PARASITE - Avial stew turns into top class Michelin Star dish!

ASHOK’s FIVE reasons to watch the four-academy awards winner “PARASITE” directed by the genius from Korean Boon Jong-Ho. Here is an extraordinary fare of simple ingredients meshed together to produce a symphony of visual and metaphorical delight that is stratospheric! Much like how the simple stew (or Avial as the Malayalis make it) can be raised to the level of a Michelin Star certified dish in the hands of the expert. And the Avial metaphor is deliberate – when was the last time you heard that an Avial dish hasn’t been done well? It can absorb all veggies as ingredients, the oil and spices will always be in the zone and therefore simple – it will always be fine but then it has potential to be superior or even superlative. And that is exactly what Boon Jong Ho does with simple ingredients, no fancy action or graphics sequences and goes on to elevate the fare to a masterpiece.

1.Parasite is an intelligent film but one that doesn’t make you break into a sweat. The film gets over pretty much before you know what happened and leaves you stunned. The world is already split trying to figure out which genre it fits into – satire, tragedy, comedy, dark humour, multiplex film or a thesis on social divide. The point is not that it is thrilling, entertaining film with the right blend of humour and dark twists and some disturbing scenes; the frame of mind that it leaves you with is what matters – wondrous, laughter, disturbed, pensive and reflective are all the emotions that it conjures up simultaneously.

The story itself is a mirror to social differences and the capitalist philosophy. The Kim family lives literally in the gutter – a basement where the family struggles with Wi-Fi, hygiene, space and a tramp who believes in urinating into their only window to the world. The spirit of the family is however unbeaten, and they go on to trick their way into key roles with the affluent Park family who live in a palatial house in a plush, upbeat locality. Their cover is blown but that’s when the plot takes a turn to expose another set of people who are perhaps living at a standard even lower and this results in a conflict that culminates in typical Korean style gore, leaving the viewer gasping for breath at the hopelessness of the downtrodden!

2. Watch Parasite to see a film that is actually two-in-one! The first half is a comic caper and leaves you chuckling at the industrious manner in which the Kim family manages to masquerade as competent professionals and ingratiate themselves into the Park household one at a time. Just as you settle down into the comfort zone of the expected thrill and tension of discovery and exposure, the second half hits you below the belt with an armory of poignant symbolism, unexpected twists and human emotions that boil over in the throes of class conflict.

3. It is difficult to pigeon-hole the film into one category. In the words of Bong Joon Ho, the flawless tragi-comedy is a “comedy without clowns and a tragedy without villains”. You struggle to empathise with one set of people at any point of time and go on to realise that both the poor and the rich are right where they are. As Kim says of the Park family “They are rich, but they are nice” and his more practical wife corrects him “They are nice because they are rich”

4. Parasite is a master-class in visual wit. The metaphors start from the opening scene where the socks are hug out to fry on the bird cage to the Park scion’s waterproof tent house contrasted with the leaking basement of the Kim family. Each and every scene is deliberately crafted, and it is pure delight to see how this symbolism adds up seamlessly to take the narrative forward. Ultimately, the film is a dystopian view of an unequal world where the haves and the have-nots can never be wished away!

5. The film also stirs up a debate in your mind. Who is the real parasite here? Is it the wretched Kim family who tricks the Park family and lives off them or is the rich Park family who is living starkly unaware of the raging battle to survive outside of their sanctuary? Or is it actually the third level of destitutes who live in the basement of the rich and feed off them? The debate aside, go watch Parasite to see a master craftsman at work – super screenplay, fantastic symbolism, great acting, technically perfect cinematography and above all a story that is devoid of judgement calls and leaves the onus of value judgment squarely on the viewer.

Parasite stands out for its perfect story-telling. Every action, every sequence and every device has a meaning and is used with telling effect What stood out for me though was how the narrative build up in the first half and then Bong goes on to demolish that completely with a twist that you could never have imagined coming and yet at the end you accept as perfectly credible!