What made 'Parasite' work?

The glamorous arena of Oscar Awards-2020 had witnessed something unusual this year. 'Parasite', a South Korean dark comedy, had stunned Hollywood by winning four of the prestigious awards including the Best Film. It became the first non-English film (the first Korean film too!) to win Oscars for best film and best director simultaneously after a long 92 years of a dry spell for them. This incredible feat adds to director Bong Joon-ho's golden collection of accolades for the film, starting from Palm d'Or in 2019.

It is quite surprising how this movie has been received well by the prominent festival circuits in the US and the UK. Oscars are known for their cruelly narrow selection of films based on specific aesthetics. Family dramas, War Period dramas, Survival dramas, Biopics, and Sports dramas tend to score more in big industries and their award nights. The pretty universal narrative form of them makes it easily relatable and a selling commodity among voters all around the world. Studies show the demography of this voting population as 94% white and 77 % men. Minorities form a minuscule 9 % of the population, hence films of their voices get muffled for the majority. And on the other hand, people have been raising the issues of institutional racism and other forms of discrimination in the selection and nominations of Oscars for a while (#oscarsowhite for example).

But what has enabled the same critics and industrialists, actors and technicians, directors and distributors to rally behind this non-white, non-English film? What is this new enthusiasm? Why this sudden embrace when only one black nominee was there in the entire nominee list of Oscars? It's a worthy thing to ponder upon

(Spoilers ahead)

Parasite is about two families at the two extremes of a socio/political hierarchy. One family, the 'Kims' is literally at the bottom (they live in a basement house) trying out various felonies to survive in a highly exploitative world. The other, 'Parks' is ignorantly at the top with accumulated wealth to spend and make profits in millions. This film talks about the struggles of the first family to get through as servants of the other elite family. They fake their identities and dupe the elites by behaving as strangers in the mansion. The film gets its title by portraying the lives of the first family for living off on another set of humans by sucking up their resources.

But the impostors eventually realise their real fate as parasites when things start going in the wrong direction. The Parks family goes for a picnic leaving the whole mansion to servants/impostors. The latter starts a boozing party in the middle of which the ex-housekeeper, Moon-Gwang arrives at the mansion. Under the fear of the whole plan getting wasted, mother Kim hides all others and let  Moon-Gwang in. They realise that the latter had been keeping her husband in the mansion’s basement in fear of loan sharks. He was living off with the leftovers Moon-Gwang was supplying secretly from the kitchen. Mother Kim starts blackmailing the ex-maid of informing owners about it but bad luck hits then.

Out of balance, all the other Kims fall onto the scene. Moon-Gwang starts threatening Kims back of revealing their true identities. The Parks abruptly cancel their trip due to a storm and arrive home at the same time. Following a brawl with Moon-Gwang, mother Kim manages to hide all other Kims and lock a terribly injured Moon and husband in the basement. Kims too manage to escape from the mansion while Parks remark on the same stench all their new servants had. The whole slum gets submerged in flood after the storm and returning Kims find their basement overflowing with filth. They spend the rest of the night at a flood-relief center brooding over their existence.

And the ignorance of the elites plays out on the next day when Parks decide to celebrate their son’s birthday. They designate roles to the Kims to play out during the celebration to much dismay of the latter. When the mere possibility of surviving the day becomes being an impossibility, the father reacts to this ignorance/insensitivity... A ghastly violent incident happens and the father goes missing!!

The basic plotline of the film could be the primary reason for its wide reception. This plays out with the guilt of the upper/upper-middle class for being ignorant towards the plight of  classes below them (especially in capitalist welfare states like the US, the UK and, Europe). This is to be noted against the current political milieu where ultra-nationalists and far-right political groups are ruling across the world. It is said that they rode on to power by cleverly banking upon the frustrations of lower classes of being left out of the neoliberal economic project.

A highly polished, staged family drama has always been a favorite for critics and big industries alike. Parasite, irrespective of it's Korean settings, cleverly establishes that atmosphere. The relatively familiar spaces such as households, neighborhoods, and social circles strike a dramatic balance with anyone. It was a clever move from the director to fix the whole thread around two families since it very definitely conforms to the choices of the big industries. These award galas give over deserving considerations to family dramas because of its easy market. Hence, Parasite creates and indulges in a very familiar setup of any other typical Oscar product. One set of characters are living in a lower-class neighborhood. They are skilled but unemployed and use smartphones for their daily survival. 

The claustrophobic mise-en-scene, limited movement of the camera with fluid cuts (almost linear) is very much Hollywood-like style for dramatic effect. Short lenses to restrict the on-screen space again establish the poor household.  And the elaborate use of space inside the mansion to showcase grandeur helped the audience to grasp the class difference. The contrast in both the households is conveyed through this obvious use of space. Inside the vast mansion, the camera moves more, from characters to an expanded shot length. Carefully crafted vast mise-en-scene and wide lenses again help to create a magical aura to the mansion. These meticulously planned choices in the entire film make it easy and dramatic to connect with the characters' universe. And the black comedy elements were constructed to build a theatric and emotional effect on the big industry audience. It plays more with the guilt of the elites giving short reliefs for laughs than developing a nuanced critical perspective. 

The tragic end of the film is a favorite trope for recognition again. It has been made cathartic using a very clichéd situation, built on the above-mentioned guilt. The intensity of moments and emotions lead to a momentous outburst for the audience. It is very eerie and distressing thus creating a dramatic effect on audiences. This again goes back as the prominent narrative feature of all main Oscar Winners. It may be a very distant connection, but a convincing one.

So the stunning Oscar feats of 'Parasite' show that the choices of the Academy have not changed much. The three Oscar wins of a mere technical spectacle like 1917 indicate the same. Critically praised American films like 'The Irishman' and 'The Lighthouse' did not even make any achievement at all in this hullabaloo. Parasite was fresh only to the extent of eeriness and theatrics. Hence the big win in the big industries!

This does not suggest that Parasite is a bad film. It is a cleverly crafted dark comedy built around the usual formulas of a typical Oscar-winning industry film. And it really explores a serious issue to a very limited extent. But the real craftsmanship of Bong Joon-ho in his earlier films like 'Memories of Murder', 'Mother' and 'Snowpierecer' is not visible in Parasite. It felt more like Bong did a film in an Oscar way and won everything rather than Bong did a Bong film and won.

(This was earlier published in Student Struggle)