It seems like yesterday when ‘Parasites’ made history at the 2020 Oscars and opened Korean cinema to the general public. For some time, the film could not be seen on any platform and now we finally have it available on RTVE Play and for free.
Who is the parasite?
The Kim family survives as best they can in a dumpy apartment based on racketeering and precarious jobs. When the youngest son starts working as a private teacher for a wealthy family, he sees the opportunity to introduce the rest of his relatives as workers in the house, even if he has to lie to do so.
Bong Joon-Ho had already made notable films, such as ‘Memories of murder’ or ‘The Host’, he had even begun to make his first steps in Hollywood with ‘Okja’ and ‘Snowbreaker’. However, it was ‘Parasites’ the work that achieved unprecedented fame and opened the way of Korean audiovisual to the general publicbefore ‘The Squid Game’ arrived.
The film already stood out at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was the first to win the Palme d’Or unanimously since 2013 (when ‘The Life of Adèle’ did). Then the Oscars would arrive, where she managed to be the first non-English language film to win Best Picture and simultaneously the Best Foreign Film.
‘Parasites’ is one of those bridge films that manage to impact the public and critics alike. A scathing satire on social differencesnarrated with intelligence and a very black humor that flees from victimhood and commonplaces.
With some characters characterized by their ambiguitythe film represents the contrast between classes through the frames and the film’s own symbology: the Kim family lives in the basement, the Park house is at the top of a staircase, there are even much lower levels…
Play constantly with the tension that is created in the spectator when knowing the risk that the characters run by undertaking that plan. in turn, has several really amazing twists that change everything we thought we knew about the situation to propel it in a new direction.
The story has a profoundly social discourse but it does not build it based on idealizing the “good” and “bad” characters, but rather constantly moves between the gray areas, without condescending to the viewer.
‘Parasites’ is one of the best films by its director and also one of the fairest Oscars of the 21st century: a clever and wickedly funny satire that grabs you from the start, keeps you tense and more than one surprise is in store. The film is now available on streaming and can be seen for free for a limited time on RTVE Play.