Parasite (Bong-Joon Ho, 2019)

“Parasite” (2019) is the latest offering from Korean auteur Bong-Joon Ho, which is a bizarre black comedy about a family that lives in poverty, but when the son finds an opportunity for their family to make lots of income, many strange, intense and hilarious things start to occur. This is only the second film I have seen from Bong-Joon Ho, with the other being his Netflix project “Okja”, which was one of two movies distributed by Netflix to cause controversy at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. After that, Bong-Joon Ho returned to Cannes this year with this explosive movie, which ended up being the winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or. This film follows the theme of poverty rather well, in how it decides to show how many families live in bad areas, and how many people will do anything in order to get money to support themselves and their families. This theme is seen in many movies made in Asia, which I found to be very interesting, along with the patriarchal system that is so interesting done by the director. This film is very intricately designed, which is done in a way similar to some other Korean films such as “The Handmaiden” (2016) directed by Park-Chan Wook, and this film does this all in a way which shows who’s rich, and who isn’t. You get perfect sets in the people higher up in this hierarchy, and dull sets for the people lower down. It uses its mise-en-scene very well in the movie, and it made for an interesting perspective to gain on this movie itself. Whilst the film has been marketed as a thriller, it really is more of a very dark comedy that goes into thriller territory. The comedy is used in a way that represents the way the characters live, or just as an element purely for jokes. In a way, the comedy that is used in this movie is rather foundational to this movie, and as weird as that seems for a Palme d’Or winner, it really does help to determine things in the hierarchical system which is followed in this film. Comedy used when something we take for granted is so special for the people living in poverty, such as a scene which is in the trailer, in which the father says something along the lines of “Cheers to the glorious WiFi!”, which their family finds very special to have due to not being able to afford it, and having to find free WiFi signals around their home. Of course the scene is funny, but it shows how this family really doesn’t take things like that for granted, which most people in society do. It really is rather interesting to see this perspective be taken on by such a well respected director, and to add comedy to something rather tragic, yet do it so tastefully. It is quite a feat, even if overlooked by many. The film even has a sex scene, which adds lots of humor too, despite it being another hierarchal system which the two families are different to. An element in the sex scene would serve as a spoiler if I explained it, even though it is very hilarious and revealing of the two families. In conclusion, this movie is very well done, and whilst movies are considered to be with flaws no matter how good, this movie does a great job at sweeping them under the sofa for no one to notice.

5/5

Parasite is now playing in NZ cinemas