Review: “Parasite” is As Twisted As You Might Expect
South Korea’s auteur – Bong Joon Ho has just come up with his latest release “Parasite” on the big screen. The director who previously dabbled in various sci-fi and criminal thriller flick was honored with the highest awards on Cannes Film Festival 2019 for “Parasite”. The movie’s fame quickly transferred to his home country where the movie broke various records like becoming the highest grossing movie this year in South Korea and many more. The film made its way to Indonesia on Friday, 21st of June 2019 on selected chained cinemas mainly on CGV and Cinemaxx theaters. “Parasite” tells the story of two families with significantly different financial income.
Kim family consisting of a father, a mother, and two kids lived in a shabby apartment that can also be said as a dungeon. Father Kim was jobless after he got fired as a driver. His son, Kim Ki-woo struggled to enter college and has tried four times to pursue his education. One day, his friend who already went to college announced that he would depart to another country. He had to find a suitable tutor to fill in his job to teach the kids of the Park family. The park family is known for their wealth and seeing this opportunity, Kim Ki-Woo jumped into it with a planned strategy to live off of their wealth without them realizing it. While carefully placing his family members as staff or assistants to the Park family, he discovered an ugly truth hiding in the corner of the luxurious mansion.
The term ‘parasite’ or gisaengchung is often used in South Korea’s society to describe someone who is leeching off someone’s wealth, power, or intelligence due to their unawareness. Bong Joon Ho beautifully captured the essence of this term while laying out the plot to this film. Since he has already known for delivering an aggravating thriller/crime drama, “Parasite” is not an exception. Throughout the film, we were made to understand the standpoint of the Kim family who lived in poverty and empathized with their actions. However, we also rooted for the Park family to realize that they were being taken advantages of. The dynamics between these two families were absurd, devilish, and oftentimes made us confused about who the protagonist really is.
There is a Korean term called ‘menboong’ that is used to describe a state of mental breakdown. ‘Menboong’ is the perfect reaction to describe “Parasite”. The twist was unpredicted and the actors in this film portrayed their roles perfectly. Bong’s expertise in using metaphors in some of the scenes was unparalleled. Bong Joon Ho has done it again and you sure don’t want to miss this film when it is playing on theaters near you. One of the best thriller/crime film we watched this year for real!
Reviewer: Ayu Wima Fadilah/Editor: Novita Widia
