Parasite (5/5 Stars)

Once upon a time there were two families, one rich and one poor. The rich lived at the top of the hill. At the bottom lived the poor. “Parasite” is the latest effort from writer/director Bong Joon Ho (“The Host”, “Okja”). Its scope is specific, it concerns itself with two families in Seoul, South Korea, one rich and one poor and takes place almost entirely within two homes. Its effect is broad. I expect families all over the world regardless of location or language would immediately understand the themes. Like most great cinema, “Parasite” finds in the details a larger universal truth. No wonder this Korean film won the Palme D’or a Cannes and has grossed over $100 million outside South Korea. I think this movie has the better chance at a Best Picture Oscar than any other foreign language film I have ever seen.

The poor family’s name is Kim. The patriarch is played by Kang-ho Song, the only actor I recognized. The parents are unemployed and the family earns the rent for his basement apartment by taking on gig jobs like folding pizza boxes. One day, the son is presented with an opportunity to be recommended as a English language tutor for daughter of the Park family, the rich family at the top of the hill. The son asks the school friend that wants to recommend him for the job: “Why pick a loser like me?” The school friend explains that he has a crush on the rich daughter and does not want to recommend a tutor that the daughter would ever consider. The poor son takes no offense. He know he is poor.

Deceit is required to be hired. Educational degrees are forged. The rich mother (played here by Yea-Jeong Jo) is particularly gullible and says things that make the poor son believe she could be further deceived. Step by step the Kims insert themselves into employment in the Park household. The poor daughter becomes the art therapist for the rich son. The poor father becomes the chauffeur of the rich father. The poor mother becomes the full-time maid. The Parks are not exactly being taken advantage. The Kims are totally competent and do their jobs well. The people that suffer are the other employees the Kims succeed in defaming and having terminated. The Parks are more unaware than anything. The Kims are

Now we are at the midpoint of the movie. The Parks leave town for a camping trip. In the night, the old housekeeper comes back claiming she has forgotten something in the basement. At this point, the movie twists in a weird, suspenseful, and supremely satisfying way that all marketing have deftly avoided spoiling. I too would not dream of saying anymore about the plot and from here on out will only wax philosophical.

In one scene, the Kims are discussing the Parks. The poor son says, “They are rich, but nice.” The mother disagrees: “The are nice because they are rich. If I were rich, I would be soooo nice.”

And why wouldn’t the Parks be nice people? They are secure and comfortable and are treated nicely by everyone they meet. One would be tempted to conclude that it is the poor Kims that are treating the rich Parks poorly. But then an unexpected tragedy occurs, and the rich Parks, in particular the naïve rich mother, perform an act so extraordinarily insensitive that it approaches cruelty, except of course, that the Parks have no idea that they are acting cruelly because the Kims have been so thoroughly dishonest. Mayhem follows and the movie resolves itself in such an unexpected symmetry that the story elevates itself into the realm of timeless parable.

What is the responsibility of the Parks to know what is going on around them? How much fault do the Kims have for their part in sheltering the Parks. I was reminded by the chapter in Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” where the protagonist, a black student at a black college in the south, accidentally chauffeurs a white trustee of the college to the wrong side of town. The white trustee is appalled by the poverty, seemingly seeing it for the first time. Back at the college, the black college president expels the student for showing the white trustee the poor conditions of the community. As the black college president explains, his power over the protagonist comes from his efforts to make the whites feel good about themselves and he does this by keeping from them societal truths. That is not so different from the story of the Kims and Parks. The rich live in bliss on the clouds. Down below the starving poor eat each other.