In case you didn’t know already, I’m not usually a movie type of person. I fall asleep through horror movies, text through Lord of the Rings watchings, and pester my nerdiest friends during Avengers movies as I struggle to figure out which superhero is who (the online summary of all past movies I read before going didn’t include pictures).
So, you can probably guess what my reaction was when my friends asked me to watch a “cinematic masterpiece” called Parasite which, only after sitting down, I realized was completely dubbed in Korean. Needless to say, if I didn’t get to (try and) play basketball and grab dinner prior, coronavirus would probably have had to do as my excuse for the night.
But, after watching Parasite, I can safely say that it is easily the best movie I’ve ever seen in my life.
For those of you who also won’t watch movies until they win an Oscar, Parasite tells the story of the Kim family’s struggle to survive economically. Through a series of ingenious (or what we would call “big brain”) schemes, each member of the family lands themselves a job in the upper-class Park household. However, throughout the duration of the film, we watch the moral and interpersonal conflicts between the rich and poor create a black comedy that draws striking parallels to classic stories like “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.”
While I know next to nothing about film techniques, my AP Lang/Lit mindset couldn’t help but notice the countless symbols and extended metaphors this seemingly impossible, fantastical plotline contained. In what is completely my personal (and most likely, uninformed) opinion, I’d say that this movie is making a social commentary and archetypal characterization on the divisiveness between rich and poor.
The poor Kim family is impressively intelligent. They are smooth and persuasive with their words, quick on their toes to cover up holes in their plan, and, for the good first half of the movie, play the Park family like a fiddle. Yet, this brief sense of utopia and acquired prosperity doesn’t last for long. In an eerie, twisted (clockwise) series of events, the Kim’s are left to watch the Park’s enjoy the superficial pleasures of life that they were so close to sharing.
Yet, the Park’s, in my opinion, are nowhere near as deserving of this life of luxury as the Kim’s. They are gullible and spoiled through and through, never having once needed to worry about the struggles of life that the Kim’s fight through everyday. With housekeepers and drivers that help keep their lives running smoothly, the Park’s seem quick to blame and judge people doing the work they never have had to do.
So, when we look back at this movie’s horror-esque title, we really have to wonder who the true parasites really are. It’s obvious that the poor Korean family, invading and hosting the body of the Park’s dream house, resemble the word “parasite’s” biological roots. However, the Park family, when we take a closer look, reflects this very same parasitic behavior. For all of their gluttony and materialism, what have any of the family members truly created by themselves, save for a couple ugly drawings of a “ghost” and an affair between a high school sophomore and a grown adult?
It seems as if, behind the lavish cupboards of plum extract, the dirty, smelly depiction of the Kim family can be directly reapplied to the Park’s.
Easily one of the great cinematic works of the current century (of course, my movie-watching largely consists of Pixar, Disney, and Star Wars, so my opinion might not be the best on this).
I’m so glad we got the chance to see it in theaters–every symbol amplified, every sound noticed. It’s one of those movies I wouldn’t even mind watching again, and I rarely watch anything again.