Parasite and the Art of Audience Discomfort

Mild spoilers ahead

It’s actually shocking that I’ve only gotten around to watching Bong Joon Ho’s award winning film, Parasite, this year. It should be a punishable offence, like breaking some sort of unspoken cinephile law. What is crazier is that I was able to avoid every discussion surrounding this film for the past 7 years, allowing me to go into this experience completely blind. And what a whirlwind it was. 

For the uninitiated, the film follows Kim Ki-Taek, his family and their financial struggles. To try and rectify their situation, they con their way into the home of a rich family, pretending to fulfill any role from esteemed tutors and high-end housemaids. The film then takes a sharp turn into complete chaos. 

Not to beat a dead horse, but the film operates as a microcosm of class dynamics. Every interaction between every character is framed through the lens of social class, operating as a critique of capitalist systems. We see this in who Bong Joon Ho thought would be best to tell this story: the extremely rich and the extremely poor. 

I know, I know. It’s like a staple of a Parasite review, you have to discuss how the themes of social class are presented in the set dressing, in the wardrobe, in the dialogue. But it’s important to highlight.

What struck me the most about this film is just how much Bong Joon Ho plays with the audience and their own discomfort. Scenes throughout this film are curated with the express purpose of making you feel sick with dread. Making the large house at the centre of this narrative feel claustrophobic is a skill. Paired with meticulous blocking and camera work emphasise the growing dramatic irony, that we the audience have more information than the characters on the screen and we are punished for having such information. It’s this powerful command of the audience that has made Parasite one of the most important films of the 21st century. 

Parasite falls in the genre of Black Comedy; making light of subject matter deemed too taboo. Ironically, I feel as though it’s these striking comedic moments that lull you into the film’s web of despair. The opening scene dips its toe into the water, makes you laugh at this struggling family as they try to leech off free wifi from their neighbours to access Whatsapp. Soon you're laughing at this distraught rich woman as she’s manipulated into thinking that her son’s shitty artwork shows the early signs of schizophrenia. 

And while the laughter pulled from you is one of shock, laughing at the absurdity of such an unfamiliar situation, the film gets you well acquainted and comfortable with such laughter.

That’s when the rug is pulled from beneath you. When the film very quickly stops being funny. And you’re no longer laughing as Bong Joon Ho reveals the tragic end to his scathing critique of class division.

When dealing with a heavy theme like class, I wasn’t prepared for how large a role the olfactory descriptions would play in emphasising the wealth gap. The sense of smell is really only brought up when addressing Kim Ki-Taek and his family. How they all have the same smell. And it’s not something that can be remedied by laundry detergent. It’s as if the smell of poverty is embedded in the very fabric of their being. And it disgusts the Park family. 

I think this is where I began to feel the most uncomfortable as Bong Joon Ho wastes no time in showing you just how humiliated Kim Ki-Taek feels about such remarks. Extreme close ups of his face distorted in upset. There is a level of trust in the audience here, that we are trusted to know just how horrible it is to be belittled for a smell. How scathing an insult that can be. It makes sense then as to why this olfactory insecurity continues to push the narrative forward to its inevitable tragic conclusion.

After finally getting around to my first watch of Parasite, it is no wonder that it is one of only four films to win both the academy award for ‘Best Picture’ and the prestigious ‘Palme D’or’ at the Cannes Film Festival. And if anything, I don’t think we talk enough about how phenomenal this film is. Even if it did make me want to crawl out of my skin at times.

Parasite is available to watch on Blu-Ray, DVD & Digital.