On what makes Parasite's opening sequence so formally efficient.

The first ten minutes of Parasite establish the Kim family's circumstances — poor, living in a semi-basement, working precarious gig jobs — with an economy that is worth studying closely. Bong doesn't linger. Every shot is doing at least two things.

The frame of the semi-basement window is established early and economically: at ground level, the window looks out onto a street corner where drunks sometimes urinate. The window frame is the visual argument about their position in relation to the world above them before the film has stated a word about class.

The wifi password sequence — the family angling their phones toward the ceiling to steal signal from a neighbor's unsecured network — is character establishment and class commentary simultaneously. They are resourceful, competent, and compelled to steal something as basic as connectivity.

All of this happens in the first ten minutes, and none of it slows the film down. Bong's formal efficiency means that Parasite can be a 132-minute film that never wastes a frame, because every frame is doing the maximum amount of work.