MOVIE REVIEW — Parasite
Bong Joon Ho’s Masterclass of a Dark, Thrilling Comedy
Right. This is probably going to be one of the most informal introductions to a review I have written, but fuck it, that is the game we are playing today. I got SO lucky last night. I, a full-time college student, had class from 3:30–5:00 and the showing of Parasite at the Philadelphia Film Festival was scheduled for 6:00. I in fact did not have an advanced ticket or festival badge, and so I had to go straight from class over into Philadelphia (via train, it was about 10ish Minutes to the closest stop to where the film was screening). I got in line at 5:31 on the dot, and was about the 45th person in line for Rush Tickets, which for those who have never been to a film festival (like myself until last night), are tickets put on sale after the individuals with tickets and badges are seated, to fill in the remaining seats. The line was cut off two people behind me. I got SO lucky last night.
Anyways, with all that being said, I did get to see Parasite, the new film by director Boon Joon Ho (Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer). Like I said, this whole introduction is just going to be informal as all hell because at the time I really just want to talk about the film. Good? Great! Let’s talk about Parasite…
I went into this blind, not having seen a single trailer and only seeing one poster of the film. No plot summary, no information on the genre. Nothing. Having seen the film for myself now I can wholeheartedly say that this is the way to go. If you are reading this and have yet to see Parasite for yourself, stop reading it, DO NOT look up or watch any videos on the film, just go see it for yourself whenever it gets a wider release (which hopefully it will). 2019 has already been an absolutely phenomenal year for film in my opinion, but after this showing I can confidently say that my pick for the best film of the year would hands down go to Parasite.
(*Knives Out, Jojo Rabbit, and The Irishman are still to come, among others, so this could change)
With fair warning being given, the most vague plot description I can give in the case that some stubborn reader is still here hoping for details is, with the entire family unemployed, Ki-taek’s family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy Parks for their upper-class lifestyle, that is until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.
I saw Snowpiercer before I ever knew who Bong Joon Ho was, with my initial viewing of Memories of Murder not coming until last fall, at which point I fell in love with his work. The man knows how to make movies. Going into this, all I had heard was extremely high praise from across the board, but again, had no idea what the actual plot of the film was or what the genre was. With a name like Parasite and seeing the poster for this, I assumed it was going to be either a thriller or a horror film, and then it ended up being arguably one of the funniest films of the year. Within the first minutes of the film, I found myself laughing consistently with there being such a great handle of comedy from the get-go. I bought into this deception…
When I say this movie is funny, I mean it is laugh-out-loud hilarious at various points throughout, so when that late game genre shift hits, it hits hard. The biggest (and perhaps strangest) comparison I can think of is Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, in that for the entire first 2/3 of the film, it treats itself as a straightforward science fiction piece before morphing into a slasher film. While this is neither of those things, I could not help myself from drawing the comparison to it, though Parasite handles the flip undeniably better. There are probably better films to compare this two, hell you could just compare and contrast this to other films by Bong Joon Ho himself if you wanted, but I am rambling now. The takeaway here is that Parasite is outstandingly funny at times before hitting a major shift in tone and narrative that feels like a genuine magic trick.
The cinematography is as excellent as can be, with nearly every frame of the film feeling perfectly crafted. So many scenes are elevated by the great direction and cinematography, whether it be the “Bloody Napkin” sequence, the first time we enter the basement, or the entirety of the “Under the Table” scene, these are all well done scenes, but the camerawork takes them to that next level. Speaking on the aforementioned “Bloody Napkin” sequence, outside of the Portals scene in Avengers: Endgame and the Murray Franklin scene in Joker, this may be the best sequence in a film in 2019 (it probably beats those two as well, I have just had more time to sit with them and have seen them multiple times). I can genuinely say that I have never been as tense or nervous during a comedy than I was watching Parasite, and that comes down to the direction from Bong Joon Ho.
As good as the cinematography and direction might be, without strong performances, the film would fall apart and boy does this movie have some excellent acting. The main cast is made up of; Kang-ho Song, Yeo-jeong Jo, So-dam Park, Woo-sik Choi, Sun-kyun Lee, Ji-so Jung, Jeong-eun Lee, and Hyae Jin Chang. There is a good chance you have never seen or heard of the majority of these names if you do not watch foreign films, with Kang-ho Song being the only actor I recognized in the film, however by the end nearly every one of the key cast had left a strong impression, namely Woo-sik Choi as Kim Ki-woo and So-dam Park as Kim Ki-jung. Everyone involved nails their comedic timing to a tee, and even the more emotional/thrilling scenes as well.
Fun Fact: Kang-ho Song stars as Ki-Taek in this film also stars in a few of Bong Joon Ho’s other films, namely Snowpiercer as Namgoong Minsoo and Memories of Murder as Detective Park Namgoong Minsoo, both of which are brought into this film as clear Easter Eggs, with Namgoong being the name of the architect who built the house that the Park family lives in, with the Park family name clearly being a reference to Detective Park.
This is where I would list the negative aspects of the film, however I really could not list any. This is as perfect as cinema gets. Every scene makes sense, the performances are outstanding, the direction and cinematography work hand in hand to elevate the piece to being a masterclass work of art, there really is just nothing negative I could say about this movie even if I tried. It will make you laugh, it will make you cringe, it will make you scared, and it will have you on the edge of your seat, but most importantly and I really cannot stress this enough, but you will have fun.
If Parasite does not get nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards next year, we will have a problem. Remember…
Parasite is currently playing in sporadic places across the United States, mainly independent/arthouse theaters, but I have seen that it is opening in more on the 24th, so IF it does end up playing near you, be sure to see Parasite when it arrives near you or Buy/Rent/Stream it later this year!
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If you are interested in going down the rabbit hole and checking out another one of my reviews, here is the link to my thoughts on Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood!
