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Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite eats away at the soul

Parasite. Co-written and directed by Bong Joon-ho. Starring Choi Woo-shik, Song Kang-ho and Yeo-Jeong Jo.
Parasite
Simon Fraser University grad Choi Woo-Shik plays the son, Ki Woo, in Bong Joon-Ho’s latest film, Parasite, screening at Cineplex Odeon International Village and Fifth Avenue Cinemas.

Parasite. Co-written and directed by Bong Joon-ho. Starring Choi Woo-shik, Song Kang-ho and Yeo-Jeong Jo. Rating: 9 (out of 10)

Parasite is a darkly comic social satire, a tremendously twisted take on Upstairs, Downstairs (staircases feature prominently), and a statement about the wide economic and social divide in contemporary South Korea.

But the recent Palme d’Or winner at Cannes from master filmmaker Bong Joon-ho (Snowpiercer, The Host) could have been set anywhere. “Thanks for this bounteous Wi-Fi,” says our decidedly Have-Not family over a dinner of vending machine snacks. Ki Woo (Simon Fraser University grad Choi Woo-Shik), his parents and sister are living in a sub-basement flat, scamming wifi off the neighbour and getting odd jobs wherever they can, weary of the drunks who pee against their street-level window.

Thanks to a trusting college friend, Ki Woo is given an opportunity to tutor a wealthy family’s high school-aged daughter in English. Armed as he is with forged documents, we aren’t sure whether or not Ki Woo will pull it off, but he wins over both mother and daughter (Yeo-Jeong Jo, Jung Siso) with a few easy lines. An opportunity and a lie or two later, Ki Woo, now called Kevin by the Park family, has secured a job for his sister, too.

You know what’s coming: father and mother soon insinuate themselves into the wealthy family, all while pretending to be strangers to one another. Only the wild young son (Jung Hyeon Jun) senses something is amiss: “They all smell the same,” Da Song says to no one in particular.

At first the family can’t believe their luck. Then they start to resent a life that seems to come too easily for the Parks. When Kevin’s sister “Jessica” (Park So-dam) comments on how nice the family is, mom snaps “Hell, if I had all this money, I’d be nice too.” Money, she notes “irons out all the wrinkles.” Insensitive comments from the Parks about how the other half live don’t help matters: Mrs. Park muses about what it must be like to ride the subway; Mr. Park (Lee Sun-kyun) declares that people of a certain class smell like radish, or a boiled rag. “I can’t stand people who cross the line,” Mr. Park says, which translates to “I can’t stand people who don’t know their place.”

Familiarity breeds resentment; resentment breeds contempt. A sinister plan seems to be brewing but is cut short by the sudden reappearance of someone with a strange secret to share. And if you thought you knew where this film was going, think again.

Parasite
Cinematographer Kyung-pyo Hong, who also lensed the visually impressive Snowpiercer, returns to work with Bong Joon-ho on Parasite. - Supplied

The film zigs and zags a little but is consistently sharp and surprisingly funny before it turns violent. Every one of the characters feels like a real person, like someone you know. Some of the characters do bad things but are good people; some do little at all and pay the price. Director Bong Joon-ho passes no judgment on the characters he created with screenwriter Han Jin-won, but has much to say about the effect that greed has on us all.

A standing ovation to cinematographer Kyung-pyo Hong, who also lensed the visually impressive Snowpiercer, for setting the perfect tone. Those staircases don’t just lead up to bedrooms and down to cellars, and to places beyond. Even the journey from the Park family’s spacious, sunny aerie to Ki Woo’s family’s sub-basement flat seems to be straight downhill, down staircases and labyrinthine streets, wires criss-crossing oppressively like a grate above.

Things get a little weird, as only a film with a mystical rock, morse code and a meaty murder weapon can. Best to know as little as possible going in to Parasite, which won the Super Channel People’s Choice Award at VIFF. The final scenes are just, and sad, and will have you talking long after you leave the theatre.