Parasite

What a roller coaster

I went into this knowing absolutely nothing other than the fact it has won numerous awards and received a lot of praise. The plot changes quite a bit throughout this film. The first third gives the impression that this is a con artist movie, the second third gives the impression that this is a high stakes thriller with way too many secrets to keep track of, and then by the end it becomes almost like a horror movie slasher. It's not that I disliked any part of this film, but the whiplash I got as we jumped from one plot to another was quite jarring. I spent a lot of the last half of the movie saying "That wouldn't have happened if they would have just...." which took away from my enjoyment a bit. The ending seemed quite random to me, and it left me feeling a bit empty inside, but not the way I prefer when it comes to media usually.

This wasn't a bad film, but I highly doubt I will ever watch it again unless I'm with someone watching it for the first time because I want to see how they react.

Read More

My friends and I finally got around to watching this movie last night and it was absolutely insane! It kept us hooked the entire time and we were always wondering what was going to happen next. Unfortunately, I had to mute the movie and turn away during the living room scene (if you've seen the movie, you know which scene I'm talking about) because I was embarrassed to watch that scene with my friends in the discord call, but the movie was still very enjoyable. We really loved the acting most of all.

I'm personally going to have to check out the actors' other works because I was blown away the entire time. Honestly, I'm surprised I'm giving so much praise because I'm not usually one to watch anything within the horror and thriller genres, but I really loved this movie.

This movie very much deserves the amount of rewards it received. I would definitely watch it again if someone asked.

Read More

Honestly watching this movie, you can just tell why it received the oscars. Its truly a work of art but at some points it is a bit confusing and it leaves you to interpret a lot of things in your own point of view. Especially the ending which was left bittersweet and yet open for you to give it your own ending. Was his daydreaming something that actually happens in the future or just something he wishes for? I also really wanted to know what happened to the rich family in the end, I was always curious about that and if kiwoo actually liked the daughter or not. It just leaves you wondering and creating your own theories about what the plot and the message is about.

The actors did so well, really amazing performance and it really did deserve those oscars.

Read More

Raw and real it’s terrifying!

There might be some spoilers, but mostly, just saying what’s on my heart at the moment.

Every time I finish a movie, there’s a certain feeling of satisfaction or disappointment. Some I finish in tears, but even then, I felt it's just right to end that way. Others, I end up getting disappointed to the point of cursing - demanding for my 2 hrs of wasted time to be given back. But mostly, I end up watching movies I felt very contented with.

Parasite though, it gave me a heavy heart... sitting and watching there for over two hours - how the lives of a family got ruined more than it already was. I don’t blame people for associating the movie with ‘Hell Joseon’ because it certainly was a depiction of it. And let’s face it, it’s not only happening in Korea, but the rest of the world. How the rich get to keep their riches, and the poor keep getting pushed to the edge (if you know what I mean).

Kiwoo’s letter at the end, knowing it was all just wishful thinking and would never come true (based on the theme of the story and well, let’s just say LIFE), only added to my already depressed mood following the tragedy that was called ‘the birthday party’.

Let’s not even get started in talking about justice for Mr. Park and how unfairly he was stabbed in the back (don’t take it literally because you know, he was stabbed in front) but anyway, that’s not my point. My point is, the Park family was nothing but nice. They’re rich, but they treated their workers with humanity. And just because a poor man couldn’t take an insult, he lost his mind and killed a person for it. Is that how cheap life is now? A life for pride? And he was even absolved from persecution because, well, HE FREAKIN' FLED! Can you believe what kind of person he is? I just kept repeating a sentence after this scene - 어이가 없네 (eoiga eobsne)!!!!

It was like a domino of misfortune. The head of the family who was supposed to be the pillar and supposed to protect his family failed at his duty miserably. Not only one, but four innocent lives were sacrificed for nothing. And in the end, nothing has changed.

So, am I recommending this movie? Definitely a yes. It is an eye-opener if you are in your corner refusing to admit the cruelty of life called REALITY. But for those who insist on only seeing fluffy things, skip it.

