Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Parasite Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 21, 2020

The title Parasite conjures images of some sort of traditional Horror picture, with characters battling some flesh-eating, mind-altering, body-inhabiting something-or-another to grotesque physical harm and emotional consequence. Director Bong Joon-ho's film is nothing like that, but the title fits the material perfectly, anyway. Rather than a dark and spooky, blood-and-guts, infestation and outwardly gruesome film, Parasite tells a story of class warfare, of infiltration of a supposedly inferior subspecies, feasting on a supposedly superior host, for its own gain -- but also vice versa. The picture is riveting in its technical structure, its narrative cohesion, and its subtle, but unmissable, social explorations. What it wants to say and what it ultimately says may be up for debate, but the movie is a striking example of both timely and timeless story building as well as contemporary cinema built as a masterclass of structural workmanship.

The Kim family -- father Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho), mother Chung-sook (Chang Hyae-jin), son Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik), and daughter Ki-jeong (Park So-dam) -- lives in poverty and isn't particularly concerned with escaping from it. That a neighbor has put a password on their WiFi or that they receive a 10% dock in pay for what menial work they do perform far outweighs the burden of any drive to better themselves and ascend from the bottom. Things change when one of Ki-woo's friends offers him the opportunity to take over his tutoring duties. Said friend has been instructing a young lady, Da-hye (Jeong Ji-so) in English, and it's a fine opportunity for a change of scenery and picking up a little extra cash. Ki-woo discovers Da-hye comes from money. Lots of it. Her parents (Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong) live a life of turmoil masked by money. They are hands off with their children and their responsibilities around the house, delegating instruction, cleaning, and driving to others. Ki-woo, who has forged documents to sell his employers on his background, makes a good first impression. Da-hye falls for him and her mother is so impressed that she agrees to hire an "art tutor" of Ki-woo's recommendation -- who is actually Ki-jeong posing as a sophisticated art student -- for her supposedly gifted but troublesome son Da-song (Jung Hyeon-jun). Eventually, the entire Kim family schemes its way into the home, with Ki-taek replacing a trusted driver and Chung-sook taking over for a respected housekeeper. But as the family integrates into the Kim household, cracks begin to show in the plan as dark secrets are revealed that threaten to break not only the illusion but the family structure at both ends.

Parasite is a movie of contrast between the have’s and the have-not’s and how the classes interact for their own gain. For the Kim family, that gain is escape from squalor and a taste of a supposedly better life. For the Park family, that is wealth affording them the opportunity to delegate difficult or unwanted tasks to others. Mrs. Park can neither cook nor clean house, Mr. Park says in the movie, and the home would transform into a trash can without external help. But at the same time they’re above the help. The help smells bad, and of course it does. The Kim’s all but live in a trash can. What the Park’s need cannot be bought on the same plane of existence, and the Kim’s learn that upward mobility comes with a price that they perhaps cannot afford to pay. Of course the story evolves into something more than social exploration. There are a few surprises and few escape without blood on their persons or blood on their hands -- or both -- but the movie’s construct is one of existential exploration of how addition multiplies division and subtracts the essence of souls on both ends of the bank account.

The film's technical mastery proves as exquisite as its narrative constructs. Bong Joon-ho's direction and Hong Kyung-pyo's cinematography are fit for the art house but accessible to the mainstream. The movie uses visual cues and set construction and height and depth to expert technical merit and finessed narrative support. Nothing appears without careful consideration but also not without seamless visual flow and natural assembly. More, the cast is phenomenal. There's an artistry to the performances that certainly capture the broader stroke genius in the writing but also explore the deeper nuances and subtly both within the characters and through the interactions they share, whether directly or indirectly, verbally or silently. Each player commands their space with eerie completeness and complexity. The performances are not practiced but rather authentic: whether the Kim's peculiar camaraderie or the cold aloofness in the Park's togetherness and certainly in the family intermingling, the cast understands the superficial realities and deeper ramifications of physical and emotional closeness with powerful exactness. Few films intermix cinema as art and cinema as entertainment so well.

Parasite Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Parasite's 1080p transfer excels in all areas of concern. The digitally lensed motion picture reveals extremely fine detail with impressive command. Character close-ups reveal intricate skin complexities -- pores, ridges, hairs -- with striking clarity. Environments are beautifully rendered, particularly as the film contrasts the squalor within the Kim family's semi-basement -- packed with junk alongside a few necessities -- and the Park household, clean and resplendent and minimalist, its large space uncluttered yet somehow uninviting at the same time. The clarity of the contrast is vital to the movie's thematic currents, only reinforced by a third key location that is the bleakest and grayest yet perhaps most visually vital locale in the movie. The digital workmanship is first rate and the movie, photographed at a resolution of 6.5K and finished at 4K, downscales quite efficiently and reliably to 1080p. The picture further benefits from well balanced colors. The array of odds and ends within the semi-basement pop with vitality but carefully considered balance and faithfulness to the multitudinous tones. The sleek and modern but gray-dominant colors throughout the Park home are interrupted by popping greens outside and splashes of warm wood or white, but the image handles that predominant upper class grayscale quite nicely. A pop of red placed on a tissue at a key moment in the movie reveals eye-catching tonal intensity. Skin tones are fine and black levels, critical to several scenes, hold deep and pure. Noise does sprinkle in across various low light scenes but never raises to any level of distraction. Other source or encode issues are nonexistent. It's more than a surprise that Universal has not released the film on UHD considering both its technical merits and critical success, but the Blu-ray is extremely strong and a representation of the format near its pinnacle.

Parasite Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Parasite's native Korean language DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is the only audio option on the disc (only English subtitles are included). The track is fabulous, projecting sound with confidence and precision placement that uses the allocated channels to maximum effect. Most of the high points come in the form of ambient fill. The surround channels pick up the sweeping fumigation blower early in the film, punctuating the Kim lifestyle and demonstrating the track's audio prowess. A coughing fit in a key scene later in chapter five hacks through the back with effective detail, setting the stage for one of the pivotal plot points to follow. A deluge of rainfall in chapter ten soaks the stage with highly impressive saturation and command; the full stage immersion adds tension to a difficult scene and, minutes later, grows in depth and intensity when the Kim family discovers a familiar location flooded to waist-deep level. Music is powerfully engaging across the front while folding in surround and subwoofer content, all the while maintaining fulfilling fidelity. Dialogue is clear and accurate, well prioritized and steady in its front-center positioning.

Parasite Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Parasite Blu-ray includes a filmmaker Q&A and a pair of trailers. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code is included with purchase. A DVD disc is not. This release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.

• Parasite -- Fantastic Fest 2019 Q&A with Director Bong Joon Ho (1080p, 19:03): The director fields a couple of moderator questions, followed by audience interaction. In both English and Korean.
• Trailer #1 (1080p, 2:22).
• Trailer #2 (1080p, 2:03).

Parasite Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Out of squalor, into high society. Parasite explores a symbiosis of sorts, a merging of the classes by need and by deception. The film explores the intermingling of rich and poor to astounding complexity but also ease of access. It's both humorous -- can the family maintain the multiplying illusion? -- and horrific, not so much from traditional Horror beats but rather in an appreciable simmering of tensions that seem destined to explode into something much more than snide comments about detachment or odor. With Parasite, Bong Joon-ho joins a select group of contemporary filmmakers, including Jordan Peele, as a master storyteller and social commentator that blends art house construction with multiplex accessibility. Why Universal has not released Parasite to the UHD format is anyone's guess, but the Blu-ray is plenty strong in the A/V department. Supplements are disappointingly thin. Very highly recommended.