Parasite

Over the past decade, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival hasn’t exactly set the U.S. box office on fire.  You have to go back to 2011 just to find a Palme d’Or winner that made over $10 million (The Tree of Life).  That low bar will most certainly be crushed this year by a South Korean entry that is arguably the festival’s most accessible winner since Pulp Fiction.  Internationally Parasite has become a box office sensation and it’s likely to become a U.S. success also.

The Kims are a South Korean family of four consisting of Dad Ki-taek ( Song Kang-ho ) mom Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin) son Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik who was also in Okja) and daughter Ki-jung (Park So-dam).  They’re very poor.  They live in a small dark underground apartment where stink bugs dwell and a local drunk frequently relieves himself within full view of their tiny window.  They have a tiresome job folding pizza boxes and they steal Wi-Fi from their neighbors.  Well, that is until the nearby residents change the password.

Their fortunes begin to change when a school chum of Ki-woo, recommends him as a substitute tutor for the high school daughter of the affluent Park household.  Ki-woo cons his way through the interview with fake teaching papers.  The mother (Cho Yeo-jeong) is impressed and soon he’s charmed Mrs. Park into hiring his sister Ki-jung as an art teacher for their little boy.  That’s merely the beginning.  One by one the rest of the Kim clan begins working for the well-to-do Park family who have no clue that each additional hire is actually related.  It’s a home invasion of sorts but one where the owners are willing — albeit duped — participants.

The first half is an outstanding account of carefully laid plans.  After an hour had passed, I was convinced this was going to be the best movie of the year.  The way the Kim household ever so slowly insinuate themselves into the lives of the Parks is fascinating to watch.  It happens coincidentally at first and then as each new family member is welcomed into the fold, the Kim’s methods become more and more aggressive.  Then the original housekeeper, Moon-gwang (Lee Jung-eun) returns.   From that point on the developments are somewhat less, uh shall we say, systematic.  It’s important to pay attention to the little things the wealthy Parks say and do because they will have a profound effect on the struggling Kims — the father especially.  The sad sack dad Ki-taek is portrayed by actor Song Kang-ho who is a frequent collaborator in this director’s efforts.   He’s excellent in turning in a performance that is a gradually building focus of resentment.

Parasite is a genre-shifting tale from the mind of filmmaker Bong Joon-ho who mainstream audiences may know from The Host and Snowpiercer.  It has comedy, drama, thrills, and gore.  Put simply, it’s a dark comedy about classism.  He has dealt with these themes before.  Inequality amongst different classes was a major theme of the riveting Snowpiercer so it’s clearly a topic the director is particularly fond of.  There’s a reason for this.  In the past 50 years, South Korea has gone from being one of the poorest societies in the world to becoming an advanced industrialized economy.  As a result, the wealth gap there has widened exponentially.  Class warfare proves to be a gripping subject complete with wild tonal shifts and abrupt story changes.  The various plot machinations that occur can feel a bit convoluted.  The way people behave isn’t always rational either.  Still, the events are so unpredictable that they seize our attention.  It’s intriguing to see what occurs next.   No specifics though.  I wouldn’t even think of spoiling them.  I will only assert that the metaphor of upstairs/downstairs class distinctions gets more heavy-handed and therefore less clever.

What else can I say?  I’m optimistic about the Oscar chances.  South Korea has never been nominated in the Foreign Language Film category, let alone for the highest honor, Best Picture.  For the first time, a submission has the potential to compete in both.  This is a production where the joy of where the narrative will go next means I can’t give any more details.  I will offer a random but humorous aside.  At one point the Kims return home. It has been raining non-stop and they come to find their apartment flooded with rain and sewage.  Their bathroom is essentially an open toilet inexplicably mounted on a high ledge with no door to separate it from the rest of the living room.  Parasite features the most disgusting commode I can remember in a movie since Trainspotting.