PARASITE [Film Review]

The metaphorical aspects of this film are like a well-baked baklava: they just keep flaking off and revealing yet another tasty layer underneath.
On the surface writer/director Bong Joon-ho’s latest cinematic endeavor is an intriguing, constantly shifting slow-burn which floats effortlessly between being a dark comedy, a light-hearted drama, biting social criticism, and an unnerving thriller. Yet it somehow manages to be deeper than the sum of its combined genres.
Things start out innocently enough, feeling like a South Korean take on a Coen Bros. familial comedy. We are initially introduced to a quirky and poor family scheming their way through life; “borrowing” wifi, taking menial odd jobs, and generally trying to get by doing the least amount of work possible. From these humble beginnings the film evolves into a twisted grand con which ultimately culminates in a battle of wits as our “heroic” grifters get grifted, the rich get punished, and everything just goes to shit. Things are escalated further when it all explodes in a blaze of emotion fueled raw violence.
Bong keeps the pacing taught, letting the story unravel with a precise smoothness that keeps the viewer’s attention riveted to the screen. But perhaps the most alluring aspect of it all is that the film twists and turns with a diverting sense of subtlety so that you never know if you are watching a turgid drama, a black comedy or something else. In fact the best thing about the film is the bubbling tension that Bong creates. There is a scene where the four central protagonists/antagonists are enjoying a meal together and getting drunk. On the surface it is the simplest of scenes, but the underlying tension will have you wringing your hands in anticipation of something drastic happening in the ensuing moments.
The whole thing might have come tumbling down like a lopsided house of cards if it weren’t for the top-notch cast, ranging from Korean film stalwart Song Kang-Ho who plays the father figure of the “parasites” on down to the ditzy rich matron portrayed by Cho Yeo-jeong. Choi Woo-shik as the deceptively meek young son in the fraudster family is fantastic, displaying a subtle mischievousness. And Park So-dam as his coy sister is beguiling to watch. Lee Jeon-eun and Hyae Jin Chang round at the core cast as tenacious and insanely hilarious matrons (Lee as a cloying housekeeper, Chang as the queen mother of the grifter clan).
While the bravura acting and escalating outlandishness of the  story line are at the center of the film, there are other elements at play here. The cinematography, for one, adds considerable nuance to the proceedings; it is laced with a slick and vibrant sheen, one that lends just the right amount of off-kilter surrealism to the proceedings. Things appear normal on the surface, but there’s always a strange undercurrent rolling between the frames. And the score is used to expert effect, playing quietly underneath when called for and hitting all the proper dramatic and horrific notes when appropriate. It, as with the look of the film, adds dramatically to the overall effect.
To put it into the simplest of terms at its core this film paints the rich as vane and clueless and the poor as cunning and ruthless. But it also points out the folly of greed and entitlement regardless of class distinctions. And the metaphors, man, the metaphors! Abundant and glorious they be.

Rating: 4 (out of 5)
RIYL: Mulholland Drive; Oldboy (the original Korean version);