Parasite (2019): review

Firstly, why did I choose to watch this film? One obvious reason was the film's sweeping victory in the 2020 Academy awards winning awards for best picture, best director, best screenplay, and best international feature film! This should be a sufficient reason to make it a must-watch! But, the other compelling reason is the increasing popularity of K-drama & K-pop these days across the world, particularly in India. So I was curious to know what's attracting the global audience so much to Korean films.

Now, coming to the film Parasite, it was directed by Bong Joon Ho, who also directed many high-grossing Korean films including The Host & Barking dogs never bite. While watching the film Parasite, I couldn't resist from acknowledging every few minutes the sheer brilliance of Bong Joon Ho in making me feel more than one powerful emotion simultaneously - humor, sorrow, and anxiousness. When I read the Wikipedia page of Bong Joon Ho, I realized this is precisely what he is famous for - for mixing up the genres!

I remember watching one of S.S Rajamouli's (India's James Cameron, if you say so!) interviews long back where he discusses some fundamental principles of filmmaking. He says it's a bad idea to mix up two emotions because the audience will remain confused and can't connect with any emotion powerfully. He says this in the context of One nenokkadine's interval sequence. But after watching Parasite, I am convinced that it's not true. If the director handles it well, a screenplay that rides on multiple emotions simultaneously can make a gripping narrative.

Let's come to the plot now. The story is about the Kims family, who are four - father (Ki Taek), mother (Chung Sook), young son (Ki Woo), and young daughter (Ki Jung). They are poor and live in a semi-basement apartment in the busy Seoul city. They do frugal jobs like recovering pizza packages to make ends meet. One day Ki Woo's friend, Min, who's about to leave for a university, asks Ki Woo to act as a replacement for him to tutor the wealthy daughter of Mr. Park, Da Hye, until he returns back. Ki Woo visits Parks' home and gets astonished looking at their luxurious lifestyle. He intelligently gets his sister employed as arts teacher to Da Hye's younger brother Da Song. The duo devises innovative plans to successfully get their dad and mom too to serve in the Parks' house as driver and maid respectively. 

The story takes a turn when one day the expelled ex-maid (Moon Gwang) comes to Parks home in the night when Parks were away on an outing and asks the serving maid (Chung Sook) to let her in on the pretext that she forget something in the kitchen. Soon we'll see that she has been secretly hiding her husband in the basement of the house for years, to keep him away from loan collectors. To know what happens next, one must watch the film! 

One of the main pillars of the film is the background music (bgm). It makes the already gripping narrative even more thrilling. At times, bgm is punchy and greatly elevates the scenes. For example, the violin background in the sequence of scenes where the Kims try to cause allergy to the maid to portray her as a TB patient to Mrs. Park is noteworthy! 

The soul of the film, in my view, is the story and the screenplay. All throughout the film, the story remains unpredictable. At times, we tend to feel like knowing what's going to happen next, but all of a sudden a surprise is thrown at us. Such an interesting story can be narrated in an interesting manner only with an effective screenplay. The screenplay of the film is logical and makes the film fast-paced without unnecessary lags.

The beauty of the film is the many layers in the story. The story intricately weaves a father's responsibility towards his family (Kims), a mother's worry about her child (Parks), and a wife's (Moon Gwang) concern for her husband. The overarching theme that permeates the whole movie, however, is that of the class divide. It makes us wonder how different are the lives of the poor and rich! The storm that rendered poor Kims homeless was a 'pleasant rain' for rich Parks to have a garden party the next morning! The movie makes us think whether the poor can ever 'cross the line' and become rich! The director, using the 'subway smell' analogy makes his point that every individual, regardless of their income, has dignity & self-respect, and being wealthy is not a license to look down on the impoverished as third-grade humans.

Concluding thoughts: After watching the film, one is left with more questions than answers, the most important of which is - who's the parasite in the end?? Is it the Kims family, who've come to feed on the rich Parks? or Parks, who survive with help of the labor of poor like Kims? or the husband of the poor maid (Moon Gwang) living in the basement? 

But perhaps, it is the mark of great movies to leave some questions unanswered allowing for multiple interpretations by the audience!