Parasite

Over the last few years I’ve made the effort to see all of the films nominated for the best picture Oscar, this year I competed the set with Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite, this is not an easy film to describe and not one to spoil as it is certainly best seen knowing very little.

What it is, is a mighty fine piece of work, original, smart, funny and tense. If you like good value from your cinema trips you’ll like this, it covers at least 4 genres over its 132 minutes, comedy, thriller, home invasion and social commentary to give you an idea of its diversity it evokes Oceans 11, the wonderful Knives Out and Jordan Peel’s Us, giving us a well crafted comedy inspired “caper” for one half which then becomes a dark tense multi-layered thriller that draws from that idea of the difference of those living above and below an imaginary “line”.

Centred on the story of two (or maybe three) families living in South Korea, one wealthy and successful, one although smart and resourceful is woefully poor, living in a miserable semi-basement, the two families are brought together via a series of cleverly crafted “cons” and here the film cleverly blurs the lines between right and wrong, our poor family are not nice people yet you find yourself liking them, our wealthy family seem friendly and loving, naive and gullible, but it’s not as clear as that.

In the middle of the film the con unravels and we get a twist that turns the film on its head, a twist has to be earned to make you go with it and Parasite thoroughly earns it. The film turns into something quite different, but still retains humour even if it’s ever darkening with a growing sense of foreboding.

The film goes full circle in its story and impresses throughout, filled with strong and nuanced performances with a smart script that weaves and balances the ever changing themes perfectly. The one thing that you don’t notice is the subtitles, performed in native Korean with English subtitles you remain absorbed by the film and forget you’re reading your way through it.

Parasite is an expertly crafted and told story and if it does win the best movie Oscar, I’ll be pretty happy with that.