PARASITE (2019) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Bong Joon Ho
Song Kang Ho, Lee Sun Kyun, Cho Yeo Jeong,
Choi Woo Shik, Park So Dam, Lee Jung Eun
Scenes from the class struggle in South Korea, about a slum family just trying to scrape by and the affluent family that employs them. There's a touch of Luis Buñuel's "The Exterminating Angel" in this, but the movie goes its own way. There's nobody to root for, really. You'd be inclined to sympathize with the working-class family - you admire their resilience and determination and devotion to each other - but there's also a casual ruthlessness in the way they deceive and even ruin people to get where they want to go. If their upper-class counterparts aren't necessarily evil, they are condescending and clueless. There's a smugness about them you sometimes see in privileged people, who either don't realize how smug they are, or just don't care. A key scene occurs toward the end, when the mother of the rich family and the father of the poor one are together in the Mercedes. He's behind the wheel, driving, and she's riding in the back seat. A devastating rainstorm has hit Seoul and left the man's family homeless. He's just spent the night in a crowded gym, and hasn't had a chance to wash or change clothes. All the woman can talk about is what a blessing the rain is because it's left the air smelling fresh and clean. The chauffeur's face hardens as the woman rattles on. She doesn't get it. She never will. There's a lot of talk about metaphors in this, and the movie's full of them. If you watch it, see if you can figure out what they all signify, and who or what the parasite of the title refers to.