Read More

I actually had to watch this for ib lit (my fav course ever 🔥🔥) and had only one night to complete it, so I watched it on 3x speed (definitely ruined the cinematic experience for myself).
From the casual movie viewer facet of me, this was honestly a pretty boring watch.
However, from the super critical, analytical deep thinker facet of me, I loved it. To be fair, I love analyzing even the smallest details in literature, so if you’re a fan of literary classics, I’m sure you would absolutely love this drama.

(I’d actually watched this movie a few years ago back when it was super hyped up, but dropped it after the 15 minute mark because I hate movies with manipulative protagonists no matter how warranted or justified their behavior may be. But I mean the title is literally PARASITE for god’s sake, so what was I expecting?)

Read More

A Faithful But Flawed Flesh-Bending Adaptation

👍 WHAT WORKS:
Shota Sometani’s Migi – The CGI talking hand-parasite is bizarrely charming (and oddly cute?).

Body horror visuals – Heads splitting, limbs morphing—gloriously disgusting.

Core themes intact – Still asks "Who’s the real monster?" with bloody flair.

👎 WHAT FIZZLES:
Rushed pacing – Crams 24 manga volumes into 2 films = whiplash storytelling.

Wooden human acting – Some performances feel as stiff as the pre-transformation parasites.

Missing anime’s quirkiness – Less dark humor, more straight-faced grimness.

🎬 BEST/WORST SCENE:
BEST: "Park chase sequence" – Parasite vs. parasite carnage in public = chaotic gold.

WORST: "Romantic subplot" – Feels tacked on like a spare limb.

🍿 VERDICT:
"Like the anime’s serious older sibling—less fun, but still packs a gory punch." Watch if: You’re a completionist or body-horror junkie. Skip if: You want the anime’s tonal balance.

Pair with: Sushi (ironically), manga comparisons, and a strong stomach. 🍣💀

(P.S.: The films’ version of Tamura is low-key scarier than the anime’s. Fight me.)

Read More

✒⚠ D♻ N♻T ReCycle ♻ Futility's Rubble °♻utstanding°

Naivety + Ignorance = Poisonous Vapor: Parasite's sly infiltration batters & asphyxiates before we recognize the peril. Parasite shoves us downstairs yelling: The surface calls🔊 R U awake? Climb out of your mausoleum & see. It studies symbiotic toxicities that cycle♻recycle as society clogs, bursts, & shards fly. We only shank us. The world of wealth rolls onto the 99% & it exposes its lax belly to the avalanching refuse, & the rotting left-backs lunge & slash to escape society's bilge pit. All are buried under the ma$$.

This is prime grade film. When Parasite cranked up Cannes 2019, those snobs were well in arrears to 🇰🇷 vis-à-vis recognition. By nipping a Palme🎖d'Or, Parasite pushed Kdramas uphill into the theatre d'Int'l acclaim👏👏

This film has a math cadence to it. Factor 1st a basement hovel. Foul fumes waft from the 1 interior door. The Kℹm fam exists here _X_ (Mom & Dad + daughter Ki-jung / “KJ” + son Ki-woo / “KW”. Feel the slick heat. Pause breath in dread of putrid bodies + odious vapor d'Dank 🚽. They're pondering 💸Problem$, but their break ends when a -stream〰〽 wets their sidewalk level window ~ That ain't water❕

SHOO‼😖

Depressing sums it up.

Do the math: -(Kℹm kids) +(Hℹ ℹQs) -(🎓=💸×💸) × -(acceptance is near impossible) > for what? = Kℹms do -(scrounge-work), like folding pizza boxes. What a waste of 🇰🇷 assets!

KW's friend, Min, who tutors the Park daughter, must study abroad. Min insists KW sub in when he's in 🇺🇸. He needs a placeholder as he intends to marry the Park 👑 Princess upon his return. In KW He Trusts. 'Don't worry! Mrs. Park ain't bright. If I refer you, she won't study your 📜credentials🎓 under a microscope,’ Min assures him.

