Parasite is one of the greatest art films in the film industry. South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho made it as well as we deserve. On the 21st of May, the picture had its global debut at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. On May 30, 2019, it was released in South Korea. With awards season in full fill his bucket, and the Academy yet to release their nominees, we still expect Parasite to take the Best International Feature Film Oscar home for South Korea after taking the Best Foreign Language Film award at the Golden Globes.
Joon described it as he said on stage "a comedy without clowns" and "a tragedy without villains". Exceptionally well-written, intense storytelling, that is simple enough to follow yet features a greater level of depth in the context of the scenes that call out some obvious moments of what it wants the audience to think but not in a distracting way.
The story starts with two families from opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, a story told with the genre-fluidity that was a trademark of a murder mystery. We first meet the Kim family, headed by father Ki-Taek and mother Chung-sook, in their own home, they leaving their windows open to benefit from bug-killing street fumigation. They have nothing but one other and a basic decency of resilience and hard work. So when son Ki-woo (Choi Woo-Shik) is faced with an unexpected opportunity to home-tutor a rich schoolgirl, he grabs the opportunity by getting his gifted artist sister, Ki-Jung. She outsmarted her way into the job and into the Park mansion.
An architecture discovered in the slums of Seoul, with views not of urinating drunks but of luxurious starlit skies, this wealthy house is everything for the Kims’ pokey and weirdly isolated. At that time businessman Mr. Park is at work, and his uptight wife, want to teach his daughter and young son. It’s a lifestyle that relies upon hired help: tutors, a chauffeur, and, most importantly, a devoted housekeeper Moon-Gwang (Lee Jung-Eun), who stayed with the building after its original architect owner moved out. Ki-woo (now called "Kevin") notices an opportunity and believes that his own family could easily fill such positions, so he devises a scheme to insinuate the Kims into the Parks' wealthy lives and house. Mr. Park is habitually depicted ascending the stairs of his ultra-modern home, and the Kims are pictured scampering down city steps to their own underworld apartment, it’s clear who holds the dramatic high ground.
