I have always had a weakness for Alfred Hitchcock’s films. A director who was able to place ordinary people in special situations and defined what suspense is. It is a feeling that I also got while watching Parasite. The latest film from director Bong Joon-Ho (who previously made Okja, Snowpiercer, Mother, Memories of Murder and The Host, who just like Hitchcock, is a master at making films and offers the viewer a wonderfully unpredictable film in which the tension is constantly increased until it is almost unbearable.
The Kim family is at the bottom of the social ladder. They live in a basement apartment and see almost daily how drunk people pee near their windows. They have no work and try to take on every possible job to survive. When the son is asked to take over a job as an English teacher for a wealthy family, it is a huge opportunity to make sure that they all get better.
Many South Korean films are able to mix various genres successfully and that also applies to Parasite. The film initially feels like a kind of “heist” film, where the goal is to get everyone into the rich family’s house. As a viewer you feel the same sensation as with an Ocean’s Eleven film, but there is also dark humor, romance, tension, violence and even horror-like moments. Bong Joon-Ho effortlessly plays with these elements and continues to add new twists so that as a viewer you have no idea what will happen in the rest of the film. A film that is exciting and at the same time shows the contrast between rich and poor. One of the best films of last year.
[score9]
I saw the film this past Sunday and man, what a film. Truly deserving of all of the accolades it’s getting.
Definitely, already saw it twice myself and it’s a film which holds up.