One of the most rewarding trips to the theater you might take this year is to see “Parasite”, a Korean language film that seamlessly moves through several genres, while never losing it’s audience and making them go through a full range of emotions, in a film that really shines a light on the flaws in all of us.
When the directionless son of the struggling Kim family gets the opportunity to tutor the high school aged daughter of the popular and high class Park family, it’s not long before both clans are neck deep in each other’s lives, in to what soon evolves into a relationship built on lies, greed, and jealousy.
Everything works.
Director Bong Joon Ho’s world is completely immersing in both the beautiful Park estate and the working class Kim neighborhood. Whether the characters are interacting in a sterile environment where the smell of a person is considered a disqualifier of their entire character, or a basement behind an alley where the scheming takes place, it all feels so real.
The entire cast is wonderful. There are no weak spokes on this wheel, with the ability to have you hate them one minute before making you pity them the next. It’s so much fun to watch all of them that the story never loses steam regardless of who is being featured.
Then there’s the story.
Without being overly preachy in a cinematic economy that is way too overly preach these days, “Parasite” manages to teach us all a lessons in family, circumstance, and personal decisions from almost every perspective they have available to them. And the film goes through so many phases from it’s early comedic feel to it’s jaw dropping suspense filled finale. I’m not a big subtitle guy, but the great films like this one can make you forget you’re reading them altogether. That’s the case here.
Too often, Hollywood and social media tends to overhype films. That’s not what we have here. “Parasite” deserves all of the praise it’s received so far and you should see it before it before it disappears from our Orlando theaters.
What a great film.
Parasite
GRADE: A
RATED: R
Running time: 2hrs 12 minutes