The interview is our 1st sniff of the rank contrasts between the two families. Out of the cellar, KW walks the cobblestones up Up UP to the ambrosial air where the Parks r👀st. Beautifully lined with perfect houses, the area is emptied of life but for the perfectly aromatic gardens. Yet a niff of unease loiters on the verge.

When we enter Park Place, it's a jolt. Cheerless grey negative space meets visitants. Approaching drab minimalism, the Park Designer🏛Slab feels leaden + institutional - Like a basement. Perching in rarified air doesn't seal out d'Essence-of-cataomb.

Depressing sums it up.

The Parks trust Min, so they are perfectly content to rely on KW: The vent is opened for the Kℹms to release their T♻XINS. It starts w/ a sprinkle🌬 🌤Sis-KJ is just wizzy on the computer ▶ Counterfeits📜📑📃? No problem-ikah. 🌥KW muses to Mrs Park about a "famous" art therapist who helped another wealthy family's kid. If she'd like her son evaluated, he'll get her phone number ~ 😇? 🌦Enter "therapist" Sis-KJ. 🌧Once KJ's in playing therapist, she & KW hijack the driver. Soon, 🎶Papa's got a brand new pay✔check. 🌪For mom's pay✔, they a✖e Ms house🏛keeper (The Great Lee Jeong-eun) who's been OTJ since the slab was poured🌬

🔜 Kℹm-vaded, the Parks are now Kℹm-Fested unawares: + Frℹends-of-frℹends + former employers + a-z, etc = how they scored their new hℹres, they /thℹnk/. Watching Kℹms calculate ℹs an ℹmpressive thℹng, ℹndeed.

The Parks are away, so the Kℹms play house party in the hills. Featuring the meager green relief Parasite affords, windows span the Park's single not-shadow-hued wall & confront the backyard. A storm's brewing. Rain splats: Tatidee~tat. ⚡BOOM! as they swig Park liquor & lap the pomp. A warmer family than the Parks, the Kℹms have casual affection that's oft held hostage by flare-ups - much like Marines on leave: The ghost of latent threats lingers round their party's debris field. Suddenly, on this dark & stormy eve: Knock▫knock↔Crack⚡BOOM❗

🛑Someone's at the d👀r⚠

🚩It's Ms housekeeper⁉

📢⚡❕

💦I forgot a °thing° in the basement. May I come in? ☔

⚡ She's 🌧 saturated

💦Please? 😇❔

Next, "CRAZY" goes Full-Fugitive. Inhale as a miasma of toxicants proceeds to suffocate them in its spread to asphyxiate all earth.

⛈⛈⛈

Rain saturates P.

💧Showers gently wash the 1% uplands

💧Sprays flush stray grime

💦 Streams trickle down onto streets so quaint w/ the lush, thirsty vines that soften the block walls.

🌧 Torrents swell into a river that rushes into a squall, picking up volume as it fl🌀ws ⬇down⬇

All the way down, in the bo⬇⬇om's basement⤵🕳 are the Kℹms. Their neighborhood is repository for the slurry of dreck lifted in the 🌊 path. It's a grave site: A⬇⬇ descends on the -Dissed▶ weather+sewage + gov't regulations +waste + decay - The highland's dredge is discharged onto ▶them◀

The Kℹms are jettisoned from a spacious -(desolate, really) living room + (hunger sated & the dance of 🌧 a marvel) to ↘mired $h!thole↙ as we ride-or-die w/ them. Parasite is a coefficient of the senses: Hear▶ Grab what you can‼ See> What's IN this black GL👀P? Gross ‼🤢‼ Feel > legs·arms·torsos in Slimy wetness. Taste> Mouth Closed! (We only see Kℹms consume in P. In this scene, they literally eat $h!t). Smell> Don't breathe‼ Stanky sewage is slop, & filthy bodies the flopping pigs. L👀k again⤵ Rundown sch👀l-turned-crowded-shelter. Systemic grunge is layered from the years, like rings on a tree.

