Parasite is a dark comedic thriller that offers a gory picture of how people are too oblivious for their own good.
According to the film, privilege provides a bubble so thick that it takes multiple people being stabbed in your yard to pop that bubble. If you were surrounded by people bleeding out on your lawn, would you notice that one of them stank before you fished your car keys out from under his dying body? Wealth makes people oblivious to the struggles of others and Parasite does a perfect job of pounding this through your head until you’re clinging to the seat in front of you.
This movie starts out innocently enough. A family who lives in South Korea, called the Kim family, is struggling to make enough money to live when a friend of the son offers him a tutoring job teaching English to the daughter of a rich family, the Park family. The Parks want a university student, which the son of Mr. Kim is not, but that does not matter since his sister is quite adept at forgery. And so begins the thread of manipulation and lies.
Parasite takes the “ignorance is bliss” mentality to the extreme.
Before long, the Kim family has taken over the job of every employee the Park family had, using questionable means to get these positions. For a little while, things seem perfectly fine for both families, but everything slips downhill quicker than you might expect.
Parasite is a South Korean movie directed by Bong Joon-ho, with 100 percent of the dialogue in Korean with English subtitles. It portrays how blind rich people, like the Park family, can be because they have no reason to pay attention to the undesirable parts. Their life is perfect, so why would anyone question it? Parasite takes the “ignorance is bliss” mentality to the extreme. Even when someone is lying with his head cracked open in their kitchen, the Park family does not notice.
I highly recommend this movie. It is painful to watch, but it still manages to be hilarious by keeping the audience laughing even in the darkest moments. You leave wondering what is going on in the world that you are oblivious to.
The acting is also incredible, with each character playing their part perfectly. The actors who play the Kim family seem as though they really are a family, with the dynamic and chemistry handled perfectly. It is certainly not a large cast, with only about 11 people who have more than a couple minutes on screen, but the characters make you forget this fact and the screen is always full of lively performances.
The new film Parasite gives examples of how blissfully oblivious people with privilege can be of their surroundings. It succeeds in showcasing the director’s talent while creating representation in Hollywood.