#da-song

For some reason, everyone and their grandma decided to see this movie.

It’s a testament to the power of word of mouth. This movie had no business making 250 million dollars. Bong’s last foreign film, Mother, made 17 million worldwide, but Parasite killed because everybody who saw it told others to go see it.

So why did Parasite take the world over quicker than the Kim family took over the Park’s?

Because it’s a great movie.

Without great characters, a film like Parasite would be boring. Luckily, Parasite has a better ensemble of amazing characters than any film in years.

We have 8 main characters, not all of these characters are fascinating and three dimensional, but they are all relatable, likable, and add to the story.

We have Ki-jung. She's cunning, that’s her character. We enjoy watching her because we all want to be like her. She’s a power fantasy. There’s nothing wrong with that when used well in a movie, it can be really cool. Tarantino has used this archetype to create some of the best characters in fiction, like Jules in Pulp Fiction.

Then there’s Da-hye. She’s stupid and horny. We’ve all been stupid and horny at one point, so we enjoy watching her. She is also used to great effect to change Ki-jung’s character.

Next is Da-song, he is an immature kid. We’ve all been around immature kids, so we understand the frustration the other characters feel at this little boy.

There’s my personal favorite character, Mrs. Park. She’s gullible, naïve, and probably incapable of doing anything. It’s funny to watch the Kim family run circles around her, even if she is a good person. It’s like watching Wipe out. When incompetent people fail, it’s fun.

Her foil is the matriarch of the Kim family. She is brutal and competent, she takes the whole willing to do anything for the well being of her family to a whole new level. But we all have points where we want to be brutal and unforgiving. She is probably the worst person in the film, but we understand why.

The two fathers also contrast. Mr. Park is interesting because he’s a man consumed by his own privilege. You can tell if this was some stupid American Movie he would be running around screaming “Oh my god look at those poor people why don’t they just make money” He’d be a villain so the audience was happy with his ending. Instead, because this movie isn’t fucking stupid, we have a rich guy who is a real person.

He cares about his family and he doesn’t go out of his way to hurt anybody, but he’s also kind of a dick. His ignorance is shown by the singular way which he looks at his servants. That’s what makes him interesting. You can’t blame him for being ignorant, but you also can’t help but dislike him because of it.

Then there is Mr. Kim. The buildup to his murder of Mr. Park is one of the most fascinating parts of this film. I didn’t notice it on the first viewing, but the second and third time watching I realized these moments in Song Kang-ho’s performance that telegraph this moment far in advance. Little things like how upset he gets at Mr. Park talking about his smell shows this.

He is the one that is the most pissed off that these idiots are the ones who are rich, so it makes sense that he’s gonna snap when he’s under the emotional stress of his daughter just getting killed. I realized this doesn’t come out of nowhere, it’s a last straw.

The character sort of is an audience stand in. He gets as pissed off as we do with Mr. Park’s ignorance, everyone else in the film accepts what Mr. Park feels as a fact of life.

Finally, the closest thing to a main character, Ki-woo. He is the man who sets the story in motion by getting the tutoring position. He is governed by blind ambition, the puppet master behind the entire plot. He feels this endless desire to advance as easily as possible, and it’s what leads to his destruction.

This is a great main character because we completely understand everything he wants and we sympathize with it. Everybody desires to be successful. Everyone wants to make their family proud. We just might not be willing to go as far as Ki-woo does. Even if we don’t agree with what he’s doing, the audience respects the ambition.

He also has a real arc, at the beginning he wants to take the shortest route and at the end he wants to take the legitimate route, sure it’s a simple arc, but it’s very effective. This makes the events of the film important to him on a deeper psychological level than the other characters.

We have 8 great characters, played by 8 great actors who are giving the film their all. Even the kid is a good actor, I don’t remember the last time a film had a large ensemble of characters that I was this connected to. But that’s not even the best element of the story.

Parasite's best feature is it’s plot. It's twisty and turn and incredibly suspenseful. It’s also one of the best movies I’ve ever seen at adeptly combining multiple genres.

So the film starts out as a comedy, it’s a movie about a bunch of poor people as they attempt to climb the social ladder. There’s hilarious lines like “It’s a chimpanzee right” “No, a self portrait.” There’s even some slapstick stuff near the beginning with that guy who pisses on the main character.

About a quarter of the way through the film, it becomes a crime flick. Things like the peach scene are reminiscent of a meticulously planned heist. There are less jokes, although there is still a comedic element. The focus switches to be more on the scheming of the family.

It feels like the film is going to follow the direction of a crime film, where the family is slowly adapting in order to not get discovered until they eventually are discovered in the third act creating conflict. But that would be too obvious for Bong.

So this happens…

Now the film is a goddamn horror movie. With a monster in the basement, claustrophobic cinematography, and bloody murder.

We get the ending to the second act, which is legitimately hard to breathe during. It’s so suspenseful watching these characters attempt to escape the house because you know it could realistically go either way. The story would work if they are found or if they escape. You want them to escape but you're not sure they will. This creates tension.

After the flooding scene, there’s the insane climax. It’s bloody, brutal, and immensely entertaining. The visual language is much brighter and there are less elements of ‘what will happen next’ and more elements of “holy shit this is happening.” In that respect, it’s more of a thriller. However, it still has horror elements, most thrillers do.

So you may think, after cycling through 4 genres in two hours Parasite would be done. But nope it has one left, the final scene turns into a drama where the hungry protagonist dreams of his life getting better following the tragedy that just befell him. A rags to riches drama is the epilogue.

Also it’s a social commentary the entire time. So that’s another element.