Studies show those who make it big or get that promo⬆ion, unawares or not, assume they are superior. Factor in reincarnation/prior-life sins & the 1% could glibly presume the poor deserve to be such. The system continually cranks out more entitleds who presume superiority along with the poor who hate them, believing the wealthy are obligated to share. +Agreed! They're /morally/ obligated × compelled to share🏧💓🕚.

⚠Futility: A dead 🖤 cannot be legislated into a living 💓 · A 🖤 bypasses laws.

OUR cycles will isolate & destroy us all, regardless of wealth. Parasite tries to jam the gears + slow the works, begging: ‘ST🛑P‼ Who is eating whom? Money can be a cage + a mildew that rots everything!’ The rich employ workers to perform basic tasks, to the point that they can no longer do - at all. (Who are the parasites?) All these workers know that all people have the same net intrinsic worth. They know, w/ disdain, that all their bosses are ready to be popped🎈 Reference: Mrs Park. She's a sheltered child playing at grown-up, only to display how t◻◻ many✖ch☑ices can o✔erwhelm.

P's also a ghoul-parade featuring choices that isolate. Greed retrofits the brazen into victims like⚡. At times, even the poor consume other poor souls, further cranking the ♻. A dearth of respect, compassion & humility keeps it ever♻churning.

Finally, Parasite is replete w/ metaphors to contrast colliding worlds: Trading places, solitary lives & fates flipping, 'Sub-level existence' + 'buried alive', as it were, give us a slap & shake. Be it crypts, vaults, basement apartments, plans, no plans, & plans that are actually not plans, but daydreams, rather: The poor sleep, eat, dress, live + learn differently. What they hear & taste is different. The poor even smell differently.

We all rotate the toxic cycle if we can't respect our extended 🌍 family. It takes effort to reverse a flow, but those who want to wrench the gears can do so. Start small. Make a heart connection, not a dollar💵dump. Are you 🤑? (Psst: In world hierarchy, the USA's mid-class is loaded). Give money, yes, but give more time, as humans are designed to be fulfilled when we help others + it's 3D glasses for the kids. Are you poor? Do your best + prioritize self-improvement + don't quit!! +Do what good you can. Appreciate what's done for you. Know that there's a level at which only /you/ can lift yourself higher. Nobody deserves to be born in 🇺🇸,🇰🇷, or 🇫🇷; rich or poor, frumpy or beautiful, thin or portly, etc. These are gifts or challenges that've been handed to us: (individually + collectively).

⚠Futility: The Parks have Perks, but never allow 👁 or 💰 to flow to the sufferig♻masses underneath.

The Parks colonize a truth-proof illusion🎈 Truth has a habit of puncturing through, though. They aren't as well-off as they imagine: All near a Park see W💰N, not One; money poisons it all. The Parks are spectres. They don't eat/love/live in P. While not actively evil, they're 'ho-hum'. The world is Chock O' Nutz full of the weak-minded & indifferent. We could argue a few ♻ about whether that = evil. It doesn't matter in the end, b/c a weak/indifferent populous enables evil > ⭕️ doubts < Evil always seeps in. It must be staunched. C♻NTUNUALLY.

(The Kℹms = evil) is a ❌wrong summation: The Kℹms Ch☑se evil, rather, never c◻nsidering sincerity. If KW had simply done his job, Perks would have followed. We sympathize with the Kℹm's plight + their gumption impresses, however, the movie + base level decency say that justifying their actions is a big mistake. They have greater > than the Parks in that they're smart & work as a unit. They truly love eachother. The over coddled Park kids reek of ignorance. If KW & KJ had Park Perks, they'd excel. But LO❕No patience. Investing in N🕛W with 👁👁 to the future pays dividends by turning things counter🕞wise to the Park's vacuous progeny. Notwithstanding, pulling the Parks down is another wrong answer. That won't lift the Kℹms up.

Human ♻ tragedy multiplies: × As our world is one of abject misery + most gifted people never get a chance to shine × Smart people fail because they think: I know❌everything = ⚠Futility: The Kℹms have more than the Parks in shared camaraderie. The greatest tragedy in Parasite is that they don't realize it in time. Plan or no-plan, one can't avoid a hazard that s/he refuses to see or understand.

