A Review of the Oscar-winning phenomenon, “Parasite” 

 

On the surface, South Korean filmmaker Bong-Joon Ho’s “Parasite” is simply a comedic thriller.  Once dissected, it becomes evident that a class hierarchy dominates every aspect of the movie and its characters lives. 

The success of “Parasite” at the 94th Oscars proved that Ho’s brilliant work on class differentiation did not go unnoticed by industry peers. A slow progression of a poor family working for a rich family is where the movie derives its name, “Parasite,” as both leech off of each other in order to survive. 

The storyline of “Parasite” centers on struggles that the poor Kim family and the rich Park family each experience. The Kim family work at menial labor jobs and lament about their unfortunate life. One day the family’s fortune changes when the poor son is presented with a prosperity stone and is offered the opportunity to tutor the rich family’s high school daughter. 

The son’s entry into the Park’s affluent life provides him with opportunities to get the rest of his family jobs working for the rich Park family. The poor sister becomes an art therapist/counselor for the Park family’s young son. The father is hired as Mr. Park’s valet/driver. Mrs. Kim lands the coveted position as the Park’s housekeeper after employing some dastardly machinations to oust the current long-time housekeeper. 

Both the rich and poor families are helpless without each other. This is evident when the naive Mrs. Park tries to cook and clean and Mr. Parks says his wife is an awful housekeeper. Mrs. Parks relies on her hired help to help her run the household and maintain her social status.

The true nature of the narrative is revealed when it starts to rain. The rain acts as a metaphor to accentuate the differences between the rich and the poor. To the rich, the deluge of water is viewed as a welcome act that is needed to wash away the city’s grime, filth, and unpleasant odor that emanates from the “the poor”. 

Meanwhile, the deluge has the opposite effect for the Kim family.  The Kim’s family home is flooded and their belongings destroyed. While everything they own is ruined by the deluge of sewage, the rich remain unaffected and indifferent to how much the storm costs others. 

The movie’s message doesn’t stop there. The undercurrent digs even deeper to reveal how both the rich and poor need one another to survive. The old housekeeper brings back secrets to the house that shatter the integrated life of the Kims. The true cost of keeping up such a life of feeding off the rich is revealed. 

Parasite is a testament to the beauty of cleverly written characters working within a complex storyline. There is no one character in “Parasite” because they all dynamically work together to drive the plot.

The film cleverly interweaves a comedic storyline that is essentially about the symbiotic relationship of survival and interdependence between the haves and have-nots. The ending cleverly depicts how society exploits wealth inequality. The rich family solves their problem by moving on while the poor must figure a way out of their financial prison.