Hello and welcome back to another weekly movie and TV review. This week we’ll be looking at my most dreaded film, Parasite by Bong Joon Ho. This is the same Bong Joon Ho who directed Mother, that perfectly executed murder mystery. Here’s a shameless plug for the article—click it if you dare. Dun dun dun. Lol.

I should have known Parasite would have been of the same gruesome bullshit—don’t excuse my English, I said what I said—judging by Mother’s standards. But honestly, I had no idea who Bong Joon Ho was at the time. I only learned about Mother much later after watching that atrocity, Parasite. Frankly, Parasite is the film that put Bong Joon Ho on the map—at least for me.

I always say I detest that film, but I never explain why. Well, today’s your lucky day if you care to know. Though if you’ve been following my shenanigans long enough, you should partly know why already. Honestly, spoiler alert: I just hate the senseless bloodshed. This movie succeeded in making me upset. With that said, let’s get ittttttttt!

So first question: are Min and Ki-woo friends? And if so, why? And more importantly, how did they even meet? Obviously, it was in a school setting, and likely the scenario was Ki-woo beat Min academically, and Min was like, “Who that boy? Let me catch those digits,” because let’s be honest—there’s no other way these two would ever rub shoulders. My guy Ki-woo doesn’t have two nickels to his name.

To answer my own question, Min and Ki-woo are similar in nature. Both are unscrupulous characters. Let’s not forget that Min was the one who suggested Ki-jung doctor up some acceptance letter from a Harvard-type college. He also doesn’t seem to have any problem lying when it serves him.

But then I started wondering—why did he wait so long to “help” Ki-woo? Instead of just acting as a metaphorical bridge, why didn’t he introduce Ki-woo to some of his wealthy acquaintances earlier? Did he even do that? The “trust belt,” as Mrs. Park, Da-hye’s mother, describes it, begins with a recommendation—a word-of-mouth business introduction. One word, and Ki-woo could have been tutoring for a living instead of scraping by.

It also makes me question whether Min even considers Ki-woo a friend at all. Why was he so trusting about leaving Da-hye in Ki-woo’s care if he supposedly loved her? Did he genuinely see Ki-woo as harmless—a loser who wouldn’t stand a chance with Da-hye compared to those slimy RICH frat boys?

Then there’s Ki-woo and his family.

I’d argue they all have a criminal mindset—sorry, I mean a survivalist mindset. The question I kept coming back to is: once Ki-woo got the tutoring job, why didn’t he stop there?

But I think I already know the answer: slow money.

The Parks, Ki-woo, and his family have likely been playing these kinds of games for years—that’s the impression I got. Beyond that, they survive however they can: stealing Wi-Fi, manipulating situations, even cornering the pizza shop owner.

They’re all opportunists.

Typically, in immigrant families, you have that really smart kid the family pools their resources in, in the hopes that one day they’ll rise to riches and pull everyone out. Black people know this as the Black Tax. On some level, I could see in Ki-woo; he seemed genuinely taken with the idea of living up to that acceptance letter, but greed got the best of him, and it became a deadly family affair.

Would it be too far-fetched to say Mrs. Park is a bored housewife living a weird fantasy through her daughter? Because my guy Min was serving up more than lessons—but at least he had the decency to wait until she was in high school to ask her out. To make matters worse, she all but suggested Ki-woo be more passionate than Min. Lol. How do you describe their initial interview lesson? It’s frightening enough to wonder what’s going on in your child’s bedroom with an adult male, but to sit up there and encourage it is crazy work.

I wonder if the father knew what was going on under his nose—if Min or Ki-woo would’ve been able to tutor Da-hye?

Sidenote: beyond questioning Peach Lady’s money problem, I’m not even going to touch the real parasite living in the Parks’ basement. What did their savings look like? After all these years, they’ve basically been living rent-free while running from loan sharks. She must have stashed some bread away for a rainy day—in fact, she even pulled out a bundle as offering for her replacement to feed her husband every now and then.

Anypoops, I give Parasite 3 rose petals. Tell me I’m wrong and give me a real reason why. Like, comment, subscribe, and don’t forget to share.