Parasite Review: “It Grips from First Frame to Last”《寄生虫》影评：“从头到尾扣人心弦”

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.                                 ■

观众对于奉俊昊导演的电影总是抱有很高期望，这位韩国导演已经拍摄过诸多不同凡响的作品，如《杀人回忆》《汉江怪物》《母亲》《雪国列车》以及网飞发行的有关巨猪的电影《玉子》。当然，《寄生虫》也没有让我们失望，再次表明奉俊昊热衷于在不同类型间跳转——黑色喜剧占主导，但将戏剧性、对社会现实的评判、惊悚元素和多得令人惊叹的大量情感戏精心布局并自信地糅进132分钟的剧情里——从头到尾扣人心弦。

《寄生虫》的开场似乎是去年金棕榈奖得主《小偷家族》的翻版，向观众介绍了金家——一家人挤在狭窄的地下室里生活，里面虫子窜来窜去。基泽（宋康昊饰）、妻子忠淑（张慧珍饰）、他们二十多岁的女儿基婷（朴素丹饰）和十几岁的儿子基宇（崔宇植饰）都没有工作。白天，为了蹭到免费WiFi，他们要将手机举到天花板的位置;晚上则会有摇摇晃晃的醉鬼在他们家跟街道地面齐平的窗子外撒尿。

之后，基宇代替朋友担任多蕙（郑知晓饰）的家教，迎来了转机。多蕙是富有的企业家朴先生（李善均饰）及其甜美单纯的妻子（赵茹珍饰）的女儿。基宇很受欢迎，当他听朴太太说小儿子多颂（郑贤俊饰）也需要一位家教来学习美术时，他很有心机地推荐了姐姐并让她假装成自己在大学的熟人。套路设定好，金家狡猾地共谋，很快金家夫妇便取代了朴家司机和保姆的位置。

《寄生虫》的前半部分是由一位行家里手制作的骗局电影，随剧情展开，各个环节行云流水般自然衔接，直到骗局的所有参与者都被吸引到朴家宽敞、现代的房子中。后半部分似乎又把所有人打散，过程有待观众自己去发现。《寄生虫》出其不意地引爆沖突，那种方式是观众可能想象不到的。换种说法，如果按照对片名的其中一种理解来看，金家寄生在家境殷实的寄主身上，藏得很深，之后事情的发展便类似于《异形》中异形从凯恩身体里破胸而出这一场景。

接下来的场面变得既有趣又紧张，即使导演奉俊昊要表达的压抑的愤怒已经浮出水面，电影仍保持着形式上的复杂性。有趣的是，《寄生虫》由洪庆彪担任摄影指导。他是另一部优秀的韩国电影《燃烧》的摄影指导。两部作品有很多相似之处——尤其是处理阶级分化与社会野心的方式，在勃发的愤怒中依旧保持一种沉静的美。另一部相似的电影是乔丹·皮尔执导的《我们》，因为金家也许可以被看成是朴家在地下的分身，但他们不愿再隐身了。

像《我们》一样，《寄生虫》拒绝简单粗暴地把富人设定为令人厌恶的，于是观众可能期待他们被穷人毁灭。《寄生虫》要比这高明，它随意操纵我们的同情心，正当观众认为一个疯狂的定局即将形成时，突然尖锐的结尾令人措手不及。  □

（译者单位：北京外国语大学）

1 hold sway处于支配地位。  2 scurry快步急跑;疾走。

3 subterranean地下的。  4 doppelg?nger相貌一样的人。  5 set-piece（戏剧、电影、音乐等中的）固定套路。  6 blindside攻其不备。