A TALE OF TWO FAMILIES

The con is on in Bong Joon-ho’s genresubverting Parasite.

Filmmaker Bong Joonho calls his latest endeavour, Parasite, ‘a comedy without clowns, a tragedy without villains’. It’s no wonder then that the line between sympathy and loathing is constantly redrawn throughout the film.

Parasite opens with the Kim family struggling to make ends meet, sitting in squalor in their basement flat (it’s frequently used as a latrine by passers-by). Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) is given an opportunity to lie his way into a lucrative tutoring job for the daughter of the wealthy Park family. The rest of the Kim clan soon follows suit, with his sister employed as an art therapist for the Parks’ young son, his father (played by Bong film regular Song Kang-ho) becoming the chauffeur and eventually his mother replacing the household’s long-serving, soon-to-be disgruntled housekeeper Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin). Perhaps unsurprisingly, their simple scam soon runs off the rails.

It’s a film focused on social stratification, an unfair though nonetheless common injustice that the Kim family takes into their own hands. Cinematographer Hong Gyeong-pyo depicts the social hierarchy literally, from the Parks’ hilltop mansion to the Kims’ lowly flat that lies – both physically and metaphorically – at the bottom of the city.

Bong balances dark drama with unexpected comedy. The humour is often at the expense of the Park family and their blissful ignorance of the swindle taking place under their roof – the full extent of which becomes clear as the film progresses, and Bong proves his worth as a master of horror.

The director has developed a reputation for his ability to tackle uncomfortable subject matter, from harrowing crime drama Memories of Murder (which deals with South Korea’s first serial killer) to genetic modification and animal rights in Okja. His ability in Parasite to tackle fractures in society recently earned him a Palme d’Or award at Cannes – making him the first Korean recipient of the prize.

The notion that one person’s shoes can be easily filled by another isn’t an unfamiliar one

– it was most recently examined in Jordan Peele’s sophomore film, Us. But where Peele’s dark, doppelganger thriller focused on the potential monster in the mirror, Bong leaves viewers unsure of where their sympathies should lie.