Real class warfare with a touch of Hitchcock and Billy Wilder.

Rating: 9/10 (16 March 2020)

I must confess to a long time bias against sub titles, like many lazy Americans, I felt like having to read while I watched a movie was just asking too much. Then, a few years ago, I sat down and viewed a DVD of the fully restored SEVEN SAMURAI, and really understood what I had been missing out on for too long, especially when it came to Asian cinema. So when Bong Joon-ho's PARASITE won the Best Picture Oscar, I didn't feel any of the dread at having to listen to a foreign tongue while reading along with the screen that might have come a few years back. Now, after watching last year's Best Picture on Blu Ray, I say that for me, PARASITE is so good, I wasn't aware that I was reading anything after a first few minutes.
Set in South Korea, the film works both as a thriller, and at times, a comedy of manners, along with a strong social commentary theme. I could see strong influences of both Alfred Hitchcock and Billy Wilder in the script, which centers on two families, the Kims and the Parks. The former are stuck in poverty, living in a cramped basement apartment, while the latter are quite wealthy, living in a spacious house, attended by a housekeeper and chauffer. When the Kims' son manages to snag a job as an English tutor to the Parks' teenage daughter, the family has a foot in the door, and soon the rest of the Kims, under false identities, have infiltrated the household, taking over the jobs of therapist to the ADD afflicted younger son, housekeeper and chauffer; finagling to have others fired from the last two jobs in order to obtain them for themselves. The Kims are soon enjoying a newfound prosperity at the expense of their obliviously self absorbed employers. But their deviousness has consequences, and when the former housekeeper shows up one night when the Kims have the Parks' house all to themselves, the story takes a turn no one sees coming. Giving away anymore of the twists the story takes would be unfair, needless to say, this is one of those films that goes in a lot of unexpected places.
There were some things that really stood out for me in this film. One was how well it works as a suspense film, liberally borrowing the situational irony that was a hallmark of Hitchcock - a scene where three of the Kims have to hide themselves in the Park house and attempt to sneak out while Mr. and Mrs. Park go about their intimate business is a great example of this, along with Hitchcock's patented voyeurism. Characters practicing deception was one of Wilder's signature themes, with the consequences of such deceptions playing out in the finale. Second was the theme of class warfare, how the Have-Nots, with their cunning and guile, easily manipulate their supposed Betters, while the latter feel wholly invincible in the superiority their wealth has brought them, making them easy marks. Third was how well the characters are written. The Kims commit reprehensible acts in a cold blooded manner, yet they really do love each other in a way that makes it impossible to totally condemn them. Even the fired housekeeper, who is revealed to have a skeleton in her closet, is motivated by love for a family member. I love films with complicated characters who are more than what they appear to be. The screenplay, written by Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won is a masterpiece of storytelling, especially in the way they introduce a plot twist late in the second act that has only been slightly foreshadowed, and how they get so much story out of small everyday things, like a food allergy, the Morse code that a Boy Scout learns, and the musty scent of a damp basement. This puts me in mind of Vince Gilligan, and his masterful TV shows BREAKING BAD and BETTER CALL SAUL. Lastly, if there is a theme to PARASITE, I would say it is that no matter what the difference in culture may be, human nature is universal.
The acting, especially Song Kang-ho, Jang Hye-jin, Choi Woo-shik, and Park So-dam, as the devious Kims, is exceptional. But real star is director Bong Joon-ho, who won the Best Director Oscar for his work. My choice for Best Picture would have been ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, but I can't be too bummed out when my favorite lost to a movie as good as PARASITE.