I avoided P, fearing it'd be too intense/bloody/dark. It's manageable, as it is quality film. Parasite is riveting & strangely satisfying because it gifts us with much to ponder. The end is as haunting as it is ironic.

What is a win? When P's credits march to the cankered end, wonder who's right; who's better off? Neither. The horrific truth is that the game is rigged. ⭕️ win😱. The poor are isolated & submerged, while the wealthy, in need of a rude awakening, devolve to infancy. ♻Perpetually♻. Rich/poor, this grinding war of attrition has ⭕️ winners. ⭕️ realize: Each camp has 2much2lose. It adds up to futility.

Depressing sums it up.

P's summation: We'll all remain isolated or worse, if we don't learn respect & that we're all a 🌍 family. I daresay the writer's primary message is 2↔ways: Be content. Give all you can. Don't compare yourself to others. Work on YOU to advance. Give: money, time and love. Be thankful.

Do not let ❌depressing = you

🕊

🖍 IMHO〰

🎬10 🎭9 📝9 🤔9 🎨8 ⚡6 🤢6 🔚10

14+violent/tense▶w/purpose

The film Mother might be better!

Originally 📝 8/2022

~ 11/2025 Afterthoughts – I love to discuss film w/ Grok now. He weighs in / wish I had more space ~

The house is the true parasite: a living stomach that digests the poor and shits them out the garage at night.
Smell is the only thing that ever climbs; everything else (money, water, plans, people) flows down.
The scholar’s rock is hollow, tries to drown Ki-woo, then smashes skulls: perfect lie of social mobility.
Morse code + final letter = same fantasy. Ki-woo never leaves the bunker; the “sunlight ending” is just another delusion shot in basement light.
No one says the word “parasite.” That’s the horror: there is no villain, only gravity.
The flood is physics taking a shit downhill: same rain, rich get a spa day, poor get a sewage tsunami.
Futility is the organism; every character is just food being slowly digested forever.
Identifying with Ki-woo proves you’re still in first-stage digestion.
There is no sunlight ending. Only the loop. You felt the deepest cut on first watch. Most never do.
Parasite isn’t a movie; it’s a worm that lays eggs in hope.
Six years later it’s still eating us alive.

Read More

A Good Story That Gets A Bit Confusing

After reading some reviews, I went into this expecting something really good. It is good, but I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece. I’m writing this after my first watch, so I might come back and edit this some once I take it in more.

The slow infiltration of each family member into the rich home is well done and I liked how sneaky they were about it. I feel that once the old housekeeper came back, things started to get somewhat confusing.

Metaphorically speaking, I think this film is really good. The constant slip of trying to get more money and be the best. The chaotic nature of the second half of the film sort of encapsulates that feeling of despair. I think it’s interesting that throughout the movie, we aren’t given any characters to truly root for. It shows that none of them are fully good or fully bad.

The social commentary was good and I like the connection of parasites to the system of capitalism that’s been set up. I found myself being empathetic for both sides, which sometimes shocked me, because usually we’re pit against each other in a sense. Well, actually, I disliked the poor family. Once they started giving the housekeeper health problems, it irked me.

I think this is a decent film and I recommend it to anyone interested, but don’t have your expectations set too high.

The ending scene was great, I clapped once the credits started rolling.

Read More

Parasitic Society Metaphor

Ominois and claustrophobic movie telling the story of a poor, low class family using their wits to con their way into getting what they want such as employment, their employers' house and wealth, the way upper class people lives, etc.

It depicts the judgmental gullibilty of this rich family made them an easy target for the cons. Oddly, none of the characters in this film will make you feel love or sympathy for them.

This film was done in a way that deserved an 8 minutes standing ovation in Cannes Film festival. Although it is not my kind of film to watch, due to the hype, it got me interested enough to devote my undivided attention and it didn't fail me.

Whatever genre of films you enjoy, I suggest giving this film a chance and see for yourself the reason why it garnered so much award and attention internationally.

Read More