Hidden in the Shadows

Rating: 9/10 (25 November 2019)

The comparison of the poor Kim family to parasites is not clear from the beginning. Their underground "apartment" does stink and yes, bad enough, they have to look at a drunken guy pee in front of them during dinner. No job, no hope, no direction, the bland and quiet acceptance of their status quo at the beginning makes me wonder how they resonate with the film title.
However, step by step, through perfect acting schemes, the well thought out ploys, they make a dream of living off of the Parks come true, thereby transforming themselves into parasites. Throughout the period when they enjoy the "improving" living standards: from eating in the dungeon to a treat dinner with the drivers, to the actual pizzas whose boxes they were making to earn bread and butter, etc. All this time I struggle with the heartbreaking fact that at least three parties (1) the Parks (2) the previous driver (3) the previous maid were all innocently suffering from the Kims' wrongdoing. The lack of apologetic thinking is absolutely horrifying. Yet when the class difference is so drastic, I am not sure whether they are too be judged. After all what other options do they have, without a morally sound means to access anything else other than their smelly dungeon? It only became more intense when the previous maid showed her true parasitic self, together with her husband.
"Money is an almighty iron that straightens out all wrinkles" - on the surface yes, but it is exactly this dangerous, monotonic pursuit of money, and money only, that has cost three families their chance to make peace with what is given.
"People with money are always nice." It sounds almost absurd and I can think of millions of counterexamples, yet the director sets the story up exactly this way in the film. I think I dare thinking outside of the film context, it is rather that "the people who do not have money sometimes cannot afford to be nice." Either way, when the cutoff of wealth is base-line subsistence, it is clear that dignity is at risk.
What is the dad's plan? It sounds like a family who are so good at planning "scenes" to act out in fact have not a clue about planning long term for their lives. Is planning also out of reach for a lot of the poor? It turns a bit positive when the boy sets himself a goal to one day make enough money to buy that mansion, but is that enough? Or is it rather another episode of self-deceiving wishful thinking only?