"Parasite" (2019)

Bong Jung Ho’s career is one filled of stories with a message. The stories are creative, interesting and unpredictable. This helps the message to feel less obvious and preachy. But rest assured, the message is there, it is not always subtle, and it often tips over into sermon territory. And the message is rather singular: there is inherent danger in the hyper capitalistic system that has developed in the west. The vast divide between the haves and the have-nots is hurting everyone. “Parasite” is no different, even though it is arguably his best effort yet.

In “Parasite,” the story centers around two families. At the highest point of the city, in a masterpiece of modern architecture, live the Parks. They are a rich family with no worries. The Kims, meanwhile, live in the lowest depths of the city in a half-basement. The Kims are poor and manage to con their way into the employ of the Parks, in a comedic, entertaining fashion.

The obvious metaphor of the title suggests that the Kim family are leeching off the Parks, but over the course of the story we see that things are never so simple. Arguments could be made that the rich live off the efforts and on the backs of the poor. A revelation midway through the film makes this interconnectedness even more apparent.

After the big reveal, there is a scene that occurs in a torrential downpour. As the poor Kims make their way home from the Park house, they literally descend through the city, and the rains become a devastating flood. They arrive to a home flooded and destroyed. The message at this point has become anything but subtle.

The final act of the film brings even more jaw-dropping shocks. It has to be seen to be believed, and even then, it teeters on the edge of any suspension of disbelief. But the coda of the film is, for this viewer, a bridge too far. At the risk of spoiling things, it is not the heartbreaking hopelessness of the Kim son’s situation that doesn’t work, but rather the way that he discovers his father’s predicament that just doesn’t work.

In the end, things carry on in much the same way as they began, only everyone is even worse off. It is not a hopeful story. It is a dire warning.



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