There’s not a whole lot known about Okja and The Host director Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, which will hold its World Premiere at Cannes on May 14th. What we do know is that it follows the character of Ki-taek and his unemployed family as they take a peculiar interest in the Park family – until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.
Park spoke to Variety about his expectations going into Cannes, getting a bit humble in explaining that he expects the film to get lost in translation: “I doubt whether the film could be 100% understood [by foreign audiences],” he explained. “Parasite is full of details and nuances that are specific to Koreans.”
He then goes on to explain the social commentary behind the film, which is more relatable than he thinks.
“Parasite is a story of two families from extremely different environments coming across each other. It deals with the laughter, the horror and the sorrow of people living together,” Bong explained. “It might sound self-contradicting, but the different backgrounds of the two families also mirror the universal gap between rich and the poor.”
Song Kang Ho (Snowpiercer, The Host) stars as Ki-taek alongside Lee Sun-kyun (A Hard Day) and Cho Yeo-jeong (Obsessed) as the Parks, and Choi Woo Shik (Okja), Park So-dam (The Priests) and Chang Hyae Jin (Poetry) as, respectively, Ki-taek’s son, daughter and wife.
Neon acquired North American rights and will release the film this summer.