Parasite movie review & analysis (2019)

“The Host” and “Memories of Murder” are two notable films directed by Bong Joon-ho, a well-known South Korean director. Bong Joon’s disregard for genre conventions is one of the characteristics that distinguish him from other Korean filmmakers. In fact, it is impossible to categorize this director’s work into a single genre because the narrative context of the story shifts dramatically throughout the course of the movie, surprising the audience each time. The most recent film by Joon-ho, “Parasite,” bears all the stylistic characteristics of Bong’s directing. The movie became the first Korean film to ever win the Palme d’Or at Cannes when it earned the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The movie is about a severely underprivileged family who lives in a basement. Their lives are changed when the son of this family accepts an offer from a friend while they are unemployed and fighting to make ends meet. This friend asks the family’s son to teach as a language learner so that he may care for the wealthy family’s daughter and teach her English since he loves her and doesn’t want anybody to approach her! After agreeing to his friend’s request, the boy of the family visits that family and discovers that the girl’s mother is incredibly naive. As a result, he comes up with a cunning scheme to get the other family members who are unemployed to work, but…

At first glance, “Parasite” resembles the film “Shoplifters,” which was one of the most popular examples of Japanese cinema in recent years at film festivals. In both of these works, we see a very poor family trying to improve their situation while also maintaining a good standard of living. The “Shoplifters” family was a nice family that had not lost sight of the value of love, and perhaps they would have been in a much better position if they had not been living in such utter destitution.

They enjoy a drink together and bond over a trivial concern, like how to most efficiently connect the children’s Wi-Fi to the Internet. However, there is a distinction between “shoplifters” and “Parasite” in Ho’s direction since we are accustomed to waiting for additional details and not believing what we see in his works, and this also occurs in “Parasite” in the greatest way imaginable.

With the meticulous attention to detail and preoccupation that we have come to expect from him, Bong Joon-ho gradually moves the focus of the narrative from the poorer districts of the lower city to the upper city and the wealthy class, bringing the commoners of the lower city to the center of the family. In contrast to the stereotypical portrayal of the wealthy in movies, they do not come across as evil people. Kim, who has made a name for herself as a teacher, finds the housewife to be very nice, warm, and intimate. The same can be said for the other family members. It appears that “Parasite” does not contain a monster that seeks to devour humanity and destroy individual characters. But the intelligence and mastery of Bong Joon-ho destroy all equations in the continuation of the story and advance the work to the level of a complete tragedy.

About halfway through the story, the audience is presented with a comedy, which essentially revolves around the Kim family’s attempts to employ ingenuity in a scheme to fire the maid and the driver. In this way, with a smart strategy, they successfully carry out their plan and even modify their speaking style so that the wealthy family in the story can take pleasure in and feel secure in their presence. But when the first half of the movie has passed, Bong Joon Ho’s work reaches its peak because that is when the movie’s terrifying underbelly and main problem are established, which is where the runaway husband of the former maid has long since been residing. They are in need and turn to the new maid for assistance, but when they are given a better situation as a result of an incident, the shell of honor crumbles, and the negative effects of living in uneven social situations become apparent.

The former maid’s husband has been seen pointing at the northern neighbor on a few of these occasions. His wife briefly imagines herself in a position of power and delivers an ardent speech in the manner of North Korean news anchors, demonstrating her desire for power. He claims that pressing the button to send the video to the Kim family, for the homeowner, is like an atomic bomb. She does a fantastic job of delivering the lecture, surprising and impressing his wife.

She appears to have frequently daydreamed in secret about holding a position of authority, which accounts for her skill at giving speeches. The first of these complexes and resentment, which might be brought on by living in extreme poverty, crystallizes in the personality of the former maid.

