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You Have to See Parasite

You gotta.

By SamPublished 4 years ago 6 min read
6

I love Bong Joon Ho. He’s responsible for The Host, Snowpiercer, and Okja, to name some popular ones. He’s been a director on my radar for about five years now, and he never disappoints me.

So, when Parasite blew up and suddenly everyone has started talking about him, I realized that this movie must be his best one yet.

And. I. Was. Right.

Parasite is goddamn thrilling, tense, emotional, and everything in between. Every aspect of it is well done, and it deserves all of the nominations and awards it’s gotten. I saw it super recently, and being so late to the game, I figured maybe I shouldn’t write a review. Having seen it less than 24 hours ago, I literally can’t do anything else other than write about this movie. I could not stop thinking about it all day. It made me jittery. It made me feel physically heavy from thinking about the ending, and it made my brain all fuzzy when it came to focusing on anything.

Given the absolutely rattled state of my brain in the aftermath of this movie, I’m sure this review will be a little more informal, more like a list of things to appreciate about Parasite and why we should all see it. Be warned. I have some spoilers in here. I’m not giving away the ending, because that needs to be experienced.

I have to start with the music, because for me, the score might be one of the essential pieces of a good movie. This soundtrack was excellent. The orchestral music played up funny parts while sad, somber notes hit me right in my soul during depressing moments. In particular, one of the most compelling scenes of the movie is when the family’s home floods during a torrential downpour. It’s mainly dialogue free, and the characters are running around grabbing belongings, trying to shut their windows, etc. The music in the background isn’t too overwhelming, and it’s pretty simple actually. It’s nothing dramatic or over the top, but quiet and sad. It just made me stare at the screen with my mouth hanging open. It made me feel even more devastated by what was going on in the film. I’ve listened to that song over and over today, and I think it’s my favorite on the soundtrack.

The soundtrack also helps with another aspect of the movie that exceeded expectations, which would be pacing. The best way for me to describe Parasite is that it’s a slow climb up a cliff that gets narrower and steeper the further you go. So many times you think the tension will snap and our characters will be confronted with everything they’ve done up until that point, but it just keeps building. Only in the last ten minutes does shit hit the fan, and when the tension finally does snap, it’s both a relief and a terrifying drop. Parasite puts you on the edge of your seat early on and keeps you there. It felt like the metaphor with frogs and boiling water: Drop a frog in a pot of boiling water and it jumps right out. It you put it in cold water and slowly turn up the heat, it will boil alive. What I mean to say is that this movie boiled me alive.

While everything in this movie was stellar, it really is that atmospheric tension that set it so high for me. For anyone who has seen Ari Aster’s Hereditary or Midsommar, you’ll be familiar with the sort of feeling this movie gives off. While it’s not straight horror, there are horror elements that stick out and make you very uneasy. The camerawork played up the horror elements to perfection. A lot of this movie takes place in a rich, modern home. There’s a doorway to the cellar in the kitchen. It’s pitch black, and framed by an orange-yellow lit wall in the kitchen. The pitch black entrance makes it scary when someone disappears down there, or comes up the stairs. There’s a moment in particular, which I won’t spoil entirely, but I just have to mention. If you’ve seen Parasite already, you probably know what I’m talking about. It’s the shot that stood out the most for me in the whole movie. All I’ll tell you is that there is a child eating cake on the floor, and he looks at that cellar door and sees a “ghost”.

I had to bundle up under five blankets last night to feel safe after that one shot. The way it’s framed, the way the characters are placed in the scene, what the viewer knows the “ghost” is versus what the characters think the “ghost” is, all of it is terrifying. The worst part was that when the child looks at the door, you know you’re about to see something that will unsettle you. It’s not a jump scare. It’s not a flashy sound or camera movement, it’s a slow movement in the door, and that made me cover my eyes.

Moving on, what else can I say about this movie? The acting was great, and I heard that the cast should be nominate for ensemble awards. I totally agree! Everyone could play both sides of their characters, from funny and lighthearted to devastating and cold. This movie shows you the best and worst of people, and how class inequality can really bring out that horrific side of human nature. It’s horrific in two different ways. Looking at the struggling, poor family (our main characters), you see the lengths they go to just to make a living, and how it starts to eat at their sanity. For the rich family, their wealth brings out a total disregard for everyone around them, and a frustrating obliviousness for how good they have it. At times, you almost wish they were dead. There truly is so much to unpack thematically for this movie, that it almost demands a second watch. I’ll wait a bit, but I’m totally going to do it.

All I can say is that you need to see Parasite. It’s frightening and funny, intelligent and purposeful, and you just can’t go your whole life without watching it. Once you experience the ending, and how Bong Joon Ho practically choke slams you to the ground with how hard the end hits you, then you’ll understand why I’m so devastated about this movie. When the lights in the theater went up I had my face in my hands and I was ready to just cry. Any movie that can evoke that kind of emotional response gets an A plus in my book.

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