A wild tasty class satire by Bong Joon-Ho

Rating: Null/10 (23 October 2019)

There are many wealthy people who have taken short cuts -- legal or not -- to get their place in society. The Kim family in Seoul is of the underclass, but, they see no issue adopting the 'ethics' of some of the very wealthy to claim a piece for themselves. The Kims are living in a below street level hovel barely scraping by, but they aren't without certain wits and skills.
An opportunity falls in their lap when their son Ki-Woo (Woo-sik Choi) finds himself tutoring a sweet teen daughter (Jung Ziso) or a successful tech entrepreneur Park Dong-Ik (Sun-kyun Lee) and his lovely if simple wife Yeon-Kyo (Yeo-jeong Jo). Before long the Kims all but move into the Parks' spacious architectural marvel of a home (each couple has a male and a female child).
Director Bong Joon-Ho who also co-wrote the screenplay (with Jin Won Han) takes his time to set up the story. As seen in his previous work such as OKJA, SNOWPIERCER, THE HOST and MOTHER, Bong isn't the most formal filmmaker working today. His movies often seem wildly inconsistent in style and tone. Seeming leaps in logic and form abound. But, what makes his work so consistently invigorating and exciting is that if one looks past the seeming chaotic structure, Bong plays fair with the viewer. The extended set-ups are a means to an end. There is a 'Bong Playbook' that he is setting up and he abides by those rules.
PARASITE is an exemplary case of the Bong Playbook. Once the dominoes fall the scabrous satire can cut deeply. Class warfare isn't an original concept in and of itself, but Bong continually upends expectations and circumstances here. Making it all the more interesting is that he doesn't set up the rich Park family as cartoon villains. Heck, they are so banal that one feels more sympathy for them. You shouldn't want them to get their lives disrupted -- but, you also can't help but cheer on the disruptors (the Kims).
Bong takes PARASITE to some dark places and quite visceral places. There's some razor sharp allusions to the works of the great Luis Bunuel (DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID, VIRIDIANA), Chabrol's (CEREMONIE) as well as, most pointedly, Gorky's The Lower Depths, but, it still remains firmly the work of Bong Joon-Ho. Without a doubt, there are some allusions to provincial matters in South Korean society that will escape domestic viewers, but, Bong's scalpel cuts broadly and deeply enough for most international audiences (it won the Palme D'or at Cannes). It's a wild nasty ride. Take it.