A Glean movie guide
Beyond the Surface: Films Like Parasite
Eat the rich.
Masterful thrillers and sharp satires that expose the cracks in social class.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
The Housemaid
A foundational South Korean thriller that directly inspired Bong Joon-ho’s vision of domestic disruption.
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.
- 02
Snowpiercer
A high-octane sci-fi epic that turns a speeding train into a literal metaphor for class warfare.
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 captures the simmering resentment between the working class and the elite.
Deliveryman Jong-su is out on a job when he runs into Hae-mi, a girl who once lived in his neighborhood. She asks if he'd mind looking after her cat while she's away on a trip to Africa. On her return, she introduces to Jong-su an enigmatic young man named Ben, who she met during her trip. One day Ben tells Jong-su about his most unusual hobby.
- 04
The Handmaiden
A visually stunning puzzle-box thriller filled with deception, narrative twists, and class dynamics.
1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl, Sook-hee, 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.
- 05
Shoplifters
A poignant look at a family of petty thieves living on the fringes of society in modern Japan.
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.
- 06
The Menu
A razor-sharp satire that blends high-end culinary culture with a tense, survival-thriller edge.
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
Triangle of Sadness
A wicked social satire that gleefully upends the power dynamics of the ultra-wealthy on a luxury cruise.
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
Akira Kurosawa’s masterful crime drama that uses vertical space to illustrate the divide between rich and poor.
A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
- 09
The Platform
A brutal, high-concept allegory for resource distribution set within a vertical prison system.
A slab of food descends down a vertical facility. The residents above eat heartily, leaving those below starving and desperate. A rebellion is imminent.
- 10
Saltburn
A dark and provocative look at class envy and the lengths one will go to infiltrate the upper crust.
Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton, who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family's sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten.