Korean cinema's signature quality is genre fluidity — the ability to shift between comedy, horror, thriller, and drama within a single film. Parasite begins as a dark comedy about a poor family infiltrating a wealthy household, then turns into a class-warfare horror film the audience never sees coming.

This fluidity reflects a comfort with tonal complexity. A story can be funny and devastating at once. A character can be sympathetic and monstrous in the same scene. That emotional range gives Korean films a texture that genre-segregated Hollywood films often lack.