Movie Review: Parasite - A Masterpiece of Life Lessons

 Parasite (2019) directed by Bong Joon Ho. Photo: socialnews

Hello, welcome back to my blog! As usual, I will do my best to write my own thoughts or opinions on this blog. Hope you enjoy it! 

Today, I would like to write a review about a movie that has influenced my life. This movie is also one of my favorites and the title is “Parasite”. Parasite is a Korean movie that premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2019. This 132-minute black comedy thriller movie features many life lessons. Directed by Bong Joon-ho, this movie also has received lots of international awards. Starring Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, and Park So-dam, this movie won the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and Best Foreign Language Film at the 77th Golden Globe Awards. Then, one of the proudest achievements is that Parasite won four awards at the 92nd Academy Awards (Oscars 2020) for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film. No wonder the movie has earned $245.9 million and is called a masterpiece that you must watch by many people.

Parasite tells about the Kim family, (Ki-taek, Ki-woo, Ki-jung, Choong-sook) that live in the semi-basement of South Korean. They just make a living by folding pizza boxes. Until one day, the son, Ki-woo met his friend who suddenly gave him a job. His friend offered him a job to become an English teacher for a girl from a wealthy family, Park family. From here, the complex story begins. Armed with a fake certificate of graduation, Ki-woo and his sister, Ki-jung managed to get their poor family to work in the rich family's house. As time passes, they become greedy and feel that all wealth belongs to them. Matches to the title, this poor family becomes a ‘Parasite’ in the rich family's house.

Parasite tries to emphasize that there is an imbalance of social class in this world. How the poor family has to struggle with their life and the rich only look down on them. If you can’t treat them better, you can help the poor by treating them with respect. Sometimes, society makes them as the one that should understand and be grateful for anything they get. In this movie scene, the way Mr. Park looks down on the Kim family because of their bad smell, it already shows that Mr. Park underestimated those who were not on his level. Moreover when Ki-jung was stabbed by Geun-sae (the man living in the bunker), Mr. Park didn’t even call the ambulance and let her die. Mr. Kim got angry and killed Mr. Park. So, I got the point that you may have everything in the world, but if you can’t respect others the karma will get you.

On the other hand, from Parasite I could also see that there is no instant way to achieve our big dream. When Ki-woo who uses a fake graduation certificate to get a job and fools the Park family, it’s totally wrong. You can't just normalize the use of simple methods to get bigger things as a great solution. You might end up in failure or even worse than before. Just enjoy the process and trust me you will get the best at the proper time.

Parasite is amazing in every aspect, not only the casts who really brought their characters to life in this short movie but also the cinematography they used. The cinematographer really did a good job. They can feature the design of two family houses which have different life backgrounds with a deep meaning. The impressive lighting also had a great impact on how we perceive the characters feelings of and the setting itself. In conclusion, the Parasite movie deserves to receive a lot of international awards.

References:

Baker, L. (Feb 27, 2020). Cinematography Breakdown: Creating the Look of Parasite. Retrieved from <https://www.premiumbeat.com/>

Kench, S. (April 20, 2020). Parasite Movie Analysis, Synopsis and Ending Explained (Video Essay). Retrieved from <https://www.studiobinder.com>

Menard. (April 12, 2020). Life Lessons from the Korean Movie “Parasite”. Retrieved from <https://www.millionairebefore50.com/>