The greatest thing about Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is that remove the South Korean reference and the film could have been set anywhere. For example, the slums of Chennai or Mumbai and it wouldn’t have made the tiniest difference. Perhaps a quality that endeared itself more to the Academy Awards panel. It’s not possible that you didn’t know, either way, Parasite won the Best Film feature at the 92nd Academy Awards besides Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film. Parasite has started streaming on Amazon Prime; couldn’t have come at a more opportune time when most of the world’s population is under lockdown. Spoilers ahead.  

The Kim family, utterly poor and doing odd jobs to eke out a living, disguise themselves and find work in a wealthy household (the Parks), pretending to not know each other. The tactics they employ to secure the jobs, for the most part, are hilarious and bring the house down. For the curious Georges, the so-called reference to Minsara Kanna ends here, the family joins the household for a different purpose and Parasite is as original as it can get. Despite enchanting themselves as indispensable, they are in for a rude shock, when they find to their dismay that though nice, their bosses don’t see them as equals, worse the class divide though subtle couldn’t have been more shocking. In short, you are not as good as me. Worst, I can’t stand the way you smell even though I have hired you to do the essential chores. However, you see that the younger members of the household, the rich man’s daughter and son don’t treat the family with contempt, subtle or otherwise. Hey, even the wife is nice and gullible until the husband influences her mind, perhaps her stupidity aids him.

Though the comedy is hilarious and delicate for the most part, scenes showcasing the class divide, though mild, hit you hard in the gut. For instance, when the Parks are making love on the sofa, overseeing their son who insists on setting up a tent in the garden in the middle of the night, Mr Park tells his wife that though Kim (who drives the Park family around) is hardworking, his smell transcends to the backseat of the car. This later pushes the wife to cover her nose and all this way before the youngest of the Park family, an adorable Da-song (character name) says they all smell the same, but merely as an observation.

When Kim’s daughter is stabbed, Park bellows at him for the car keys to take his wounded son Da-song to the hospital, caring two hoots about the poor girl. Even here, Kim is just in mild shock. Only when he sees Park covering his nose to pick up the keys does it hit him hard that the class divide, even during a time of such a crisis, runs deeply, leading to him losing his shit and stabbing Park fatally.

The ending, also leaves one a little gloomy, a man has to spend the rest of his lifetime as a fugitive in the basement of a rich house, largely for no fault of his, pin the blame on the circumstances, though his son speaks of one day buying the house and setting him free, you know considering the colossal he’s up against, his own poverty and to compete against the rich, there simply ain’t any chance. They even count how long this could take, a whopping 536 years! You get the drift, don’t you?

There’s also an interesting story behind why the film is called Parasite, as acknowledged by the director himself. Perhaps, up until you read this review, you might have thought, like scores of others, it has to do with the Kim family, living off the Park family despite rendering their services in return. The hapless case of “helps” everywhere despite being invincible. However, it can be read the other way too. The Park family unable to do anything on their own and relying on the Kim family for the labour. So, essentially both are parasites. How’s this for a revelation?

The director has also effectively used the “staircase” to paint the income disparity. For example, look at the staircases in the Park’s residence, elegant. And compare this to the one in Kim’s household. Well, for starters, there’s none considered they live in a basement, like the several poor in South Korea do, braving diseases and the monsoon floods.

On the technical side, Jung Jae-il’s minimalist piano pieces punctuated with light percussion helps build up the tense moments, especially when the Kim family that has been ravaging the Park family household in their absence, scrambles to put back the place in order when the latter decide to abandon their tour mid-way. Cinematography by Hong Kyung-pyo is light on the eyes whereas Yang Jin-mo's cuts are clean, the linear telling aiding the editor.