In the class-conscious thriller, the members of the Kim family, above, who live in a squalid semi-basement, insert themselves into the lives of the wealthy Parks.
Many people argue that you should go into Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite cold.
That is half-true. A broad synopsis won’t spoil the first half of the South Korean film. But don’t let anyone, including me, tell you how the second half transforms a likeable social satire into the genre-bending Palm d’Or winner at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The Kim family lives in near-squalor in a dank semi-basement apartment, folding pizza delivery boxes to pay their bills. Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) catches a break when a friend recommends him for an English tutoring job for a wealthy family. Ki-woo presents forged credentials to Mrs. Park (Choi Yeon-gyo), who lives with her successful CEO husband (Lee Sun-kyun) and their children in a luxurious home designed by a world-class architect. Once hired, Ki-woo assists the rest of his family to secure jobs in the Park home using heartless but darkly funny schemes.
When the Parks leave for a camping trip, the Kims spend a night in their employer’s home celebrating their newfound economic stability. But it is a dark and stormy night. That’s where the plot details must end.
The first half is as narratively efficient as the Park home is sleek and elegant. Bong delivers an entertaining caper comedy. But the caper is to secure employment, not pull off a heist, which suggests how Bong plays with genre to comment on class and politics.
The second half of the film is when you will ask “What is this?” A sweeping camera movement through the house punctuates the transition, and the contrast between light and dark broadens the color palette and complicates the appeal of the Park family’s wealth. In a key small detail late in the film, a character winces as he walks into that brightness and opulence. We discover visual parallels between horror and suspense tropes and the musty apartment where the Kims still reside.
The success of Parasite, which had the best per-screen opening weekend box-office haul ever for a foreign-language film, could be used by those arguing that commercial theaters should broaden their range beyond superhero spectacles.
But this ain’t art cinema, either. Parasite demonstrates how the visual language of popular cinema, regardless of spoken language, can convey biting social commentary when mobilized by a filmmaker at the top of his game.
