In many of his earlier films, Bong Joon-ho addressed numerous important social issues, like environmentalism, corporate greed and class inequality. That is hardly a surprise, considering Bong majored in sociology at the prestigious Yonsei University. In his native country of Korea and in cinephile circles, he is known for his nickname Bongtail (the combination of his last name and the word “detail”). By combining impeccable editing, brilliant sets and unforgettable characters with incredible attention to details, Bong demonstrated his ingenuity and brilliance once again.

As a result of his familiarity with the subject of class inequality and his eye for subtle and sophisticated symbolism, we got a modern masterpiece in the form of Parasite. Although crucial, the massive success of Parasite can’t be attributed solely to these reasons. A considerable factor in the historic accomplishments of the movie must be found in its universal relatability. And we have our global intertwined economies to thank for that.

Wealth and income inequality have soared in the last few decades all over the world. Famous economist Thomas Piketty and his team showed that between 1980 and 2016 the richest 1% received 27 cents of each dollar of global income growth. This was more than twice the share of the bottom 50%, who secured only 12 cents of every dollar. The world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who account for 60 percent of the planet’s population. Wealth inequality is ever-present whether you live in Nigeria, Italy, Korea or in the United States, and that is why this movie resonated with audiences across the globe.

1. Upstairs, Downstairs

From the opening scene of the movie, we can already get a glimpse of Bong’s visual narrative when the camera pans down from the ground, yet remaining above Ki-woo’s head. From the start of the film, the director uses camera movement to insinuate the socioeconomic position of the Kim family.

The central metaphor in this symbolism-rich movie are the stairs. Bong views stairways as a crucial tool in conveying the message of social mobility to his audience. Our characters are constantly seen going up and down the stairs depending on their position in the social hierarchy. Even the ensemble cast made jokes about Parasite being a staircase movie.

When Ki-woo starts his journey to the Park house for the first time, he can be seen going upstairs just to set his foot on the ground. To get to the rich neighbourhood, he needs to climb hefty amounts of ground. It then seems that the Park’s gate is located at the highest point of the already very elevated wealthy area. Having climbed another set of stairs in the backyard, he finally enters the house.

Relying solely on the astonishing visual language of his work, Bong successfully managed to show us the incredible contrast between extremely wealthy and poor members of today’s society. The most impressive example of this is probably the sequence of scenes in which we follow the Kims escaping the Park mansion in what almost seems like a never-ending journey of descending an infinite number of stairs.

2. A place in the sun

Exposure to sunlight represents another important metaphor in Parasite. Kim’s household has only two windows (second, ironically in the bathroom), so their exposure to natural light is limited to maybe an hour a day. Unlike the Kims, the Parks can basically bathe in the sun every day. They own a massive backyard with vast amounts of open space and their house is full of enormous windows.

It is no coincidence that in the scene when Ki-woo climbs to the Park house, as the camera follows him from the back, the audience is temporarily almost blinded by the sun. In fact, the Park house is purposely built at an angle that allows for that scene to happen. That’s just how vital this symbolism was to Bong. The higher up in society you are, the closer you are to the sun, both metaphorically and physically.

3. The semi-basement and the absence of middle class

The Kims live in a semi-basement, which is half overground, half underground. A semi-basement is used to symbolize the simultaneous existence of hope and fear in the minds of the Kim family. They can catch a glimpse of the ground from their windows, and they hope to climb up the social ladder and live above ground someday. But they are also aware that they can end up even further down, completely underground.

In most of the countries in today’s world, the middle class is slowly but surely disappearing. And in Parasite, all characters are either rich or poor. There are only poor and poorer, and the middle class is nonexistent. That can’t be a coincidence in a Bong movie.

4. Who’s the real parasite?

There are numerous examples in which Kims are alluded to as being parasites in the movie. Foreshadowing a future event, Chung-sook compares her husband Ki-taek to a cockroach at one point. The bug extermination scene at the beginning of the film is another example.
In the first scene, in which Ki-woo is in the rich Park neighbourhood, we can see him next to what appear to be creeper and liana plants surrounding the walls of buildings.

What characterises these plants is their invasive and fast-growing nature as well as the damage they bring upon surrounding plants and their hosts. They represent another possible allusion to the parasitic nature of the Kims.

Bong even played with the names of the Kim family. In Korean, the word for Parasite is Gisaengchung. The names of three out of four members of the Kim family start with the syllable Ki (Ki-taek, Ki-woo and Ki-jung), and since Gi and Ki are pronounced the same in Korean, that means they have the same first syllable as the word for Parasite. And in Chung-sook’s case, the first syllable of her name is the same as the last syllable of the word.

