Movies: Parasite

"Parasite," a social satire from director Bong Joon-ho, trades the wacky post-apocalyptic dystopia of Bong's "Snowpiercer" for something a little closer to home:


The movie follows two families - the desperately poor Kim family, living in a dingy apartment and getting by with odd jobs, and the fabulously wealthy Parks, living in an house designed by a famous architect and flush with cash thanks to patriarch Park Dong-ik's job as a high-powered CEO. The two families would ordinarily have nothing to do with one another, but when the Kims' son gets an opportunity to tutor the Parks' daughter under false pretenses, all hell soon breaks loose.

To say more would be to spoil what was an interesting story and an unexpectedly subtle commentary on the relationship between the haves and the have-nots. While Bong has a fondness for obvious physical metaphors (the Kims' underground semi-basement apartment is a dead ringer, social status-wise, for the back of the train in "Snowpiercer"), the characters in "Parasite" don't follow the standard tropes.  That means the overall message is more mature, less incendiary, and uncomfortably close to the truth, which is what I imagine the director was aiming for.

Rating: 8/10