Parasite (South Korea: Bong Joon-ho, 2019)

 

A zeitgeist-defining sensation that distilled a global reckoning over class inequality into a tour de force of pop-cinema subversion, Bong Joon Ho’s genre-scrambling black-comic thriller confirms his status as one of the world’s foremost filmmakers. Two families in Seoul—one barely scraping by in a dank semibasement in a low-lying neighborhood, the other living in luxury in a modern architectural marvel overlooking the city—become entwined in a dangerous relationship that will lay bare the dark contradictions of capitalism with shocking ferocity. A bravura showcase for its director’s meticulously constructed set pieces, bolstered by a brilliant ensemble cast and stunning production design, Parasite cemented the New Korean Cinema as an undeniable international force when it swept almost every major prize from Cannes to the Academy Awards, where it made history as the first non-English-language film to win best picture. -- Criterion

Parasite (South Korea: Bong Joon-ho, 2019: 132 mins)

Bradley, S.A. "Again, Volatile Substance: Caligari Goes to the Oscars." Hellbent for Horror #93 (April 26, 2020) [Bradley makes a case for three Best Picture nominees as horror films: Joker (Todd Phillips), 1917 (Sam Mendes), and Parasite (Bong Joon-Ho).]

Calman, Susan and Mike Muncer. " HOME INVASION Pt 35: Us (2019) & Parasite (2019)." The Evolution of Horror (2023)

Cook, Adam. "Parasite (Bong Joon Ho, South Korea)." Cinema Scope #79 (2019)

"How Bong Joon-ho’s Storyboards for Parasite (Now Published as a Graphic Novel) Meticulously Shaped the Acclaimed Film." Open Culture (September 22, 2020)

Hudson, David. "Bong Joon-ho's Parasite." The Current (May 23, 2019)

---. "Weighing Parasite's Wins." The Current (February 11, 2020)

Juhyundred. "Reading Colonialism in Parasite." Tropics of Meta (February 17, 2020)

Kang, Inkoo. "Parasite: Notes from the Underground." Current (October 30, 2020)

 Koresky, Michael, Nicholas Rapold and Amy Taubin. "Bong Joon-Ho's Parasite." Film Comment Podcast (October 26, 2019) ["At Film Comment, we love it when we get behind a movie and then see other movie-goers share the love. Parasite, the funny and fierce thriller from Bong Joon Ho, was on the cover of our September-October issue, but wasn’t released in theaters until mid-October. But what a release! Audiences are packing the theaters. To talk about the movie’s appeal and Bong’s masterful filmmaking, FC Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sat down with contributing editor Amy Taubin, who wrote out September-October feature on Parasite, and FC columnist and critic Michael Koresky."]

 Kunkle, Sheila. "Parasite and the Parallax of Social Relations Under Capitalism." Crisis Critique 7.2 (2020) ["This paper offers a psychoanalytic film analysis of director Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 film Parasite, which engages Slavoj Žižek’s concept of a “political parallax.” The analysis reveals how social (class) relations under Capitalism are anamorphically distorted and structured by way of an unsymbolizable gap. Ultimately, achieving a parallax view allows us to see that it’s not capitalism that breeds parasites; rather parasitism is already there, inherently built into capitalism in the form of an internal excess. Thus, capitalism itself becomes the parasitic system that perpetuates both the fantasy of freedom and the fetishization of class difference, which, paradoxically obfuscates class struggle itself."]

Lin, Ed. "This Side of Parasite: New Korean Cinema 1998–2009." The Current (November 2, 2020)

Liu, Rebecca. "A Hellish Commons: Bong Joon-Ho's Parasite." Another Gaze (February 13, 2020)

Park, Ed. "Memories of Murder: In the Killing Jar." Current (April 20, 2021)

Yoonsoo, Kristen. "The Parasite Eight-Minute Meal." Filmmaker (December 10, 2019)