Lailatul Musyarofah

XII Bahasa/10

Movie Review Text: Parasite(2019)

Parasite is a South Korean black comedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon Ho that released in 2019.
This movie is the first Asian movie that makes history by winning awards in four categories “Best
Picture”, “Best Original Screenplay”, “Best International Feature Film (Foreign Language Film)” and “Best
Director” on Oscar 2020. This movie has also won a lot of both national and international awards such as
Baeksang Awards, Cannes Film Festival, Golden Globe Awards, and many more. Bang Joon Ho, the
director and writer of this movie said that he wanted to show us about the distinction between rich and
poor through the portrait of a family in this film.

This film begins with the appearance of the Kim family (father Ki Taek, mother Chung Sook, son Ki Woo
and daughter Ki Jung) live in a small semi basement apartment, have low-paying temporary jobs as pizza
box folders. And then university student Min Hyuk, a friend if Ki Woo offered him to take over his job as
an English tutor for the daughter of the wealthy Park family, Da Hye. Ki-woo poses as a Yonsei University
student and is hired by the Park family.

The Kim family recommends one another as unrelated and highly qualified workers to take over as
servants of the Park family. Ki-jung poses as "Jessica" and, using Ki-Woo as a reference, becomes an art
therapist to the Park family’s young son, Da-song. Their parents, Ki Taek and Chung Sook were also hired
to replace the chauffeur and housekeeper of the Park family. This situation makes the Kim family revel in
the luxuries of Park family's residence when they're leaving their home. This part shows us the reason
why the titled of this film is "parasite", that's because the story is about the poor family infiltrating and
creeping into the rich house, it seems very obvious that "parasite" refers to the poor Kim family.

This film is success to present the themes about class conflict, social inequality and wealth disparity.
Bong Joon Ho criticizes the social reality about capitalism and hierarchy in the modern society through
his brilliant narration. The plot itself is unpredictable. At first, we presented by fresh drama-comedy
acting, but getting to the climax, the plot suddenly changed into mystery thriller that makes the
audience can't expect what's awaited them at the end of the movie. The director could combine a lot of
genres in two hours of movie duration. This movie uses a minimum actor as a power to make the
audience focus to the individual personality of each character. Also, the actors have played their role
perfectly and naturally.

Overall, this film is really recommended and worth to watch. The plot of the story, the acting, and the
cinematography is 10 out of 10. Parasite is a masterpiece, a brilliant movie that you'll never regret to
watch.