But does that mean that in Bong’s eyes, the Kims are the parasites after all? Not necessarily. All of this symbolism can just mean that the society sees Kims as the parasites, not that they are the real parasites. After all, Parks are the ones who are incapable of doing what most of us consider basic and everyday chores and responsibilities like cooking, cleaning and childcare.

In that sense, the Parks are dependant on the hard labour of the Kims, giving them only small and meaningless amounts of their money in return. Can’t that be considered leeching too?

5. The scholar stone

The key plot device which is used to start the main series of events in this feature is a scholar stone. When Ki-woo’s friend, Min, brings this unexpected and weird gift to the Kim family, he says that the rock is supposed to bring material wealth to its owner. Later, it turns out that the rock was just an excuse for Min to visit his friend and offer him a job which Ki-woo is going to gladly accept.

However, this stone is not just a simple plot device, it represents something far more important. The stone symbolizes Ki-woo’s hope and desire to become a member of the high society, something he so desperately wants. Ki-woo views the stone as his entry ticket to the rich and privileged world. The rock also personifies his friend Min, someone who Ki-woo sees as the best version of himself.

Ki-woo clings to the stone even when the flood destroys his home and he carries it with him to the Park house, once again relying on the stone to become an ultimate “solver” of his problems. But in the end, he was almost killed by it. He almost became a victim of his own aspirations.

When Bong Joon Ho descended from the airplane to step onto his home country’s soil, he wore no mask, while all that surrounded him did. A news reporter kneeled to him, holding a microphone to illuminate his voice. Paparazzi crowded around him, but respectfully kept their distance. There was a fear within them, a fear of God that kept them from touching the master director.

He wore no mask, and thanked everyone for the warm welcome, empathized with the reporter’s pain of having to kneel underneath him while holding a microphone. Bong Joon Ho was not afraid of the coronavirus. He created the ultimate Parasite.

He left South Korea a simple man trying to make his way in the universe. He returned a God.

But Bong Joon Ho had quite a bit of help along his path to Godhood. He studied from the masters, maestros across a myriad of genres, ethnicities, nationalities, and talents.

Here are 10 movies that influenced Bong Joon Ho that you should watch if you loved Parasite.

10. Snowpiercer

Another Bong Joon joint, “Snowpiercer” is a sci-fi epic that follows a world overtaken by global warming and failed attempts to stop climate change. The last survivors board The Snowpiercer, a train that perpetually travels around the world. As the train choo choo choos, a new class system sneaks its way aboard, causing conflict and mutiny; transforming The Snowpiercer from a merry (but slightly bleak) Thomas the Tank Engine into an evil Diesel!

Chris Evans stars as the perfect revolutionary, and the kinetic fight scenes rival that of Parasite’s climax!

Coupled with the fact that Bong Joon-Ho lied to Harvey Weinstein in order for certain scenes to be included in the final cut of the film, Snowpiercer might not be Bong Joon-Ho’s greatest, but it’s him at his most entertaining and exhilarating! (As well as one of the best sci-fi action/dystopian combinations to come out in recent years.)

9. The Servant

This is another movie Bong Joon Ho cited as one of “Parasite’s” direct influences. While he didn’t seem to have much to say about it (all he said was “The Servant” by Joseph Losey was another”) You can definitely see where he stole from.

“The Servant” serves its audience a chilling, psychological/pyschosexual, yet elegant tale of upper class man Tony, who hires the prim and proper Barrett as a servant. Barrett’s serviude rues up some unpleasant emotions in the house, causing tensions to escalate between Tony and his wife. And when Barrett’s sister comes to live in the household, well, having seen Parasite, you can probably guess what happens.

Depravity ensues, lies are told, drama crafts suspense, and all while The Servant tries to become master of the house. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? You can definitely see the seeds for characters Gook Moon-Gwang (The Housekeeper) and her husband Park Myung-hoon being sown in this film.

With beautiful, black and white cinematography and perfect, haunting shadows, “The Servant” is underrated masterwork by an unsung auteur. If you like Bong Joon-Ho, this is a must see.

8. This Man Must Die

“This Man Must Die” or “The Beast Must Die” depending on your country of origin is a tense psychological thrill ride that’s a perfect mix of thriller and personal drama. Charles Thenier’s little son is killed by a hit and run driver. The police investigation is useless, and Charles decides to be his own police force by cultivating a romance with the killer’s sister in law, Helene. He discovers the son in law to be an absolutely despicable person, but his feelings for Helene are genuine. Should he kill Paul, the man who slaughtered his son? How should he do it? And what of his love for Helene?

