Ha ha and ham rolls, it’s Burl, here to
review a picture called Parasite!
Now, I know just what you’re going to say: “Ha ha, Burl, haven’t you already
reviewed Parasite?" No, friends, that
was Parasite! This new one is Parasite, and it’s not even about a
slimy and rapacious creature, unless that’s how you choose to describe
capitalism, and if you do I for one won’t argue!
Of course, Bong Joon-ho already made his
literal slimy and rapacious creature movie, The
Host, and the funny thing is that you could transpose its title with that
of Parasite and it would all make
just as much sense as it currently does! Parasite concerns a chronically
unemployed family of four, the Kims, who live in a cramped, stink bug-ridden
basement apartment, who come across an opportunity to take jobs with a rich
family who live in an opulent, modernist house up on a hill! Ha ha, first the
son, then the daughter become tutors to the rich Park family’s children; then
the Kim father and mother get jobs respectively as the driver and housekeeper
to the Parks, with the wealthy family totally unaware that all their new
employees are related! The scam seems to be working beautifully until one rainy
night…
Ha ha! Well, I’d best not go on with my
plot description, because this is a movie best viewed without a thorough
awareness of the whole story! There are surprises to come in the second half,
and thanks to these the picture in many ways reminded me of Us, which I enjoyed but never did review
for you good people! Both movies are parables of inequity at the same time as
they are literal, if outlandish, stories of inequity!
But Parasite
is the more confidently made and technically accomplished picture, ha ha! It’s mise-en-scene is frequently worthy of
Hitchcock, and the acting across the board is superb! Plus it’s very funny, and
at the same time contains shots here and there that wouldn’t be out of place in
the very scariest of horror pictures; and eventually it even gets a little gory!
It’s a terrific movie, and continues South Korea’s tradition of punching above
its weight, cinematically!
There’s talk of turning the movie into a TV series,
and if that happens my plan is to completely ignore it the way I do most other
TV! I’m quite happy with the one self-contained movie, thank you very much! I’m
pleased to give Parasite three and a
half rotisserie chickens!
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