A Glean movie guide
Beyond the Basement: Films Like Parasite
Class warfare has never been so tense.
Masterful thrillers and sharp social satires exploring the divide between classes.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
The Handmaiden
A visually stunning South Korean thriller where layers of class-based deception lead to shocking narrative twists.
1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl, Sookee, is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, Hideko, who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering Uncle Kouzuki. But the maid has a secret. She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler posing as a Japanese Count to help him seduce the Lady to steal her fortune.
- 02
Snowpiercer
Director Bong Joon-ho’s high-concept action film serves as a visceral allegory for revolution and class struggle.
In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, a class system evolves aboard the Snowpiercer; a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine.
- 03
Burning
A haunting, slow-burn mystery that masterfully captures the simmering resentment between the working class and the elite.
'Burning' is a conversation between two young mothers brought together by strange and cruel social realities, at a funeral ghat in Varanasi
- 04
Shoplifters
A poignant look at a family of outsiders surviving on the fringes of society through petty crime and deep bonds.
In the outskirts of Tokyo, a poor but close-knit group living on the fringes of society survives through shoplifting and odd jobs. When Osamu and his son take in a neglected young girl, their already fragile existence begins to unravel. As the family grows attached to her, buried secrets surface, forcing them to confront the true meaning of love, belonging, and what makes a family.
- 05
Triangle of Sadness
A provocative and darkly funny satire that gleefully upends social hierarchies during a luxury cruise gone wrong.
A celebrity model couple are invited on a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged, alcoholic captain. What first appears Instagrammable ends catastrophically, leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island in a struggle of hierarchy.
- 06
The Menu
A sharp, suspenseful take on the service industry that pits elite diners against a chef with a lethal agenda.
A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.
- 07
Get Out
A groundbreaking social thriller that uses a tense home-visit premise to expose deep-seated cultural anxieties.
Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.
- 08
The Housemaid
A classic South Korean thriller exploring the destructive power dynamics between a wealthy family and their help.
Eun-yi is hired as a maid in a mansion owned by a wealthy businessman. He quickly starts seducing his employee who seemingly has little choice but to comply with his sexual advances. Soon the women of the family plot against Eun-yi who must fight an equally devious battle to protect herself.
- 09
High and Low
Kurosawa’s masterpiece uses a kidnapping plot to examine the literal and figurative gap between classes.
A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
- 10
Memories of Murder
A gritty, atmospheric procedural from Bong Joon-ho that blends dark humor with a grounded social critique.
A sadistic serial rapist and murderer of young women terrorizes a small province in 1980s South Korea. To prevent further crimes, three increasingly desperate detectives with conflicting methods race against time to unravel the violent mind of the killer in a futile effort to solve the case.