“This Man Must Die” is an epitaph about revenge and its nature. It boasts beautiful dialogue, actors and actresses, and it’s fun to see how it influenced one of “Parasite’s” themes of compassion. Because the Kim family does not show mercy to Park’s secret underground dwellers, tragedy strikes.

7. Us

Jordan Peele did a fantastic job with “Get Out”, and crafted a film just as intense with “Us”.

Another 2019 film that deals with the poor vs the rich, “Us” tells the story of the U.S! Or at least a story of class and the American Dream. It follows Adelaide Wilson and her family returning to Adelaide’s beachy childhood home. Because of past trauma, Adelaide has a hunch that something terrible will occur, and it does when 4 mysterious, masked doppelgangers invade the house, forcing the Wilsons to fight for survival.

“Us” is perhaps the thematic American equivalent of “Parasite”, (But don’t get me wrong, “Parasite” is superior) both dealing with themes of class, national dreams, and accomplishing that with fantastic home invasion action scenes!

6. La Ceremonie

According to Bong Joon-Ho, the films of French cinema maestro Claude Chabrol also were a huge influence on Parasite, as well as the true crime case that inspired the film “La Ceremonie”. One of the greatest crime movies of all time, “La ceremonie” tells the story of a young, charming, (but also a bit clueless) woman named Sophie Bonhomme, who is hired as a housemaid in an isolated mansion belonging to the Lelievre family.

The family is made up of four members, complete with a son who is interested in the arts (except this time around he’s a cute teenager!) Sophie meets Jeanne, (played by Isabelle Huppert in one of the best performances of her career) as a postmistress who inspires bad feelings towards the Lelievres, and this results in some criminal consequences.

The rest of the film shouldn’t be revealed in this article. “La Ceremonie” is something that deserves to only be experienced on screen. It’s a beautiful blur with questions of murder, manipulation, and friendship, a film so powerful it displays an important fact beyond the film’s own murdering matters. It reminds us that cinema is a ceremony that must be performed with the utmost ritualistic, religious, reverence. Every time this writer watches it, he wishes he could be one with this film. He wishes that he could marry Jeanne, with her beautiful dominance. He wishes the ceremony would murder him.

Though many predicted it could happen (and many hoped that it would), it was still a massive surprise when Parasite won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the recent 92nd Academy Awards. Parasite immediately made history by becoming the first international film to win Best Picture as well as being the first South Korean film to receive recognition from the Academy. As well as winning Best Picture, Parasite also won Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film.

Parasite has also won other numerous accolades, including the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Parasite was directed by Bong Joon-ho, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Han Jin-won. The film stars Choi Woo-shik, Jang Hye-jin, Park So-dam, Cho Yeo-jeong, Song Kang-ho and Lee Sun-kyun.

Parasite originally premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Palme d’Or with a unanimous vote – the first film to do so since 2013’s Blue is the Warmest Colour. After its release, Parasite went on to gross over $206 million worldwide, becoming one of South Korea’s highest grossing films.

As with any film that wins Best Picture, Parasite will be thoroughly analysed and critiqued by audiences to determine whether it is a worthy winner. Previous recipients of Best Picture have been found wanting and declared as unworthy – so, will Parasite join those unlucky films?

After viewing Parasite, it would be very difficult to class it as an unworthy winner as Parasite is such a well-made, complex and watchable film. Perfectly calibrated and choreographed, every frame of Parasite is perfect and precise. There are so many small details in this film, from its symmetry to its social commentary, that it is a film that audiences should definitely deem a worthy Best Picture recipient.

1. Talented ensemble cast

Though it can happen, it is slightly unusual for a Best Picture nominee not to also have at least one acting nomination. Parasite did not gain any acting nominations at the Academy Awards. While this could be seen as a negative, suggesting that the performances in Parasite are not as good as the other nominees, this may actually be to do with the fact that there is not one performance that outshines another in this film – rather the cast all make up one of the best ensemble casts of all the Best Picture nominees demonstrated by the film’s Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

Each cast member perfectly portrays their role and encapsulates their character with aplomb. This is what helps elevate the film even more – the audience is not straining to see the character through the actor as can sometimes be the case with other films. Great characters are another facet of what can make a film appealing, and Parasite reminds us that these characters do not even need to be particularly likeable. In truth, there may not necessarily be one character that we are really rooting for in Parasite. But in that is a cleverness that means that audiences are invested in all the characters’ outcomes and it is also shows how they are all intricately linked.

2. It marks an important step forward for diversity

Parasite made history when it became the first foreign language film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Not only was this an incredible achievement in general terms, as it is for any film that wins the accolade, but Parasite’s win was even more phenomenal because of what it represents.

