Parasite Live in Concert review: hypnotic, meticulous, sublime

A great film needs a great score – and Jung Jae-il, the composer for 2019 Oscar winner Parasite, knows this well. From the opening piano notes to the subversive pop-rock finale, Parasite’s score sings with subtlety, enhancing the story of the desperately poor Kim family and their dark obsession with the wealthy Parks.

On Saturday 23 August, MIFF presented two screenings of Parasite with a live score, conducted by Jae-il himself and performed by Orchestra Victoria. Seeing a film with a live score is always a unique experience, allowing the audience to further appreciate the care that goes into composing for screen.

This event was no exception, providing a chance to watch this stunning Korean film with a massive audience filling Hamer Hall, enveloped by the playing of Orchestra Victoria and Jae-il. It was, in a word, sublime.

The story of Parasite

If you’re not familiar with Parasite, the story of the film is this: Kim Ki-taek, his wife Chung Sook, daughter Ki-Jung and son Ki-woo are all unemployed and stuck living in a semi-basement that is prone to cockroaches, pollution and drunken urination from the street outside. With the WiFi gone, the family are in dire need of a solution. At just the right moment, a former classmate of Ki-woo’s introduces him to the elite but gullible Park family – a perfect target for a simple lie: Ki-woo will pretend to be an English major to tutor the family’s teenaged daughter Da-hye.

The white lie soon spins into a web of con-artistry as each member of the family joins the household’s staff in different roles they are in no way qualified for. And then, something really unexpected happens.

Widely considered Bong Joon-ho’s masterpiece, the film won six Academy Awards in 2020, including Best Picture, and also took home the Cannes Palme d’Or. It is a beautiful and highly engaging film that is as relevant now as it was then, and any opportunity to see it again with an audience should be taken advantage of.

Watch the Parasite trailer.

Parasite‘s score holds a clue to its ending

The title track, simply called ‘Opening’, gives us a taste of the kind of tale we’re in for, as Jae-il’s repetitive, Baroque-inspired piano melody is laced with a hopeful ascending note pattern, representing the struggle for upward mobility that the lead family faces. Inside that melody, though, there is a distinct pattern of descending notes – which suggests that things might not work out for this family who so yearn to rise above their social status.

Watching the orchestra and Jae-il play was nearly as mesmerising as watching the film itself. Flanked by two iPad-like screens, Jae-il watched the film in his peripheral vision, along with a guiding white line that would count in 4/4 time and flash to cue the next measure. The set up was incredibly efficient, enabling him and the orchestra to play with military-like precision. While I have seen other live-score events where improvisation is encouraged, the spectacle here is witnessing a around 30 people timing a score to a film that moves at a pace.

Luckily for the orchestra, a 15 minute interval broke up the first and second acts of the film. While initially confusing to me, I believe the interval was yet another unique way to experience Parasite – by coming in at the close of a devious and shocking montage sequence, the audience filed out into the foyer to excitedly discuss everything we’d just seen and heard. It was like giving the film its own cliffhanger (albeit only briefly).

Jung Jae-il rocks Parasite

Jung Jae-il is a name everyone should know. After composing for Parasite, he went on to create the score for Netflix’s Squid Game, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s film Broker, the sci-fi feature Mickey 17, and James Sweeney’s Twinless (which also played at MIFF). Once you know his signature style, you start to hear it everywhere.

More than a composer, it’s clear to me that Jae-il is an entertainer, moving briskly about the stage while dressed in a white tunic inspired by traditional Korean garb.

He’s a multi-instrumentalist, so as well as conducting the orchestra on Saturday he played piano, synth, guitar and the musical saw – the latter of which accompanied the film’s darkly comedic moments. Then, in a real treat for the audience, he sang the closing credits song. A well-deserved standing ovation was given at the end.

As the score ebbs and flows through the twists and turns of the film, accompanying the highs and lows (especially the latter) of the central characters, that opening motif returns again and again to remind us of Parasite‘s central message: there is no true way to win in capitalism.

If you have a chance to see Parasite with Jae-il’s live score, I highly recommend it.

Parasite Live in Concert ran for two shows at Hamer Hall on 23 August 2025, as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Discover more screen, games & arts news and reviews on ScreenHub and ArtsHub. Sign up for our free ArtsHub and ScreenHub newsletters.