An imaginative comedy-thriller with darkness at its core.

Rating: 9/10 (9 May 2020)

It's a movie from an unfamiliar part of the world(South-Korea) that paints an uncannily familiar picture. But, be warned there are no victories in "Parasite" and no one gets away unpunished.
The "parasite" of the title applies to every character in this film the rich leech off the poor, who in turn survive by attaching themselves to the underbelly of the ruling class.
"Parasite" introduces us to the Kims, a South Korean family of four living in a basement apartment. They're so poor they can't afford Wi-Fi ,they leech it from nearby cafes and earn their meager income folding pizza boxes. A gift from the son's friend, a heavy stone that promises wealth to its owner, works its magic when the son, Ki-woo lands a job teaching English to a wealthy schoolgirl, Park Da-hye. She's part of the Park family, that looks like the negative (or maybe the positive) image of the Kims, living comfortably in a modernist mansion high on a hill.
The Park patriarch Dong-ik is a tech CEO who's barely home, while his wife Yeon-gyo is fluttery and fragile. She obsesses over the imagined artistic genius of her son. He specializes in angry, rebellious scribbles.
It's into this shiny, hollow world that the Kim family try to integrate themselves, after the son Ki-woo is hired as an English-language tutor. He immediately hatches a plan to get the rest of the family employed in the Park family. Their schemes are exhilarating, clever and intricately plotted.For much of the film the audience is swept up in the thrill of the con. We see them forge documents, invent aliases, and carefully rehearse their lines.
Much of this story, however, isn't told in words, but in the use of space and the way people move through it. The Kim family are often bundled into the same frame, perched awkwardly on furniture and fittings so they can all fit. They're a united front in this battle. The Park family, meanwhile, always sit in separate rooms or sides of the frame.
"Parasite" moves effortlessly between capitalist parable, horror film and situation comedy as the natures of the two families are revealed: The Kims, grasping and greedy yet unfairly stigmatized by poverty (even in their newly bought clothes, they give off an odor that can't be masked), and the Parks, harmless and well intentioned yet coasting through life on the backs of others.