Parasite |
South Korea • 2019 • 132m •
 • Directed by: Joon-ho Bong. • Starring: Kang-ho Song, Sun-kyun Lee, Yeo-jeong Jo, Woo-sik Choi, Hye-jin Jang, So-dam Park, Kang Echae, Andreas Fronk, Jung Hyeon-jun, Pak Hyo-Shin, Jung Ik-Han, Lee Joo-Hyung, Jeong-eun Lee. • Music by: Jaeil Jung.    All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.
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Review:
A few months ago when the trailer for Gisaengchung (Parasite) came out, I was really hooked; the trailer gave off that eerie vibe (remotely reminded me of Midsommar by Ari Aster) which I found really intriguing. Seeing all the positive reviews on multiple websites, hearing that this film won at the Cannes Festival and understanding the genius of Bong from his previous films, I had very high expectations.
Here are some of my main points to why I don't love this movie:
1. Acting: The first 10~15 minutes were rather painful to watch. Perhaps it would hit differently for foreigners watching with subtitles, but the unnatural lines and the poor delivery made it really hard for me to focus on the characters. I think the poor acting performance gets better throughout the film, but the Jo Yeo-Jung (mother of rich family)'s acting just felt too out of place and cringey. Perhaps that was the point: to make it look awkward and artificial (especially with the sprinkling of English words) to poke fun at the rich class and their pretentiousness. I understand this is social satire, but the execution was not very convincing. If done properly, I feel like it could and should be subtle yet piercing. I would have had to hated her guts, wanting her to die or her close people to die, but I was barely filled with such emotions. She treats her maid a little too well, and her tone just isn't all that condescending or demeaning. Seemed more like a typical Korean woman freakishly obsessed with her children's education; not a greedy, disgusting woman who doesn't deserve her wealth and privilege.
2. Poorly writtenPredictable Plot: I don't the writers tried too hard writing the script for this movie, especially in the beginning where Park Seo-Jun (the tall, smart dude who used to teach Ki-Jung, the daughter of rich family) refers Ki-Woo (son of poor family) as a private tutor. Ki-Woo seemed too smooth with it (not to mention their entire family) even though it is implied that he has never done this before (in the scene where he drinks with Park, the ex-tutor). The film makes it seem like Ki-Woo and their entire family are expert con-artists who screwed up rich families all their lives. That transition was just too abrupt and unconvincing with very little build up.
Now I want to talk about my main point, and perhaps my main pet peeve about this film: predictability. The element of surprise and keeping the audience at the edge of their seats is what drives us crazy and get excited: questioning every scene, line, action of the characters.
However, many aspects of the movie were predictable. I felt like I was always two to three pages ahead of the script throughout the movie: how Ki-Woo will soon bring in her sister after getting the job and thus bring in the entire family; how the rich family will soon return from their camping trip due to the thunderstorm, to screw up the poor family that threw a party in the mansion-ish house. I also do not understand how the sex scene on top of Ki-Tae (dad of poor family) and his kids hiding under the table contributed to the plot. I wish they focused more on the class struggle, the main theme of this movie, and develop on that. The rich dad is the guy who is remotely the obnoxious, successful man who disdainfully looks down upon the poor (bc of his hate for Ki-Tae's smell, which is later the reason Ki-Tae kills the rich dad), but I feel like they could have painted him with a more obnoxious, cunning, and elitist personality. I didn't want or need the rich guy to die at the end, meaning that I wasn't in Ki-Tae's shoes as much as I wanted to and was supposed to, due to lack of character development and build-up.
3. Execution: The theme of this movie is banal; but that doesn't matter because I believe execution and delivery are essential elements in story-telling. To bring up Breaking Bad, as much of a masterpiece it is, the plot, although extremely well executed and developed, isn't all THAT ground-breaking. A poor, depressed guy turning the tables around (rather dramatically) is a recurring theme in movies (American dream movies, super hero movies, and more. I am not discrediting Breaking Bad in any matter. The show's plot is unparalleled, not because of where it started but because of how it developed. How Walter became a criminal mastermind. How Jesse became so vulnerable. How the tables have turned so drastically.
In Parasite, there is no development nor shock value (especially as to how the poor family will tear apart the rich family, perhaps so because of the title haha). I don't feel connected to the poor family. Their motives are weak and unfounded: they are mere criminals (now I can't say that their financial struggles is deserved or not because that is a whole another issue), but there is just too little build-up. Like I said, they just seem too smooth of criminals who's been in the field for decades.
Conclusion: I have been chewing on this ever since I finished watching, but it could be that Bong didn't intend to hit on the points I made; like he didn't feel like he needed to add a strong shock value, or that the poor family needed more build-up. But overall, the plot was too predictable and unconvincing. I saw little pain and suffering of the poor; I wanted to see more jealousy and contempt towards the inequality; perhaps make the rich dad a corrupt CEO? Not just a regular man who's in the tech industry? I didn't feel bad for the poor family, nor did I feel disgusted by the rich family. I didn't think that the rich dude needed to die; I definitely don't think this family didn't deserve that, when in fact I should be triumphantly cheering for Ki-Tae to just go out on a killing spree. Him hiding in the basement was also very obvious. Would have been cool if they didn't reveal that and just show the malfunctioning light blink at a certain pattern, indirectly letting the audience know that Ki-Tae, who was supposedly gone missing, had hid in the basement. Showing not telling (done exquisitely in No Country for Old Men). Instead Bong put a longnarrative in the end which was not inspiring, shocking, nor meaningful. Bong just had the actor explain the whole thing in paragraphs.
ProposalBiggest Regret: Where I think they really could have taken this movie off was when the rich family cancelled their camping trip and came back: the family finding out about how the poor family was stabbing them from behind, and thus the rich family just mercilessly oppressing the poor family with extreme measures. That is the only part where I was curious about what was going to happen. I think that was where Bong could have given us some insight into the cruel, unfair, and corrupt capitalist society that he is (supposedly) trying to criticize and writing this satire about.
Just some thoughts. Although I am in the never-ending search for good movies, I am no expert. I was just confused at how ppl thought this is Bong's greatest movie ever or even the best film of the 21st century for that matter.
Review by jasonjason-33756 from the Internet Movie Database.
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