Parasite isn’t your average movie; Its constant push and pull between the characters and plot made me feel like watching a toxic relationship.
Set in South Korea, stars a family struggling with their day to day jobs. The son of the family, Ki-woo gets the opportunity to tutor a girl, Da-hye from a rich family. Ki-woo sees this as an opportunity to con the family. He and his family set up situations that got the current workers fired and his family hired. It isn’t known to the rich family that all their new workers are related. Everything was going good for them until the maid came back, and a secret of hers was revealed.
The actual production of the film is one of its strengths. The house they choose for the majority of the movie to take place and the colors of the movie make the movie nice to look at. The actors chosen for the movie play their roles accordingly, the way they can go from a comedy scene to being serious in the span of a couple minutes is impressive. The costume and design for the film is good. When they change their hair, clothes, and manner after they get hired from the rich family. There is a scene in the movie where after the poor family’s house got flooded. The light was flickering and showed Ki-woo holding the stone his friend gave him. The movie showed good foreshadowing for what was about to come for him.
The overall message the movie wants the audience to know is unclear. The plot kept shifting and it felt like I was watching three different movies in one. Because of this, it was hard to find the deeper meaning in the film. I could tell it was there but nothing really clicked to me. In the movie North Korea was brought up often. I think it didn’t add anything to the plot and could’ve been left out. Lastly, there’s a weird age gap in the movie between Da-hye’s former tutor and her current one, Ki-woo. It talks about grooming and shows a relationship between a minor and an authority figure to her.
Towards the end of the movie, Kim Ki-taek, the dad from the poor family said if you don’t have a plan then things can’t go wrong. This can tie back into the foreshadowing in the movie. The movie can show you if you plan to hurt other people it can end up hurting you back. It can also show how the dad didn’t learn a lesson. Instead of him thinking that he shouldn’t have lied, he thinks next time I won’t plan anything out I would just do it. The movie ends with a voiceover of Ki-woo writing a letter to the dad saying he’s going to buy the rich family’s house. At the end it shows Kim Ki-taek, Choong-sook, and Ki-woo living happily in the house. The ending is left open-ended to let the audience decide their ending. I think Ki-woo was just imagining them being together in that house because the dad said everything that is planned goes wrong, and Ki-woo said he plans on saving money. It could be a way of the director trying to foreshadow the ending.
The target audience for this film would be people who like thriller movies. It has taboo scenes, and a little gore. The scenes can go a way you weren’t expecting, so I would categorize it as suspenseful. The message of the film was not effective for the audience. I would recommend this film, but I would tell them to watch a trailer first, and not to go into it blindly like I did. I would give this movie a 6/10.