♥♥♥♥♥♥
+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Crime Drama of the Year + Best Dollar Return of the Year: 22.68 Times the Cost + Best Mega-Hit Movie of the Year + Best Societal Critique of the Year + Best South Korean Movie of the Year
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| A mysterious, identity-hiding poster for Bong Joon Ho's Parasite indicates something deeply amiss in the global village |
The son of a poor South-Korean family gets an opportunity to teach English to a daughter in a wealthy family, and he is not one to miss a chance to help out his own family, when once he enters the halls of the rich.
Parasite is written by Jin Won Han (Okja (2017), assistant director) and South-Korean master co-writer/director Bong Joon Ho (Barking Dogs Never Bite/Flandersui gae (2000)).
Ho dishes out an original story that is modern while being archetypical at the same time, delving into the unsavory traits of both the poor and the rich in a harsh economic environment that leaves an entire family to punch pizza boxes together in their home for food. It in no way idealizes either class, but rather probes how the stark inequality leads to dehumanizing and agonizing behavior and divides between the two, which is always much more pregnant among the poor, - probably only because they are the ones trying to claw their way out of a dump.
Parasite is groundbreaking for its cultural infiltration as a wholly South-Korean film, as it speaks to people all over the globe and will become a touchstone for conversations - also outside of cinema - likely for decades to come. This is due to the big ideas present in it and the poignancy with which it deals with them: The title evokes a brilliant duality, as the story's parasites can be viewed as both the poor, amoral family or the filthy rich, who leech on the labor of thousands for reckless personal gain. The script distinguishes itself also by its strong portrayal of how poverty inevitably degrades and stigmatizes the individual, (SPOILER the sexual scene dealing with the daughter's underwear and the returning point about the stink of the poor work to this end.) These and other scenes show a real understanding of the unenviable situation of poor people.
The script is also inventive, original and brilliant, building up to developments that seem logical story-wise but are nevertheless outrageous and create frantic gushes of suspense, fun and excitement that only the rarest of films succeed in culling forth. The score by Jaeil Jung (Okja (2017)) is simple but great and amplifies the transgressions of the poor family, which to some extent can be excused by their wish to escape poverty. However, even the most sympathetic to the poor must face this family descend into wicked crime as a means to an end; and it is a separate point of Parasite that extreme inequality inspires cruel crimes. SPOILER Another heartbreaking highlight of the dynamite script has the father of the poor family advising his son that "You can't go wrong with no plans." - The ultimate opportunist but also defeatist credo passed from father to son.
The cast is uniformly great: Kang-ho Song (Howling/Ha-wool-ling (2012)) as the poor father; Hye-jin Jang (Mothers/Dangshinui Bootak (2017)) as his ruthless wife; Woo-sik Choi (Monstrum/Mulgoe (2018)) as their son, the initial entry into the rich family's life; Yeo-jeong Jo (Babysitter/Beibishiteo (2016, miniseries)) as the anxious mother of the house; Jeong-eun Lee (Another Child/Miseongnyeon (2019)) as the original housekeeper, and Myeong-hoon Park (Steel FLower/Seutil peullawo (2015)), memorable as her ill-fated husband.
Parasite is a powerful portrait of a modern society at odds with itself; which wants to seem sustainable but isn't. Unjust and unhealthy, its sickness permeates the earth we inhabit as illustrated in one of the film's best sequences, SPOILER as the poor peoples' neighborhood gets flooded by an extreme rain shower. Perhaps the best image of Parasite is that of the young woman of that family sitting on their toilet, which is just about exploding from blow-back sewage, trying to light a cigarette in the flooded home. This feels very much a terrible and very powerful metaphor for our times and behavior at realizing our destructive impact on mother earth, and the image is a striking, ominous message from a film that is ripe with meanings as well as rich on outstanding work.
Related post:
Bong Joon Ho: The day after ... the 2020 Oscars
2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Cost: Reportedly 11.4 mil. $
Box office: 201.4 mil. $ and counting
= Mega-hit (has returned 17.66 times its cost so far)
[Parasite premiered 21 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, in competition) and runs 132 minutes. Inspirations for the script includes the classic South-Korean film The Housemaid (1960) and the true case of Christine and Léa Papin, two live-in maids that killed their employers in 1930s France. Shooting took place for 124 days from May - September 2018 in South Korea, including Seoul. Both the rich and poor family's homes were built entirely for the film. The film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. It opened #14 to a 393k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, the best per-theater average there since La La Land (2016). It peaked in its so far 19 week release in North America after the Oscars at #7 and has grossed 45.8 mil. $ (22.7 % of the total gross) there to date. In South Korea, the film's biggest market, the film opened to 20.7 mil. $ and grossed 72.9 mil. $ (36.2 %). After North America as 2nd biggest comes Japan with 22.6 mil. $ (11.2 %). The film is also getting released in a black and white version in some markets. As the first Korean film ever, Parasite was Oscar-nominated; in fact for 4 Oscars, winning all 4: Best Picture, - first time ever gone to a non-English language film, - Director, Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film. The film also won 1/3 Golden Globe nominations, 2/4 BAFTA nominations, an AFI award, 5/12 Blue Dragon award (South Korea's leading awards), was nominated for a César award, won a David di Donatello award, an Independent Spirit award, a National Board of Review award and countless other honors. IMDb's users have voted the film in at #21 on the site's Top 250, sitting between Se7en (1995) and City of God (2002). A US-made HBO spin-off series is in the making. Ho's next project is not announced yet. Song returned in The King's Letters (2019); Jo in Beautiful World/Areumdaun Sesang (2019, TV-series) and Woman of 9.9 Billion (2019-00); and Choi in The Divine Fury/Saja (2019). Parasite is certified fresh at 99 % with a 9.37/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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