Parasite
Act like you own the place.
A poor family cons its way into a rich household, until the basement gives up a secret that turns satire into horror.
- Director
- Bong Joon-ho
- Signature
- Pacing · Suspense · Emotional
- Worldwide
- $258M
Who's in it
Cast
The billed ensemble, with character names. Open any performer for their Nutevio filmography.
The Nutevio profile
Movie DNA
How Parasite actually feels to watch, measured on the twelve traits our editors track across every Nutevio title.
Perfect if you enjoyed
Story overview
What It's About
Spoiler-free. Read the analysis below for the full argument.
A poor family cons its way into a rich household, until the basement gives up a secret that turns satire into horror.
Nutevio Editorial Analysis
Why Parasite works
Bong Joon-ho's film is a genre machine that changes gears without ever grinding: con-artist comedy for an hour, home-invasion thriller for twenty minutes, tragedy for the rest. The pleasure of the first half is what makes the second half unbearable.
Architecture is the argument. The Kim family lives half a metre below street level; the Park house is reached by climbing. Every major sequence is staged as a movement up or down stairs, and the flood — the most virtuosic passage in the film — is simply water obeying gravity through the class system.
Bong refuses to make the rich family monstrous. They are merely insulated, and their politeness is the sharpest weapon in the film. The word 'smell' does more damage than any knife.
Its Best Picture win, the first for a non-English-language film, was treated as a milestone for the Academy. It reads better as confirmation of what Korean cinema had been doing for twenty years.
By The Nutevio Editors
Where to watch
Streaming
Availability verified against regional listings.
Checking regional listings…
Why We Recommend It
Why It's Ranked
Parasite appears in 8 Nutevio collections. Here is the argument behind each placement.
- Best Movies of the 2010s Ranked #1
Ranked #1 because genre-fluid, politically precise, endlessly rewatchable.
The decade's most perfect screenplay.
- Comedy Movies Ranked #1
Ranked #1 because rated 9.4 by the Nutevio editors — one of the strongest comedy titles in the catalogue.
A poor family cons its way into a rich household, until the basement gives up a secret that turns satire into horror.
- Thriller Movies Ranked #1
Ranked #1 because rated 9.4 by the Nutevio editors — one of the strongest thriller titles in the catalogue.
A poor family cons its way into a rich household, until the basement gives up a secret that turns satire into horror.
- Movies With Incredible Endings Ranked #2
Ranked #2 because the final image reframes the entire film as a trap.
A fantasy of escape, held one beat too long.
- Best Comedies Ranked #2
Ranked #2 because the funniest first hour of the last decade.
A comedy until it very much isn't.
- Best Psychological Thrillers Ranked #3
Ranked #3 because class comedy that tightens into unbearable suspense.
A con that keeps discovering new floors.
- Top 250 Movies of All Time Ranked #5
Ranked #5 because the most precisely engineered screenplay of the last decade.
Satire that curdles into horror one staircase at a time.
- Drama Movies Ranked #5
Ranked #5 because rated 9.4 by the Nutevio editors — one of the strongest drama titles in the catalogue.
A poor family cons its way into a rich household, until the basement gives up a secret that turns satire into horror.
The record
Awards
14 wins · 6 nominations
The first non-English-language film to win Best Picture, and a Palme d'Or by unanimous vote.
Academy Awards
4 wins · 2 nominations
- WinnerBest Picture
- WinnerBest Director
- WinnerBest Original Screenplay
- WinnerBest International Feature Film
Golden Globes
1 win · 2 nominations
- WinnerGolden Globe Award for Best Director
BAFTA Awards
2 wins · 2 nominations
- WinnerBAFTA Award for Best Direction
- WinnerBAFTA Award for Best Film
Cannes Film Festival
1 win
- WinnerPalme d'Or
Screen Actors Guild Awards
1 win
- WinnerScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Critics' Choice Awards
2 wins
- WinnerBroadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film
- WinnerCritics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director
AACTA International Award for Best Film
1 win
- WinnerAACTA International Award for Best Film
Dorian Award for Film of the Year
1 win
- WinnerDorian Award for Film of the Year
Gilde Film Price
1 win
- WinnerGilde Film Price
The numbers
Box Office & Release
Parasite returned 22.7× its budget worldwide.
- Budget
- $11M
- Opening weekend
- —
- Domestic gross
- —
- International gross
- —
- Worldwide gross
- $258M
- Release date
- May 30, 2019
- Runtime
- 2h 13m
- MPAA rating
- R
- Language
- English, German
- Country
- South Korea
Figures from the verified production record. Fields we cannot source are left blank rather than estimated.
Watch
Official Trailer
How it was made
Behind The Scenes
Production facts, technique and the decisions that shaped what ended up on screen.
The house was built
The Park residence was constructed outdoors on a lot so sunlight could be tracked precisely across the garden.
A controlled flood
The semi-basement neighbourhood was built in a water tank and flooded on a downward gradient in sequence.
Storyboarded entirely
Bong drew the film shot-by-shot before production, and the finished cut follows the boards almost exactly.
In their words
Iconic Quotes
“You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan at all.”
“She's rich, but still nice.”
“It's so metaphorical.”
