A disturbing story of class struggles

Rating: 7/10 (9 February 2020)

In the opening scene of Parasite, a family struggles to get the WiFi signal in their phone. Ki-Woo gets on top of the shelf and manages to catch the singal. This scene describes the entire film: a family of poor people trying to reach the top. They devise a cunning plan and the entire family gets into the house of a rich family, fooling them in the process. What follows is a story that sometimes struggles to maintain a brisk pace.
The film is loaded with metaphors. Beneath all those metaphors, is the concept of disparity between the poor and the rich. The rich, oblivious to the plight of the people who work under them, continue to lead a life sucking on the blood of the poor. This is shown in the scene where a man hiding in the basement of the house of Mr. Park switches on the lights in the stairs everyday when Mr.Park comes home. Mr.Park however believes that is the work of the motion sensors.
There is even the fight among the poor to get their hands on the wealth of the rich. The entire second half of the film is not about the tensions between the Parks and their servants. It is between two groups of servants of the family, each trying to suppress the other.
The idea that the Parks live in a house unaware of a man living in their basement is an allusion to the perpetual, simmering tensions between the working class and the affluent.
The final moments of the film are a complete mess with violence and bloodshed. Critics of Joker should have spoken about this too. The hate the poor have towards the rich is more pronounced in this film than in Joker.
Leaving aside the social commentary, the pacing of the film is very irregular. There are scenes that bursts with energy and freshness and there are those that test the patience. Also, the reason why Mr.Park gets killed is obscure. May be, Kang-Ho song was pushed to his limit. May be, Mr.Park crossed the line, which Kang-Ho song didn't. May be he was anguished when his daughter gets stabbed. May be, it is the combination of all those reasons.
Parasite is a disturbing film that will leave an indelible mark on you. Still, the screenplay loses its focus in a many scenes.