Parasite

"Act like you own the place."

2019 2h 13m KO

🤯

8.5

MASTERPIECE

🔥

99%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

8.5

IMDB

★8.5TMDB · 21,443🍅99%Rotten Tomatoes●97Metacritic★8.5IMDB · 1,148,210

ComedyThrillerDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.

“Act like you own the place.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Song Kang-ho
Kim Ki-taek
Lee Sun-kyun
Park Dong-ik
Cho Yeo-jeong
Yeon-kyo
Choi Woo-shik
Ki-woo
Park So-dam
Ki-jung
Lee Jung-eun
Moon-gwang
Jang Hye-jin
Chung-sook
Park Myung-hoon
Geun-se

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Bong Joon Ho
Writers: Bong Joon Ho, Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin-won
Languages: English, German, Korean
Countries: South Korea

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $258M — a 22.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 7 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, German, Korean.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

224+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Bong Joon Ho, shot by Hong Kyung-pyo. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Jung Jae-il. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Yang Jin-mo shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Song Kang-ho and Lee Sun-kyun and Cho Yeo-jeong carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Bong Joon Ho directs. Hong Kyung-pyo behind the camera. Jung Jae-il scores. Yang Jin-mo cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in South Korea. Dialogue in English, German, Korean.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Grossed $258M — a 22.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
2Released 7 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, German, Korean.
4224+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Bong Joon Ho, shot by Hong Kyung-pyo. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Jung Jae-il. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Yang Jin-mo shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Song Kang-ho and Lee Sun-kyun and Cho Yeo-jeong carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Act like you own the place.".
10IMDB entry: tt6751668 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11The top-rated still from this film on TMDB has 42 community votes — a signal the frame composition stuck with viewers.
1221,443 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
13Classified under 15 themes, including "dark comedy", "con artist", "social commentary", "working class".
14Released under 12 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Hong Kyung-pyo
Original score: Jung Jae-il
Editing: Yang Jin-mo
Production design: Lee Ha-jun
Costume design: Choi Se-yeon
Makeup / hair: Kim Ho-sik
VFX supervisor: Hong Jeong-ho
Stunt coordinator: Kwon Ji-hoon
Runtime: 133 min · 2h 13m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $11,363,000
Box office: $257,591,776
Return: 2267% of budget
Original language: KO
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Parasite (2019)
Rotten Tomatoes: 99% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 97/100
IMDB rating: 8.5/10 · 1,148,210 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Won 4 Oscars. 309 wins & 261 nominations total

Dorian Award for Film of the Year
AACTA International Award for Best Film
BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language
Gilde Film Price
Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Golden Globe Award for Best Non-English Language Film
Palme d'Or
Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Bong Joon Ho

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

SWITCH.2019-06-16
★ 10/10
What makes ‘Parasite’ so satisfying is that it commits neither error. It’s an engrossing, stylish and near perfect movie, and its underlying themes go beyond merely pointing out class exploitation to challenge the logic of capital. Though he is often juggling a mosaic of characters, themes and social issues, Bong never eschews his anarchic impulses and dark humour. It’s a movie that should be seen as widely as possible, if only so that Bong Joon-ho gets more chances to make movies for modern audiences that badly need them. - Jake Watt Read Jake's full article... https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-parasite-a-bloodthirsty-and-very-funny-look-at-class-warfare Head to https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/sff for more Sydney Film Festival reviews.
Sheldon Nylander2019-10-19
★ 10/10
The working class and down on their luck Kim family struggle to make ends meet. When a friend of the son, Ki-Woo’s, who is an English tutor for the daughter in the wealthy Park family, has to leave his position, he recommends Ki-Woo for the job. Now having an "in" with the wealthy family, the Kims begin plotting the downfall of the current household servants and inserting themselves into those vacant positions, making them all gainfully employed and with money finally flowing into the household. But not everything is as it seems in the Park house or with their previous servants. This movie starts out as a comedy and quickly goes into social commentary, pointing out the differences between the poor working class family and the wealthy privileged family. The differences are ones that get commonly pointed out with the well-to-do having what usually gets termed as first-world-problems, while the poor family is literally trying to survive and save meager possessions in a flood. It doesn’t shy away or try to be subtle about it, but interestingly enough, we don’t feel beaten over the head with it either, which is a major change from the ham-fisted approach taken by most filmmakers. Couching this in a comedy is a good approach, as well, as the audience’s guard is let down and we become more receptive to the ideas. However, I do say it’s MOSTLY a comedy. The third act takes a dark, dark turn, and the contrast, not to mention general disdain and even indifference, between the classes becomes much more severe. This gets into some hard territory, and characters that we’ve found quirky and even come to like in some ways show very different sides of themselves. At the same time, it doesn’t feel unexpected, almost like we could tell that this was under the surface all the time and tried to ignore it, but aren’t surprised by it when it does show up. This is some masterful characterization! Another aspect of note is that this film is rich in allegory and metaphor. It’s a smart film, yet at the same time the filmmakers are not condescending about it. They give the audience credit for being able to understand the symbolism and don’t spoon feed you everything, which is a refreshing change from the usual head-beating most filmmakers go for. At the same time, they understand that not every audience member will understand or immediately pick up on every symbol, but they have crafted this so carefully and so perfectly that you don’t have to understand each and every one. That understanding merely enriches the experience, but isn’t essential to it. This film has gotten some recognition, and deservedly so. It is rich, intelligent, and polished to a degree that we sadly don’t see as often as we should nowadays, showing the filmmakers are masters of their craft. This is easily one of the best films I’ve seen in 2019. Highly recommended!
Saru2020-01-12
★ 4/10
This is VERY HIGHLY OVERRATED. The most part of the movie is foul-playing, most of those scenes seem to have been copied from the 1999/old Vijay’s movie: Minsaara Kannan [IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7562630/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2], (Warning: This again might be a copy of some other movie as well]. “Morse code” has been used in a much better way in 2017 Ajith’s film: Vivegam [IMDB:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6878378/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0] [Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/vivegam/] I just don’t understand what makes this movie so special that it has been appraised so highly. It is not even 10% of the Tamil movies at this level/standard. People who’re praising this movie must start watching Tamil movies instead of Korean, there are so many gems that have gone unnoticed. There is really nothing special in this movie that stands out. Cannot digest that an average movie like this has got so much limelight. Btw: Where does this kinda BS trend start off?