A Glean movie guide
Beyond the Surface: Films Like Parasite
Eat the rich.
Sharp social satires and tense thrillers exploring class, power, and domestic deception.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Burning
A haunting mystery that masterfully captures the simmering resentment between social classes.
'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 Korean thriller that served as the primary inspiration for Parasite’s domestic tension.
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
Shoplifters
A poignant look at a family on the margins, blending social critique with a shocking emotional core.
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.
- 04
The Menu
A razor-sharp satire that turns fine dining into a high-stakes battleground of class resentment.
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.
- 05
Snowpiercer
Bong Joon-ho’s visceral sci-fi epic that literalizes class warfare within the confines of a speeding train.
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.
- 06
The Handmaiden
An intricate, visually stunning puzzle of deception and power dynamics set in colonial-era Korea.
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.
- 07
Triangle of Sadness
A wickedly funny exploration of wealth, beauty, and the fragility of social hierarchy.
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.
- 08
High and Low
Kurosawa’s masterpiece uses a kidnapping to expose the vast gap between the rich and the poor.
A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
- 09
Us
A chilling home-invasion thriller that serves as a dark metaphor for the forgotten underclass.
Husband and wife Gabe and Adelaide Wilson take their kids to their beach house expecting to unplug and unwind with friends. But as night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited.
- 10
The Platform
A brutal, high-concept allegory for resource inequality that is as visceral as it is thought-provoking.
A slab of food descends down a vertical facility. The residents above eat heartily, leaving those below starving and desperate. A rebellion is imminent.