There has been much talk and many headlines that have lamented the lack of diversity at awards shows, and in particular the Academy Awards, with hashtags such as #oscarssowhite trending. There was a lack of nominations for minority groups at the 92nd Academy Awards, and many believed that this meant that a foreign language film would never be able to scoop the top award.

Parasite’s win has propelled foreign language films into the spotlight. Audiences who have never even considered going to see a foreign language film are now lining up to get tickets to go and see the film, as well as now seeking out other foreign language films to watch. This type of visibility can only be a great thing, allowing audiences to experience other cultures which in turn leads to acceptance and visibility.

3. It seamlessly blends genres

These days almost every film can be called a combination of genres or categorised into a sub-genre – romantic comedy, psychological thriller, action horror to name but a few. Films may even begin as one genre before evolving into a different one. This blending of genres is certainly familiar to audiences, but this method is not always done seamlessly. Ideally blending genres should be something that happens smoothly and coherently, in a way that means that it is not too jarring for the audience or that it makes the film feel disjointed. Unfortunately, this is not always the case and the result can be a film that ends up being quite disorientating and confusing to watch. Alternatively, the mix of genres can be something that audiences find disagreeable and becomes an issue for which the film is criticised for.

Another example of a Best Picture nominee that mixed genres was Jojo Rabbit, a film that began very much as a satirical comedy but that later evolved into a much more dramatic and emotional film. Some audiences criticised this evolution of genres and felt that the change was too abrupt. This was not the case however for Parasite.

Parasite is a film that has been called a mystery thriller, a family drama, a tragicomedy, a black comedy, and a contemporary horror. The truth is that Parasite is all these subgenres and possibly even a few more. And what is also true is that Parasite involves dozens of tonal and genre shifts, but these shifts are done flawlessly and even though audiences will no doubt notice some of them, they are not jarring in any way. Parasite’s transitions between multiple genres is an integral part of the film, mirroring the transitions of the characters and of life itself. Blending genres is something that Bong often does in his films and is a trademark of his filmmaking.

4. It has universal themes that resonate with all audiences

Class struggles, the divide between rich and poor, family ties and ambition are just a few of the themes shown in Parasite – a film which is rich with both overt and underlying themes. And these themes are most certainly universal, not only to individual audience members but to audiences from around the world. Though Parasite has many trademarks that can be attributed to it being a South Korean film, it also feels like it could be set anywhere in the world. Bong recently talked about how Parasite could easily be set in London, after he saw how expensive it was to buy a house there, or in New York because there were so many homeless people and yet others lived in million-dollar apartments.

Parasite also uses its characters to further express its socioeconomic themes and class themes. Neither the poor nor the rich family are made out to be the villains of the piece. Though the poor family are essentially conmen, they are not bad people and though the rich family are privileged, they are not evil or cruel. In this way, Bong lets the audience ruminate on both how we view people and how we treat others based on our preconceptions of how they should fit into society.

As well as the more obvious themes, there are the clever underlying themes used by Bong that also help illustrate the film’s overall themes. For example, throughout there is the theme of the importance of our senses and in particular the sense of smell – something that becomes a key part of the film in the third act.

5. Incredible cinematography

There is one particular sequence in Parasite that can be found at the end of the first act. It is a montage that lasts for around five minutes and is made up of over fifty different shots. During this montage, the audience is given a story within the story and shown multiple Easter eggs and small, rich details that propel the story forward without any unnecessary scenes or expository dialogue. That is just one example of many of how Parasite uses incredible cinematography.

Cinematography is also used to reflect the film’s themes. Scenes with the rich family are flooded with natural light and sunshine, whilst scenes with the poor family are much darker and use artificial light. This was done to show the difference between the families’ situations – the rich family can afford to live in a beautiful house on a hill with floor to ceiling windows whereas the poor family live in a sub level basement apartment. The rich family can see the sun all day whilst the poor family only get glimpses of it.

Light is used to great effect throughout the film to reflect the families’ differences. Another scene which depicts this is when the members of Ki-taek’s family have to run through a rainstorm back to their house from the Park’s home. As they run back to their apartment, the streetlights gradually change from the expensive LED lights of the wealthy neighbourhood to the poor neighbourhood’s red lamps.

Parasite’s cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo and Director Bong worked together closely to produce a film that uses so many elements of cinematography in a way that is so effective and impressive. From mirroring shots to the almost balletic rhythm of certain sequences, from sharp angles to smooth parallels – Parasite more than deserves its Best Picture win for its cinematography alone.

