One of the greatest stories in the movie world in 2019 centered around a Parasite. The South Korean film captured the fancy of the entire globe with its dazzlingly dark, hauntingly hilarious and powerfully poignant story of a family and like Dickens, writer-director Bong Joon-ho has crafted a tale of two cities, this time out it’s Seoul, South Korea.
The film that sat near the top of many top films of 2019 lists has come home on DVD, Blu-Ray and digital download formats and is firmly one to add to the collection, immediately. Each viewing of the modern masterpiece yields something new and fresh—whether it dramatically, stylistically, performance pick-ups that were previously missed or even a joke that a previous viewing was too preoccupied with figuring this richly designed maze of a narrative to appreciate.
The haves and have-nots interact in such a manner that when things start getting “serious,” it is a plot development so out of left field that one could instantly feel as if this gripping flick that has you by the lapels, has taken an entirely different direction and changes milieu mid-film! It’s an audacious move and one that spotlights the filmmaker, who we first discovered with the stunner Snowpiercer, is growing, maturing and evolving as a storyteller—all while possessing incredible amounts of self confidence in his web weaving.
It all starts when Kim Ki-woo (Woo-sik Choi) has a tutoring job basically given to him by his studying abroad pal who cannot do the gig anymore. Ki-woo doesn’t even have a college degree. So, he employs his sister Kim Ki-jung (So-dam Park)—a computer whiz without a computer—to forge some documents that get him in the door and score him the job. He is to tutor a wealthy family’s teenage girl Park Da-hye (Ji-so Jung), but that is merely the tip of the iceberg. Through a few nefarious acts, the entire family is working for the rich folks and have endeared themselves to them in the most highly trusted ways. Dad, Kim Ki-taek (Kang-ho Song) is the family’s driver. Mom, Kim Chung-sook (Hye-jin Jang), is the live-in housekeeper in every sense of the word. Ki-jung even scores a position as an arts tutor for the rich family’s challenged young son.
Once the hustling clan is embedded into this family (the employer family has no idea their new quartet of workers are themselves a family) Parasite feels much like a study in two classes and how they find common ground. That remains the case for merely a matter of moments as the writer-director takes us places never thought possible, and if you think about it—those are the absolute best kind of films. The little you know about Parasite, the better and as a matter of fact, that’s as far as this guy will go with a plot description. Let’s just say that Bong Joon Ho has built a landscape of characters to which we are most vested. Making even more powerfully intense is the actors behind those souls who have our hearts, our minds and every single one of our emotions as we the viewers progress through this maze of moviemaking majesty.
There is a sensational stylistic feel to the entire endeavor. Everything is firmly on purpose, plotted out and choreographed for maximum audience visceral response. The cinematography is brilliantly two-sided as Kyung-pyo Hong has a modus operandi for the wealthy house and neighborhood and the poor family’s squalor living space that is literally overrun with human excrement at one point. How the filmmaker utilized the editing booth only enhanced the message and resonance of his wickedly unique film. Then, there is the poignant score by Jaeil Jung, who adds layers upon layers of sonic sustenance that elevate Bong’s dramatic and comedic moments that string together into a tapestry of catastrophe.
The dramatic power elicited by each and every member of this ensemble is truly something to behold. It is easy to see why it made such sense that the Screen Actors Guild annual awards selected what on the outside may have seemed like an “upset” when Parasite scored its best cast in a motion picture. From the fab four (the Kim family) and their employers (the entire Park clan) to even the Park’s former maid, who gets her moment in the sun, this is one electric ensemble. Each thespian triumphantly took Bong’s skillfully laid out screenplay and injected it with life that the filmmaker could have only hoped for in his wildest dreams. There is no weak link here and each character firmly serves a purpose—such as adding layers to the emotional cull of the overall scope of the film to moving the narrative forward and those much needed and hilariously achieved humorous moments.
Because of that, for me, the news that the film was being made into a series over at HBO with Bong (joined by Adam McKay) made perfect sense. Many in our film criticism community met the announcement with a collective “Why?” For all the reasons mentioned above, I, can see it. There is so much to the Parasite universe that could have been developed further. We could easily get to know the two families whose fate is on a collision course ever further. A screenplay professor once told me that every character we create on the page should be three-dimensional to the point that he or she could have their own film. That was absolutely the case with Bong’s Parasite script, and I look forward to HBO giving us more time to soak in the suspense, drama and societal statements. This is such creatively fertile ground I cannot imagine how much was cut from his Bong’s drafts and outlines. Taking it one step further, how much did he mentally cut before even putting pen to paper?
This is one of those rare films that belongs in your home video collection to watch at your leisure at any point in your future history and it doesn’t matter that there is but one bonus feature. With the Parasite Blu-Ray, there is only one … a Q&A with the writer-director from Fantastic Fest. Honestly, who needs anything else? Given that the auteur’s vision is 100-percent of what we see, hear and experience with Parasite, experiencing this interview fresh after witnessing his work unfold in front of our eyes … is all the extras that we require. I also was overcome with the sentiment after this featurette, that this is firmly a case of an individual with innate gifts that are being used to their fullest.
His insight is so rich, that it this Fantastic Fest interview can easily be heard more than once—another ripe reason to purchase this puppy and make viewing it an annual event. Also, after watching the Bong Q&A, he firmly gets added to a list of helmers whose name alone gets us in the theater opening weekend.
Parasite is the rare Hollywood product that achieved greatness by effortlessly crossing vast cultures, borders and languages and that is precisely because it is NOT a product of Hollywood. As the filmmaker famously said in his Golden Globes speech, “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” Seek them out, you will be blissfully surprised.
Film Grade: A+
Bonus Features: B+