The rich are blind to their contribution of making the poor poorer.
"Parasite" is written and directed by Bong Joon-Ho, who also worked on films such as Okja and Snowpiercer.
This review analyses one of the many messages, themes, and symbolism that this film has to offer.
Most of the story will not be spoiled. Watch the film!
Written and directed by Bong Joon-Ho, the Korean film Parasite tells the story of a financially incapacitated family who climb their way out of poverty after the son, Ki-woo, receives a rare opportunity for a high-paying job from a friend. His friend Min-Hyuk will travel abroad to attend a university, so he offers Ki-woo to replace him as an English tutor and suggests he fake his identity to be employed. Min-Hyuk decided to have Ki-woo act as his substitute since he and his minor student Da-hye are engaged in a romantic relationship, and Min-Hyuk plans to woo her when she goes to college.
The family's streak of luck starts when Min-Hyuk, in his grandfather's insistence, gifts them with a stone that brings material wealth to families. As Ki-woo and his sister Ki-jeong forge documents for his fake identity, a predominant sentiment surfaces: that while Ki-woo does not view the fraudulence as a crime, he plans to attend Yonsei University next year. Later on in the film, his father Kim Ki-taek would say a best plan is having no plan at all, and this reflects on how the film's ending can be interpreted.
Ki-woo meets Mrs. Park Yeon-kyo who introduces him to her children Da-hye and Da-song. He eventually suggests recruiting Ki-jeong as Da-song's art teacher, and the siblings blabber their way into getting employed. The family hatches a plan to have all four of them working for the Park family.
Each act has a corresponding atmosphere, genre, subplot, and theme; all of which are still made coherent. The first act has a light undertone with comedic set up. The second act maintains the comedy while fleshing out hints as to where an ominous narrative could begin. The third act ultimately drops off the extras; the parts meant to throw off suspicious viewers, and shows its darker and deeper story.
The film is quick to paint the family as opportunistic con artists leeching their resources from other people. The bourgeoisie are revered as both graceful and vigorous, while the marginalised are subservient and motivated by impulses. Writer-director Joon-Ho introduces so much information to throw off audiences, yet still manages to keep their interest as he paves way for the main plot line. The underlying message could reveal how power can influence how people view one another, with the rich intelligent individuals engrossed in their puny problems and one dimensional conflict with the poor, and the impoverished struggling families obeying the powerful in order to gain opportunities, experience leisure, and eventually adopting condescension.
At first glance, it may seem as if the film puts marginalised people in a bad light; that they are parasites that live to desecrate well-off families and the communities they thrive in. The film only hints how affluent families view people's significance based on the purpose they serve in their life. These characters never thought of hearing their opinions, hence setting up a chain of events that stimulated the plot's advance from beginning to its unforeseen end.
There is an ultimate truth to how this message is packaged. Throw the audience off with the naive and motherly nature of Mrs. Park and her active relationship with her husband. Show them how a kind middle class family could be affected by the decisions of disenfranchised people, how vulnerable they are to cunning and treacherous individuals who want them for their money. Show how poor people's disempowerment make them do evil deeds just so they can have a better life.
And then show how they can be as disdainful as those in power; a cycle of gaining advantage against each other.