And, finally, caught up with the latest South Korean Bong Joon Ho film Parasite. Bong Joon Ho also directed the films The Host, Okja, and Snowpiercer… all three of which are genre pictures with a social conscience (usually without being too blatant or at least without forgetting to be fun). Parasite, which is not a sci-fi horror film, also follows in the tradition and is a pretty great film.
Parasite is about a lower class family who live in a below-street-level apartment and do whatever it takes to make ends meet (folding pizza boxes, for example). The teenage son gets a shot at tutoring a rich girl but he has to fake his education credits to get the job. But get it he does… and slowly the con artist family weasel their way into the rich family’s life by back-stabbing and conniving. Then things get weird… they get suspenseful… and then violent… and then tragic.
I really enjoyed this movie because I didn’t know where it was going… and once I saw its direction, it became gleeful fun. But the movie is odd since it whiplashes from tone to tone without feeling jarring. It’s often very funny and then it gets suspenseful and horrific and it all flows seamlessly from scene to scene. I very much enjoyed that the protagonists – the lower class family – are clearly unethical criminals but we, the audience, are on their side. Yet the rich family are not bad people… just a little ignorant and sheltered. So we want the poor family to get theirs but their victims don’t really deserve it.
But, yeah, just like Bong Joon Ho’s other movies, there’s a social conscience and message to the movie that largely works without being preachy. It’s not very subtle but the haves and have nots premise works and is genuinely pretty moving. The flick has something to say and introduces characters and scenarios that work whether you want a message movie or not.
So, yeah, check this one out. It’s in limited release right now and will make a pretty good rental in the near future. Thoughtful, funny, exciting, and wicked… it’s a really good flick.
Score: 87