Parasite (2019)
About This Movie
A poor family in Seoul schemes their way into employment with a wealthy household, one member at a time, until all four of them work for the Parks without anyone realizing they are related. Bong Joon-ho's film starts as a comic caper and gradually, almost imperceptibly, shifts into something far darker and more explosive. The less you know going in, the more devastating the experience will be.
Why It's a Classic
Bong became the first Korean director to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes and then became the first to win Best Picture at the Oscars, shattering the subtitle barrier that Hollywood had maintained for nearly a century. The film defies genre classification, moving fluidly from comedy to thriller to horror to social satire, and that tonal shape-shifting is itself a commentary on how class functions as an invisible architecture in society. The production design tells the story as powerfully as the script, with the vertical geography of the two families' homes, one above ground and one below, serving as a constant visual metaphor. Every rewatch reveals new details, hidden connections, and visual foreshadowing that make the film feel like a precision-engineered puzzle box.
Fun Fact
Bong designed the entire Park family house as a single connected set so that the camera could flow through rooms continuously, and the house was built on a soundstage with a modular design that allowed walls to be removed for specific shots. The rain sequence that floods the Kim family's semi-basement apartment used 7.5 tons of water and was inspired by real flooding that devastated Seoul's semi-basement homes in 2010.
Parent Note
The film contains a sudden, graphic scene of violence in the final act, sexual innuendo, some strong language, and themes of class warfare depicted with increasing intensity. The tonal shifts can be jarring. The film is in Korean with subtitles. A powerful conversation starter about inequality, and its accessibility as a thriller makes the social commentary land naturally for teen audiences.
Quick Facts
- Year
- 2019
- Type
- 🎬 Movie
- Category
- Mystery / Thriller
- Age Group
- Teens (Ages 14–17)