6. The storytelling

Parasite may have picked up the Best Picture award, but it also won Best Screenplay. This is testament to the intriguing story that Bong came up with, as well as the fantastic screenplay co-written by him and Han Jin-won. A great screenplay is the first step to producing a film with compelling storytelling, and Bong further enhanced this with great direction.

Parasite has three very clear acts, which makes it a fluid and coherent watch for the audience – even though multiple events are happening with multiple characters all the time, the audience is never too far removed from the core of the story. Bong keeps the audience at the heart of what is going on, yet he also keeps the audience guessing with twists and turns. To use these two contradictory methods in harmony with each other is an extremely clever feat of storytelling, and the result is a film that is endlessly engaging.

7. The sharp social commentary

Intricately weaved throughout Parasite, is a compelling message of social commentary. At its heart, Parasite is a parable about the struggle between classes and the ever-growing divide between rich and poor. Bong has used similar themes in all his previous works, but Parasite was a unique filming experience because Bong had never focused any of his stories on a rich family before as well as a poor one, preferring to just follow the lives of poorer characters. Bong explained, “This is our first time filming rich characters. Even in Mother and The Host, my films have always featured poor characters. This was our first time filming a rich family and a rich house. Even Captain America…he was dressed in rags in Snowpiercer!”

Bong also drew directly from his own experiences – he too tutored a for a rich family whilst in college. He said of the film, “The sequence that depicts when he enters the house was pretty similar to what I experienced. I grew up in a middle-class family that’s in between the poor and the rich family in this film, but despite that, when I first entered, I had this very eerie and unfamiliar sense of this house. Actually, they had a sauna on their second floor – at the time it was quite shocking to me!”

The social commentary of Parasite is also at the very heart of the film in regard to the title of the film itself. Who or what we believe to be the ‘parasite’ can speak to how society treats certain individuals – is the parasite the poor family? The rich family? Both? Or is Parasite a reference to something else entirely?

Bong uses Parasite as a way to express his observations of the class divide in his home country and how it is something that only seems to be getting worse rather than better, but the truth is that Parasite is probably relevant to almost every country in the world. Bong said, “I think that this film is talking about something that we all feel, and we are all aware of, but we just never talk about. That’s what it is showing on the big screen.”

Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho (The Host [2006], Snowpiercer [2013]) is back and more brilliant than ever with Parasite, his so-very-deserving Palme d’Or-snatching socio-political critique that goes from slapstick comic hijinx to outright angry class rage and back with alacrity and ease.

Co-written along with Han Jin-won, Bong presents a full-flavored bravura delicacy about a family of four, the Kims, under very dire circumstances. They struggle to remain just above the poverty line in a slipshod semi-basement apartment, and as the early scenes of Parasite enumerate, often rather amusingly, they’re a greed-driven yet extremely resourceful bunch. Then, via a school contact and some spurious documents from his teenage sister Ki-jeong (Park So-dam), Ki-woo (Choi Woo-sik), the son, cleverly cons his way into a gig as English tutor to the daughter of the extremely affluent Park family.

Almost right away Ki-woo sees the golden opportunity for his entire family’s endowment from the Park’s unsuspecting coffers and a scheme is set to one-by-one replace the Park’s entire domestic staff by first his sister, than his father Kim Ki-taek (Bong regular and South Korean acting legend Song Kang-ho) and then his mother, Choong-sook (Jang Hyae-jin).

From there Parasite’s multi-layered anarchic spirit and Bong’s confidence trickster temperament hits full tilt. The satirical cuts and occasionally cruel comedy align with brilliant design as the Parks go on an overnight camping trip and foolishly entrust their mansion into Choong-sook’s questionable care. It’s here that the encroaching cloudburst and the destinies of both families becomes more gravely enmeshed and the somewhat upbeat farce gets undeniably cold-blooded.

Equal parts artful and urgent, Bong’s masterful pisstake on class politics (after and even before all the blood and thunder, just who exactly are the eponymous parasites?) is a dark thriller loaded with laughs as well as a socially astute melodrama.

Like his finest work, and Parasite easily ranks alongside Memories of Murder (2004) and Mother (2009), this is a film that defies easy genre-classification. Here the shifts of tone and sometimes breezy bits of horseplay often startle with stabs of frenzy and sorrow. Parasite is certainly one of the year’s finest films and a feather in Bong’s already well-anointed cap.

Taste of Cinema Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Author Bio: Shane Scott-Travis is a film critic, screenwriter, comic book author/illustrator and cineaste. Currently residing in Vancouver, Canada, Shane can often be found at the cinema, the dog park, or off in a corner someplace, paraphrasing Groucho Marx. Follow Shane on Twitter @ShaneScottravis.