Parasite Is A Mirror Of Our Society

The brilliant film by Bong Joon Ho reflects the extreme inequality of South Korea– a fact that is prevalent elsewhere in the world

Warning: some spoilers ahead

The main cast of the film. Image from Amazon

First of all, what an amazing film Parasite is. A film of so many layers, it’s hard to find a genre to categorise it in. But maybe it doesn’t need to be put in a category? The film elegantly interweaves the economical situation of the country, the politics (think the bunker scene story), family dynamics, dark comedy, and suspense. I went to the cinema without knowing anything about the film, except from being drawn to the ominous sounding one worded title.

While its easy to point fingers at the characters and blame them for their actions, we must face the cold hard truth. So many societies of the world including South Korea, are becoming increasingly divided to the extremes. The gap between the rich and everyday people are so drastic that there no longer is a middle ground that can breach both worlds. In South Korea like many East Asian countries, the top 10 percent of the country hold almost 70 percent of the country’s wealth. Similarly like in the UK (where I live), a 2019 Guardian article reported how the 1 percent of the population own half of Britain.