A Glean movie guide
Beyond the Surface: Films Like Parasite
Class warfare has never been so tense.
Sharp social satires and tense thrillers that expose the divide between the rich and the poor.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Burning
A haunting, slow-burn mystery that captures the simmering resentment of the working class.
'Burning' is a conversation between two young mothers brought together by strange and cruel social realities, at a funeral ghat in Varanasi
- 02
The Housemaid
The classic South Korean thriller that Bong Joon-ho cited as a primary inspiration for Parasite.
A piano composer's family moves into a new house; when his pregnant wife collapses from working to support the family, he hires a housemaid to help with housework.
- 03
The Handmaiden
An intricate, visually stunning thriller where class dynamics and deception collide in unexpected ways.
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.
- 04
Snowpiercer
Bong Joon-ho’s high-concept action epic that turns a speeding train into a literal hierarchy of class.
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.
- 05
The Menu
A razor-sharp dark comedy that skewers the ultra-wealthy through a high-stakes culinary nightmare.
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.
- 06
Triangle of Sadness
A wicked satire that flips social power dynamics upside down when a luxury cruise goes horribly 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.
- 07
Shoplifters
A poignant look at a family living on the margins of society, held together by secrets and survival.
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.
- 08
The Servant
A tense psychological drama exploring the shifting power struggle between a wealthy man and his manservant.
Indolent aristocrat Tony employs competent Barrett as his manservant and all seems to be going well until Barrett persuades Tony to hire his sister as a live-in maid.
- 09
High and Low
Akira Kurosawa’s masterful crime thriller that examines the moral and physical gap between the rich and poor.
A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
- 10
Get Out
A groundbreaking social thriller that uses horror to expose deep-seated cultural tensions and privilege.
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.
- 11
The Platform
A brutal, high-concept allegory for resource distribution and social stratification in a vertical prison.
A slab of food descends down a vertical facility. The residents above eat heartily, leaving those below starving and desperate. A rebellion is imminent.
- 12
Mother
Another Bong Joon-ho masterpiece that blends a dark murder mystery with sharp social observation.
Mother compiles clips of mother figures from classic Hollywood cinema and television dramas. The figures range from the Virgin Mary and Mother Courage, to characters from Maude (1972–78), Aliens (1986), Imitation of Life (1959), and American Gangster (2007). The characters play out scenes of care, loss, emotional manipulation, abandonment, and grief. The intense relationships between mothers and daughters are especially prominent.