Parasite Review: “It Grips from First Frame to Last”《寄生蟲》影評：“從頭到尾扣人心弦”

杰米·格雷厄姆

Expectations are always high going into a Bong Joon-ho film， with the South Korean director having amassed quite the CV in Memories of Murder， The Host， Mother， Snowpiercer and Netflix giant-pig movie Okja. Well， Parasite doesnt disappoint， again showcasing Bongs love of hopping between genres—pitch-black comedy here holds sway1， but theres drama， social commentary， horror and a surprising amount of heart mixed carefully and confidently into the 132-minute running time—as it grips from first frame to last.

Parasite starts off as something of a mirror-image to last years Palm dOr-winner Shoplifters， introducing us to the Kim family， barely getting by as they share a cramped basement with scurrying2 bugs. Ki-taek （Song Kang-ho） and his wife Chung-sook （Chang Hyae-jin） are out of work， as are their twentysomething daughter Ki-jung （Park So-dam） and teenage son Ki-woo （Choi Woo-sik）. Days are spent holding their phones to the ceiling in an effort to piggyback free WiFi， while evenings attract weaving drunks who urinate against their street-level window.

Then Ki-woo gets a break， replacing his friend as the tutor for Da-hye （Jung Ziso）， the daughter of wealthy entrepreneur Mr. Park （Lee Sun-kyun） and his sweet， na?ve wife （Cho Yeo-jeong）. Ki-woo is a smash hit， and slyly suggests his sister， pretending shes a college acquaintance， when Mrs. Park says shes also in need of an art tutor for her younger son， Da-Song （Jung Hyeon-jun）. The pattern is set， and some crafty conniving soon sees the older Kims replace the Parks driver and housekeeper.

This first half of Parasite is a con movie made by a connoisseur， its moving parts elegantly fitted together until all of the players have gravitated to the Parks spacious， modernist home. The second half is about then tearing everyone apart again， though just how that happens should be discovered for yourself. Its not in a manner you might imagine， with Parasite throwing a curveball to set things off. Put another way， if the Kim family is， in one reading of the title， a parasite living off its fat host having buried deep inside， then something happens that is the narrative equivalent of the chestbursting scene in Alien.

Scenes at once amusing and tense follow， with the film maintaining its formal sophistication even as Bongs seething anger at the state of things bubbles to the surface. Interestingly， Parasite is shot by Kyung-pyo Hong， the DoP of another excellent Korean film Burning， and the two films share much in common—not least how they retain a placid beauty as they burn with rage while grappling with class divides and social aspirations. Another comparison point is Jordan Peeles Us， for the Kims might almost be seen as the subterranean3 doppelg?ngers4 of the Parks， no longer willing to be invisible.

Like Us， Parasite refuses to go the easy route of making its Haves unlikeable people so that we might desire their destruction by the Have Nots. It is cleverer than that， playing with our sympathies and switching them this way and that， just as it builds to a demented set-piece5 finale only to then blindside6 us with a poignant coda.? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?■

觀眾對于奉俊昊導演的電影總是抱有很高期望，這位韓國導演已經拍攝過諸多不同凡響的作品，如《殺人回憶》《漢江怪物》《母親》《雪國列車》以及網飛發行的有關巨豬的電影《玉子》。當然，《寄生蟲》也沒有讓我們失望，再次表明奉俊昊熱衷于在不同類型間跳轉——黑色喜劇占主導，但將戲劇性、對社會現實的評判、驚悚元素和多得令人驚嘆的大量情感戲精心布局并自信地糅進132分鐘的劇情里——從頭到尾扣人心弦。

《寄生蟲》的開場似乎是去年金棕櫚獎得主《小偷家族》的翻版，向觀眾介紹了金家——一家人擠在狹窄的地下室里生活，里面蟲子竄來竄去。基澤（宋康昊飾）、妻子忠淑（張慧珍飾）、他們二十多歲的女兒基婷（樸素丹飾）和十幾歲的兒子基宇（崔宇植飾）都沒有工作。白天，為了蹭到免費WiFi，他們要將手機舉到天花板的位置;晚上則會有搖搖晃晃的醉鬼在他們家跟街道地面齊平的窗子外撒尿。

之后，基宇代替朋友擔任多蕙（鄭知曉飾）的家教，迎來了轉機。多蕙是富有的企業家樸先生（李善均飾）及其甜美單純的妻子（趙茹珍飾）的女兒。基宇很受歡迎，當他聽樸太太說小兒子多頌（鄭賢俊飾）也需要一位家教來學習美術時，他很有心機地推薦了姐姐并讓她假裝成自己在大學的熟人。套路設定好，金家狡猾地共謀，很快金家夫婦便取代了樸家司機和保姆的位置。

《寄生蟲》的前半部分是由一位行家里手制作的騙局電影，隨劇情展開，各個環節行云流水般自然銜接，直到騙局的所有參與者都被吸引到樸家寬敞、現代的房子中。后半部分似乎又把所有人打散，過程有待觀眾自己去發現。《寄生蟲》出其不意地引爆沖突，那種方式是觀眾可能想象不到的。換種說法，如果按照對片名的其中一種理解來看，金家寄生在家境殷實的寄主身上，藏得很深，之后事情的發展便類似于《異形》中異形從凱恩身體里破胸而出這一場景。

接下來的場面變得既有趣又緊張，即使導演奉俊昊要表達的壓抑的憤怒已經浮出水面，電影仍保持著形式上的復雜性。有趣的是，《寄生蟲》由洪慶彪擔任攝影指導。他是另一部優秀的韓國電影《燃燒》的攝影指導。兩部作品有很多相似之處——尤其是處理階級分化與社會野心的方式，在勃發的憤怒中依舊保持一種沉靜的美。另一部相似的電影是喬丹·皮爾執導的《我們》，因為金家也許可以被看成是樸家在地下的分身，但他們不愿再隱身了。

像《我們》一樣，《寄生蟲》拒絕簡單粗暴地把富人設定為令人厭惡的，于是觀眾可能期待他們被窮人毀滅。《寄生蟲》要比這高明，它隨意操縱我們的同情心，正當觀眾認為一個瘋狂的定局即將形成時，突然尖銳的結尾令人措手不及。? □

（譯者單位：北京外國語大學）

1 hold sway處于支配地位。? 2 scurry快步急跑;疾走。

3 subterranean地下的。? 4 doppelg?nger相貌一樣的人。? 5 set-piece（戲劇、電影、音樂等中的）固定套路。? 6 blindside攻其不備。