We have 6 different genres all rolled up into one film. They are all organically woven into each other and entertaining both by themselves and when put together. It is a fine line that the film rides with style. A great plot with great characters, what else do you need for a great story. I’ll tell you what will certainly help.

Parasite comes chock full of Symbolism and Visual Metaphors, which helps make it one of the most re-watchable movies I have ever seen.

The most obvious symbol is that of height. Bong immediately starts this by putting the Kim families home in a basement. This telegraphs to the audience that the lower you are, the poorer you are. It’s a simple yet effective metaphor that is developed throughout the film.

A lot of the social advancement takes place on the higher floors. For example, when Ki-woo and Da-hye have their romance that Ki-woo plans to use to advance socially, it is entirely on the upper floor of the house.

Also, at the end of the peach fuzz scene, the Kim family completes the ousting of the maid when Mrs. Park climbs up the stairs.

We don’t see any relevant downward stair climbing again until…

that.

Yes it makes sense that the only thing lower and more decrepit than the Kim families basement is the underground cellar. This once again nails home that the more unfortunate you are, the lower you are.

The final statement is when the Kim family climbs down loads of stairs during the flooding. Even if they don’t know it yet, this metaphor states that their life on top is done with the events of the second act, now they must climb back down to their life of poverty.

The next major symbol is the scholar rock. Interpretatively, this is less clear as far as meaning. But I believe it is directly tied to Ki-woo and his desire for quick social mobility.

So when he gets the rock, he also gets the manner in which he can rise up, his tutoring position. The rock then follows him as he slowly takes over the Park family.

We see it next during the flooding scene, when it literally floats into Ki-woo’s hands. This represents Ki-woo’s ambition still being alive even with what has transpired.

But then, this happens.

This is what convinces me, when Ki-woo has his head smashed by the rock, it is him really having his head smashed in by his own ambition.

The final scene we get is when he puts the rock in the water.

This struck me as odd, as his ambition is very much alive. But, it’s different now. The rock represented quick ambition, it represented him taking the shortcut. Him getting rid of the rock represents his new plan to slowly and legitimately climb the social ladder in order to save his father.

The scholar’s rock is a window into Ki-woo’s character. What Ki-woo feels, the rock shows.

There are other minor symbols, like how, when escaping, Mr. Kim crawls on the floor like a snake, but the final bit of symbolism I want to discuss is in the name of the title itself. Who are the parasites?

The obvious answer would be the Kim’s, they invade the Park’s life and leech off of their wealth. This is what most believe the title referred to, understandably without second thought.

However, I believe the overall message of the social commentary is that they are all the parasites. Every single character leeches off of something, whether it’s the Park’s who leech off the Kim’s labor or the Kim’s who take the Park’s wealth. In this way everyone’s in the film is a parasite in the grand scheme of things. The true message.

It’s probably pretty presumptuous for me to call anything about the Best Picture winning, Palme D’or winning, #25 on IMDB, 250 million dollar grossing, future tv series underrated. But goddamn is the score in this movie underrated.

The main track, Belt of Faith, is great. A lot of people assume this was a baroque composition by someone as lauded as Handel. Nope, this is an original track composed for the film by Jung Jaeil. It’s catchy and fun, not to mention competently written.

There’s the first song, which the script said needed to be “hopefully anxious”. Somehow that crazy ass direction was achieved in an impressive piano piece called ‘opening’.

Not to mention that when it becomes a horror film, the movie treats us to one of the best horror scores in years, such as the track ‘Hellgate.’.

The score is free on youtube and everyone should listen to it. You won’t be sorry.

The editing is one of the most obvious ways that the film switches genres. It changes in order to conform to the tone of the film as the film changes tone.

The editing is stunning, especially in the now famous peach scene. It’s so flowing and gorgeous. If you watch it you can just see how well it all connects, it feels like it’s one shot even with cuts. This isn’t like an Edgar Wright Montage, it’s more like a collection of jump cuts that have been perfectly placed together.

Then you get to something like the fight for the phone scene and it’s all over the place. It’s very disconnected, chaotic, and over-dramatic. The slow-motion gives the impression of a loud, intense fight even with the contrasting sound design.

This shows how the family's high life has been completely interrupted by the monster in the basement. The smooth editing of a crime film is gone, we’re in suspense territory. The editing in this film is consistently as amazing as in the two scenes that I mentioned.

As you’ve probably noticed in the pictures I’ve shown, the cinematography in this film is consistently stellar. But there’s one scene in this film that is a perfect example of a creative mind in complete control of his craft. This shows Bong Joon-ho turning what would normally be a rather uninteresting moment into masterful film making.

It is the art therapy scene.

This scene basically shows Ki-jung trick Mrs. Park into hiring her for an exorbitant wage. It effectively breaks one of film's most basic rules, the 180 rule. Basically, this rule helps the audience spatially understand where everything is by keeping the camera on one side of a 180 degree axis.

In a dialogue scene like this one, breaking the 180 rule is just jarring. It is almost never done as it would distract from the dialogue taking place. Except for in Parasite, where Bong does it brilliantly.

The 180 break follows when Ki-jung correctly states that something happened to Da-song in the first grade.

So why is this so effective?

First off it shows the distress that Mrs. Park is feeling. The shot is jarring just like the news of Ki-jung knowing something happened in the first grade is jarring to Mrs. Park.

But it’s not completely jarring because it also isn’t a cut, instead it’s a tracking shot. This is Bong taking Ki-jung into account. The flowing shot represents how Ki-jung is in complete control of the situation.

So with a single shot, one that shouldn’t be obvious as it breaks a cardinal rule of filmmaking, Bong visually tells us everything about two different characters with completely different emotional states at the same time. This is why I love this goddamn movie.