“CLASS SYSTEM SURREALISM”

By Raymond Benson

Throughout the history of the Academy Awards, several foreign language (i.e., non-English) films have been nominated for the top honor, Best Picture. The first was Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion (1937, released in the U.S. in 1938). Recently, Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma had a good shot at the award in 2018. Most of the time these same pictures are also up for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, and because there is usually no chance of the title winning Best Picture, getting the Foreign Language trophy is the consolation prize.

In 2020, however, for the movies released in 2019, South Korea’s Parasite won Best Picture, marking the first time ever that a non-English language movie won the award. (2011’s The Artist, a French production, doesn’t count because it was silent.) Parasite also picked up Oscars for director Bong Joon-ho, for its original screenplay (by Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-wan), and, for good measure, Foreign Language Film! History was made that night. Oh, and earlier in 2019, Parasite was the first South Korean film to pick up the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

That said, Parasite happens to be undoubtedly worthy of every honor it received. It’s the type of movie that one should hopefully know nothing about before going in because there is a surprise at every turn. Just when you think the film is about one thing, it goes in a different direction and becomes something else. Parasite is a surreal black comedy that is also a horror film, a domestic drama, and an examination of the social classes in South Korea. It’s funny as heck, as weird as any nightmare, and aesthetically beautiful to watch. With Parasite, the talented Bong Joon-ho (The Host, Mother, Snowpiercer) solidified his position as one of the reigning filmmakers working today.

While the picture has been released on Blu-ray previously, The Criterion Collection has reissued this 2-disk special edition which not only contains a new 4K digital master of the theatrical release (approved by Bong and director of photography Hong Kyung Pyo) with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, but Criterion has also included on the second disk the black-and-white version of the picture with the same soundtrack and an introduction by Bong.

Black-and-white version, you ask? Yes, Bong had the desire to create a black-and-white presentation of the film because of his love of classic black-and-white pictures by Hitchcock and others. There is a precedent. Frank Darabont originally intended his 2007 horror flick of Stephen King’s The Mist to be black-and-white to mimic the 1950s horror and sci-fi fare it resembles, but the studio wouldn’t allow it. So, after the movie’s theatrical release Darabont turned the color version into black-and-white, exhibited the new picture in select theaters, and released it as part of the Blu-ray package. The same has occurred here in the fabulous new Criterion offering of Parasite.

So how is Parasite in black-and-white? For this reviewer, it doesn’t pack the punch that the color edition does. The theatrical release is jaw-dropping gorgeous with its vibrant color scheme. The dichotomy between the Kim family’s surroundings and the Park’s exquisite home and the design schemes used for each is vitally important to the themes in the picture. Go with the color edition, although for a novelty, the black-and-white presentation is interesting enough.

If you haven’t seen Parasite, this reviewer is loath to reveal much. Let’s just say the story concerns the Kims, a poor family in Seoul (we presume) that lives in a tawdry basement apartment—father (Song Kang-ho), mother (Jang Hye-jin), son (Choi Woo-shik), and daughter (Park So-dam). However, they are deviously ambitious. The son, Ki-woo, finagles a job as a tutor for the daughter (Jung Ji-so) of the very wealthy Park family. The Park father (Lee Sun-kyun) and mother (Cho Yeo-jeong) are oblivious to how privileged they are and don’t notice when the entire Kim family infiltrates the household in other jobs (chauffeur, housekeeper, and tutor for the young son). In other words, the Kims become the parasites of the Parks. But wait—what lurks in the basement? Who steals food from the kitchen in the middle of the night? What other secrets are held by each member of the two families? You’ll have to see this twisting, turning extravaganza of bravura filmmaking to find out.

In addition to the two excellent presentations of the feature film, Criterion includes some exemplary supplements. There are all new interviews with Bong, DP Hong, production designer Lee Ha Jun, and editor Yang Jimmo. Each of these are lessons for any filmmaking student. Especially instructive is the approximately hour-and-a-half master class conducted by Bong from the 2019 Lumière Festival in Lyon. There’s also a new featurette on the New Korean Cinema with Bong and director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden), the Cannes Film Festival press conference with Bong and the cast, a storyboard comparison, and trailers. The essay in the booklet is by critic Inkoo Kang.

The Criterion Collection never fails to deliver a first-class product. With a masterpiece like Parasite as its subject, you can’t go wrong. Highly recommended.

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