Parasite a.k.a. toilet trouble is an understatement

Bong Joon-ho, a South Korean writer, director is by now one of the most well known filmmakers in the world. His story telling is usually formed via the mediums of monsters (Host, 2006), black comedy (Okja, 2017) and politics (Snowpiercer, 2013). Class discrimination is a golden thread running through this latest installment (as it did in SP). It did well at the Oscars and has been highly praised by critics and fans. I wouldn't say this was the best film I've ever seen but using the broader concept of 'family' to drive the narrative was probably more accessible for a wider audience than say a series of relentlessly gruesome events that unfold upon a dystopian train going nowhere.

The Kim family are almost beyond destitute. The Kim's son gets a job as an English tutor to the daughter of the wealthy Park family. Together the Kim's scheme to replace all the domestic attendants to the Park's. All goes swimmingly until desperation takes hold. The former housekeeper, unbeknownst to the Park's, has a husband - besotted with Mr. Park - living in the basement. Various altercations between them and the Kim's results in the death of said housekeeper and almost everyone else. The Kim's son escapes death but suffers blows to the head by the deranged basement lurker using the Kim's Suseok (scholar stone), brain damaged for life. Mr. Kim murders Mr. Park for being a snob and the lurker is literally skewered by the fatally wounded Mrs. Kim. Mr. Kim escapes to the basement and awaits his discovery by his son, via Morse code: he uses the light switch in the basement connected to a light fitting up in the house.

Are the Kim's the parasites of the movie, as well the basement dweller and his desperate wife? At face value sure. Are the Park's also the parasites leeching off the supposed unequal distribution of wealth and class discrimination of the times? Possibly. Although that's a bit of stretch. Maybe. Either way I'm not too concerned. Both files fail to see any value in one another beyond that of a material nature or lack thereof. Mr and Mrs. Kim both seem to value that of which the Park's value. Yet the conversation had between Mr. K and Mr. P behind the bushes dressed as Indians demonstrates a gulf of misunderstanding about what either truly values: family. They're both snobs in that respect. Are the Kim's love for one another any more valuable because they lack the wealth and associated pomp of the Park's? Hardly. Ignorance here breeds tragedy.

I enjoyed Parasite quite a bit but if I'm honest it was mostly down to the comedic aspects of the flick. Timing has a lot to with it too given the current pandemic and its unfortunate consequences affecting the world over. The scene in which the entire basement is flooded with the daughter plonked resignedly on top of the porcelain, with its never ceasing explosions of sewage, smoking a cigarette, not only summed up 2020 perfectly for me but also the entire tone of the film. Try as we might, when shit sometimes comes your way, there's no two ways around it. And if you're born in it? Well, the struggle is real. That old adage "Shit or get off the pot" sure needs a rethink if the 'shit' in question is trying to shoot back up your arse.

This has been more of a philosophical musing/stream of consciousness and a tawdry one at best as opposed to a highlight reel of my favourite moments and quotes. Either way I'd recommend watching it for the sake of it. You'll have a good time so long as you don't get bogged down in the politics of it all.

4 simply crap finger paintings out of 5