Parasite - My Review

Here are my thoughts on Parasite, One of the most acclaimed movie of last year...

Synopsis:

Parasite is a 2019 Korean black comedy Thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Han Jin-Won. It stars Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-Jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin, and Lee Jung-eun and follows the members of a poor family who scheme to become employed by a wealthy family by infiltrating their household and posing as unrelated, highly qualified individuals.

My Review:

Parasite is one of those movies that everyone has seen and cannot pass a moment without talking about when talking about movies nowadays. So after constantly hearing people talk about the movie whenever i got on Social Media, I decided to finally give it a go. And to be honest, I really enjoyed it. I was amazed by the well crafted screenplay and direction of the movie. But i have to admit, I was not astonished by the end of the movie to the level most of the people said they were when the movie ended. I enjoyed the story..nothing more. Maybe it was because i really didn't follow any of the characters in the movie.

The screenplay and direction is the best i have seen in recent films. This level of well crafted screenplay is absent in most of the Hollywood films. Every shot has a symbol or a story of itself, every dialogue has its own meaning and symbolism, and even most of the objects in the movie has their own symbols. Like the rock they posses, which is supposed to represent hope.. which later we know it's false hope. Even the shots of the family looking out through the Window of their Semi-basement and later through the Window of the Park's house, Each shows a story of its own. That is one of the most effective way of story telling in my opinion when it comes to movies, Story telling through Visuals rather than telling. Bong Joon-ho excels in managing the shots and objects to tell its own story and emotion. Rocks, stairs, windows, roads, food, everything effectively shows the emotional journey that the family is going through. I don't want to list all the symbols and foreshadowing in the movie here, as it will take a lot of time and space to list all of them.

The film also shows an amazing performance by every single cast member. They were very natural and believable in every aspect.

Now the problem i had with the movie is, i really didn't know who to  root for throughout the movie. Maybe their is something wrong with me, but i didn't see any difference in the characters behavior. The only difference is the wealth aspect. But throughout the movie we can see they way they treat each-other is very similar. For example, the park family treats the Kim family without any respect and consider them as low-life. They don't consider them as people with their own life and problems. This same trait can be seen in the kim family members. When Ki-woo starts making out with the girl without hesitation even though he know his friend is interested in her. By how the family tricked the former workers of the house to get them fired and take their jobs. They didn't consider the other families problems or feelings, what they did is screwing others to climb the social hierarchy ladder. It can strongly be seen by the way they treats the former servant and her husband in the basement when they first reveal the secret. Through the dialogue Kim ki-teak(the father) ask the husband of the former maid," How can you live in this kind of place". And even the former servant and the husband treats the kim family like shit the moment they have an upper-hand on them. I didn't see a major difference in the characters, all of them are trying to screw over the other person to climb the social hierarchy. Don't get me wrong, i definitely enjoyed the movie but not to the extend that everyone has been talking about. And i can see some people with the same opinion being called rich and ignorant on social media. I am in no way a rich person, I am as broke as a person can be.

Anyway, this is my opinion on Parasite. I really enjoyed the movie and have seen one of the best screenplay and direction in a long time. Definitely recommend.

My Rating 4/5