Parasite is a movie with many genres. It has comedy, suspense, horror, drama, and deep underline social commentary about social class in Korea.
The Story
Poor family led by patriarch, Ki-taek finds a way to con the rich Park family. Now, the stage seems set for an unceasing winner-take-all class war. But in the end, things just don’t go as they planned.
The Review
If you haven’t seen the movie yet, it is recommended that you see the movie not knowing anything about the movie. If you don’t know anything about the movie, you’ll enjoy how the movie progresses and unfold in satisfying, unexpected ways.
This movie has many different genres nicely integrated into the movie. You’ll find yourself experiencing many different emotional states during its 132-minute run time, and did so without ever feeling muddled or tonally inconsistent. Parts of this movie were hilarious. Parts were heartbreaking. Other parts were insanely suspenseful. And it does all this while being perfectly paced, beautifully directed, and amazingly acted from every single member of its cast.
All the characters are understandable and sympathetic to some degree. There aren’t any heroes or villains in the movie. The amount of conflict, drama and tension are derived from the class conflicts. You come to care for just about all of them.
Obviously, this isn’t a horror movie, but it does have a bit of horror elements in the movie. Also, there are bizarre twists in the story which makes it even more entertaining for horror fans.
The ending is also very nicely done. It is definitely not a happy ending. It is one of those endings that make you think.
Parasite is a very entertaining movie even with horror fans.
Ending Explained (Spoiler Alert!)
It is easy to understand the message of the movie if you understand the Korean culture a little bit. There are rich and there are poor. Poor is always going to be poor and rich and always going to be rich. It is very difficult, almost impossible, for the poor to be rich, and pretty much all the poor accepted this. But it doesn’t mean they can’t dream about being rich. This is what the main message from the director. He is pretty much mocking the social class in Korean culture.
Kim family is poor. But they are very street savvy. The Park family is rich but they are a bit naïve. Kim family found a way to con the Park family to live the life of rich. Because they know that this is only way, they know how to live the life of the rich. But obviously, things don’t go as planned. Eventually things fall apart.
This movie is a bit different in a sense that there isn’t really a good guy or a bad guy. We sympathized with poor Kim family, but they did take advantage of the rich Park family and they even commit a murder. At the same time, the movie didn’t really portray Park family as a villain either, nor a victim. The director chose to make Mr. Park a reasonable enough character, despite his occasional hints that reveal his true nature. He seems to treat Mr. Kim fairly enough at first, but he also warns the latter not to “cross the line” every time Mr. Kim attempts to pry into his private life.
Some complained that they don’t understand Mr. Kim’s motive for killing Mr. Park. But to fully appreciate this, you need to understand the meaning of a recurring expression in the dialogue which is, “crossing the line”.
“Crossing the line” can have multiple meanings. It is mean as one should respect other people’s privacy. Park family treated Kim family fairly, but they knew that they were poor and they were still looking down upon them. So, when Mr. Kim continues to pry in their personal life, Mr. Park was a bit concerned. He didn’t want him to “cross the line”. He needs to mind his own business.
But the other meaning is “crossing the line” of social class. Mr. Park knows that Mr. Kim is poor and he is always going to be poor. So, Mr. Kim needs to understand his position is social class and not trying to be rich.
So why did Mr. Kim killed Mr. Park? Mr. Kim and the family did enjoy the life of the rich. But he did eventually understand that they are not rich and they are just merely a parasite in the host’s body. With such disillusionment and anger, Ki-Taek chose to kill Mr. Park, as a parasite could to its host, and like a parasite, he keeps hiding deep inside the dead host’s body until he could claim the whole carcass and use it as nourishment for his offspring.
The ending is also very good. As Mr. Kim is trapped inside the secret basement for God knows how long, the family is planning to get him out and bring back to the family. But the only plan they can think of it is becoming a rich and buy the house so that he can set his father free. But at the end, we all know that, that is not going to happen since it is impossible for the poor to be rich, and his son also knows this. So, it is pretty much their understanding that they will never see their father and he will eventually die in a secret basement alone.
In the Nutshell
Parasite isn’t a horror movie, but there are bizarre twists in the story which makes it even more entertaining for horror fans. [5 out of 5 stars]
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Profile
Genre: Suspense Drama
Rottentomatoes Rating: 99% | 90%
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