We’ve only been through the middle of 2019, but I think that I can mark the fact that I experienced the cinema event of the year, or at least one of the important events of the year in movies. This is the film by Korean director Joon-ho Bong, ‘Gisaengchung‘ / ‘Parasite‘. It has already received ‘Palme d’Or’ at the Cannes festival, and this time I believe that the jury’s choice is extremely appropriate. ‘Parasite‘ is a profound and complex cinematographic work, which does not hesitate to ask painful questions about the huge differences between the social classes and the deep prejudices that divide them in today’s world, but it does so in an elegant and expressive way, with images. and characters who have a chance to remain in the memory of the spectators for a long time, causing them to reflect but also engaging them with a captivating story.
At the center of the story of the film are two families from today’s South Korea, located at the two extremes of the society. The Parks live in a spacious and luxurious villa, full of works of art and surrounded by green landscape. He is the CEO of a large company, she is a spoiled housewife, the kids, a girl and a boy are even more spoiled. They are all surrounded by servants, drivers, tutors for children. The Kis live crammed into an unhealthy half-underground flat. The parents are unemployed, their children are smart young people, but with little chance of overcoming their social condition because of the poverty. The homes of the two families play a significant role in the story, the luxury and order of the Parks’ villa hides secrets, while the claustrophobic disorder of the Kis’ family home is similar to that of the family in the movie ‘Shoplifters‘ of the Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda. The destinies of two families accidentally intersect when the boy in the poor family becomes (with the help of forged references) the private tutor of the daughter of the rich family. As relationships intensify, cultural differences seem to diminish, the less fortunate family being equal or even superior in adapting to life and in the cultural interactions. Until about halfway through the movie, the audience is watching a social satire in a light style, a kind of ‘rich family vs. poor family’ story. And then everything changes.
A few weeks ago, writing about another Korean film, I noticed that many of the films that came from there defy genre cataloging and combine different styles into original and surprising mosaics. ‘Parasite‘ is yet another example in this regard. We have here manifested social satire, melodrama, humor, love among teenagers, horror in the Gothic style, comments on art, a natural catastrophe, neo-realistic poverty and soap operas wealth. Stanley Kubrick and Yorgos Lanthimos are quoted. The natural tendency of the spectator to take the part of the oppressed in the class conflict that takes place in front of us is put to the test by the events that happen on the screen. ‘Parasite‘ is an excellently acted movie, filmed in style, a story with many ramifications and meanings, which will not be easily forgotten by the spectators and which gives them material to think about the society and the world in which we live.