In this instance, Bong Joon Ho presents us with another aspect of the truth, namely, how the wealthy class views those who belong to society’s weaker class. The house owner talks to his wife in a very clever and highly successful sequence about an unpleasant smell. a smell belonging to Kim’s family, who are hiding somewhere. The man describes the smell to his wife as coming from impoverished people, notably those who use the subway, and that it is terrible. A glance reveals that, despite the kindness of the family members’ outward appearance, the working class is still seen with constant contempt, even if this may not be explicitly stated in today’s modern society. When the movie’s impressive camera zooms in on Ki-taek’s face in this scene as he hears these words with his family, it captures one of the most powerful ideas about the suffering of poor families.

However, the party scene is when the story’s surprise and climax take place. This is the point where appeasement gives way to explicit reaction in a very dramatic and well-made sequence in which all the genuine facts of people’s life are revealed in their conduct. The painful reality of social inequality is best revealed in this terrifying sequence with the outstanding performance of Ho Sung Kang. While the Ki-taek family members are caught in a dreadful circumstance, the homeowner and all of its wealthy visitors are only concerned with themselves and their own rescue. a condition in which the wealthy do not appear to care at all about poor people killing one other off. Following years of social humiliation at the hands of the wealthy that put a shadow over him and his life, Ki-taek, who has crossed the line into insanity from witnessing such cruelty and humiliation, finally snapped out of his fury and retaliated violently against the rich.

When we are moved by the tender party scene, Bong Joon-ho leads us to the story’s smart and brilliant ending. A strong argument against the prevailing class divisions in South Korea is made in an outstanding conclusion. a location where the father hides himself to communicate with his son and read letters to him using a light that alternates between on and off. When individuals are contentedly residing at home, the father’s contribution to life is no longer more than a flickering light from the depths of the night; yet, for the poor, it appears to be a common language. For rich people, it doesn’t have a specific meaning except for possible short-circuit. The father is now filling the former housekeeper’s husband’s position. Ki-taek continues to steal nightly and cunningly from the upper class even if the former wealthy residents of that dream home have left and been replaced.

The family’s son conveys the frightening message of the movie. He claims he has to become wealthy in order to purchase the house where his father is hiding so that he can use the hidden stairs to ascend and reach the surface where he can observe the beauty of the sun. A father who exemplifies poverty and who’s doomed to remain in the basement, below the standard of regular living. Only when he is wealthy will he be able to escape his “parasitic” existence and experience life’s pleasures in the manner fit for a human being; otherwise, he would never see the dawn or the light of day. “Parasite” is a precise and ideal illustration of a socially critical work that conveys a nation’s class distinctions in the most horrifying and potent manner conceivable. For anyone interested in this subject, Bong Joon Ho’s latest film can serve as an excellent training tool in everything from directing to stage design, acting, and, most significantly, screenplay.

Parasite movie ending explained:

Ki-woo eventually recovers from his wounds, but he and Chung-suk are found guilty of fraud, while Ki-taek hides from the police in the Park family bunker. In order to reconcile the remaining Kims, Ki-woo devises a scheme to become wealthy and purchase the Park estate on his own.

Is Parasite a good movie?

Although it’s difficult to categorize Parasite, this drama/thriller/comedy is unquestionably worth viewing. With characters you can’t entirely like and adversaries you don’t really detest, Bong Joon-ho crafts this story in a way that will keep you interested and on the edge of your seat.

What happens at the end of the movie Parasite?

Moon-gwang is hurt when she falls down the stairs while trying to clean up the house before the Parks get home. A grieving Geun-se escapes from the cellar the next day, bludgeoning Kim Ki-woo and killing his sister Ki-jung during the Park son’s birthday celebration.

What is the message of the Parasite movie?

Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite (2019) starts off with surprising levity, with a twist on a traditional robbery, for a movie that ultimately conveys such an indignant, regretful, and sharp message about class disparity and the humanity-crushing systems needed to preserve it.

Why are the eyes blacked out in the Parasite poster?

The white and black bars covering the Parks and Kim characters’ eyes, respectively, symbolize how the two families are portrayed in the movie as being in opposition to one another.