Deborah Ross

Satire, thriller, comedy all in one: ‘Parasite’ reviewed

Bong Joon-ho's award-winning film is satire, thriller, comedy, allegory and horror all rolled into one

Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite won the Bafta for best foreign film and is up for six Oscars and it is an involving drama. And satire. And thriller. And comedy. And allegory. And it is fabulous and enthralling on all those counts. It works on every level which is, perhaps, fitting for a film about levels and whether you are at the top or bottom in life. Essentially, it’s the story of a low-status family who gaslight a high-status family so it’s Crazy Rich Asians but Crazy Poor Asians too. Plus, it features the grimmest child’s birthday party ever. It is also a horror flick, I forgot to say.

It’s set in South Korea where we are introduced to the Kim family who are poor and scuttle around their slum basement apartment while leeching their wifi from the business upstairs and trying to do as little work as is possible to get by. There’s dad Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho), mum, Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin), a twentysomething daughter, Ki-jung (Park So-dam) and a teen son, Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik).

The plot kicks in when Ki-woo’s friend, who tutors the schoolgirl daughter of a rich family, says he’s going abroad and offers Ki-woo the gig. Ki-jung duly forges the educational diplomas Ki-woo needs (she has a way with Photoshop) and off he goes to the super-swish home — all glass and lawn sprinklers — of the obscenely wealthy Park family. Here, he quickly spots an opening for his sister as an ‘art therapist’ to the Park’s pampered little boy — he’s spectacularly ungifted at art but a doting Mrs Park (Jo Yeo-jeong) thinks otherwise; very funny — while his parents also become part of the household. Chung-sook becomes housekeeper although for her to take that position they must first incriminate the incumbent housekeeper.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in