Every few years, I revisit Parasite and find myself wondering if I’ve been underrating it. It’s a movie that feels so omnipresent in conversations about the best movies of the 21st century that it’s easy to take its greatness for granted. But every rewatch reminds me exactly why Bong Joon-ho’s international juggernaut remains one of the most important films of the last decade—both as a razor-sharp thriller and a scathing critique of class dynamics that continues to feel disturbingly relevant.
While Parasite is a South Korean black comedy, its themes transcend borders. Released in the U.S. by NEON in 2019, its commentary on economic disparity and social mobility resonated globally, particularly in a time of rising wealth inequality and financial instability. And those themes haven’t faded. If anything, the film feels even more prescient today in how it explores class warfare—not just between the rich and poor, but among the struggling lower class itself, as desperation forces people to turn on each other in their pursuit of stability.
The film follows the Kim family, who live in a cramped, semi-basement apartment in Seoul, scraping by with menial jobs like folding pizza boxes. When the son, Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik), gets an opportunity to tutor the daughter of the wealthy Park family, he seizes it—despite lacking the proper credentials. Slowly, he helps the rest of his family infiltrate the Parks’ household: his father, Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho), becomes their chauffeur; his sister, Ki-jung (Park So-dam), poses as an art therapist for the Parks’ young son; and his mother, Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin), replaces the longtime housekeeper. The Parks remain oblivious to the Kims’ familial connection, and for a while, it seems like they’ve pulled off the perfect con.
But secrets hidden within the Parks’ home threaten to unravel everything the Kims have built, leading to an escalation of tension that is as thrilling as it is inevitable.
As a genre exercise, Parasite is masterful. Bong Joon-ho’s direction is meticulous, with every shot, every edit, and every piece of production design contributing to a larger sense of space and geography. The Parks’ house is practically a character itself, with Bong making sure the audience understands its layout so well that every movement within it—every hidden space, every doorway—carries weight. It’s a heist movie in its first half, full of clever manipulations and close calls, and then something much darker in its second, where the real horror of the film’s class critique takes shape.
That pacing is crucial to what makes Parasite so gripping. It builds slowly, letting the Kims’ schemes unfold with the same intricate precision as a Soderbergh heist film. But there’s an underlying tension at all times—an awareness that this plan is too fragile to last, that the economic house of cards they’ve built could collapse at any moment. And when it does, the fallout is brutal.
But what makes Parasite exceptional isn’t just its tension or its craftsmanship—it’s the way it refuses to offer simple moral distinctions. The Kim family are neither heroes nor villains. Their actions are selfish, sometimes even cruel, but they are also a product of a system that offers them no other viable path forward. They aren’t simply taking advantage of the Parks; they are fighting for survival in a world that has left them behind. Meanwhile, the Parks are not malicious, but their wealth allows them an obliviousness that is just as damaging. And in the end, it’s not just the rich exploiting the poor—the poor are forced to turn on each other in a vicious cycle of desperation.
This time around, what struck me most about Parasite was just how devastatingly accurate it remains in its depiction of class struggle—not just in terms of the gap between the rich and the poor, but in how that gap fosters resentment and in-fighting among those trying to climb the same economic ladder. It’s a gripping thriller, an absurdist dark comedy, and a haunting social critique all at once. Bong Joon-ho has made plenty of great films (Memories of Murder, Mother, Snowpiercer), but Parasite feels like the one that will define his legacy.
Rating: 9/10
Parasite (2019)
- Cast: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Lee Jung-eun, Jang Hye-jin
- Director: Bong Joon-ho
- Genre: Comedy, Drama, Thriller
- Runtime: 133 minutes
- Rated: R
- Release Date: November 1, 2019
More Movies Directed by Bong Joon-ho
Bong Joon-ho has directed the following movies:
- Memories of Murder (2003)
- The Host (2006)
- Mother (2009)
- Snowpiercer (2013)
- Okja (2017)
- Parasite (2019)
- Mickey 17 (2025)