help sympathising with the Parks, whose naivete is no match for the devious machinations of their scheming employees. Once again, the scenario also examines issues of class and there’s a very funny running gag about the smell of the proletariat that develops into a crucial plot point. The performances from the ensemble cast are uniformly splendid and it’s difficult to single out any particular member for an accolade; all are excellent. The wide-screen format suits the settings, particularly in the juxtaposition of the two families’ home environments, and the film is crisply shot, beautifully framed and skilfully lit. It looks a treat.
Parasite, as the name suggests, gets under your skin. You can guarantee that you won’t see another film like it this year.