Satire with dark heart and Seoul
PARASITE ★★★★
(Cert 15, 132mins)
ON MONDAY night, Bong Joon Ho’s black comedy could make history by becoming the first film to win both Best Picture and International Film (formerly Foreign Language) awards at the Oscars.
Awards and accolades always come with a price. For every cinemagoer who is grateful to discover this subtitled Korean satire, at least five more will complain it’s overrated.
If you’ve seen his 2013 English language sci-fi Snowpiercer, you’ll know roughly what’s in store.This time, instead of pitching the classes against each other on a futuristic train, he craftsa scabrous upstairs/downstairs drama set in modern-day Korea.
A family of unemployed chancers trick their way into servant jobs at a wealthy family’s mansion.We meet the resourceful but impoverished Kim family – parents Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) and Chung-sook (Chang
Hyae Jin), and their grown-up children Ki-jung (So-dam Park) and Ki-woo (ChoiWoo-shik) – in their cramped basement flat in Seoul.
Ki-woo, the son, fakes a certificate to get a job as an English tutor for the wealthy Park family. IT exec Dong-ik (Lee Sun-kyun) and wife Yeon-gyo (Cho Yeo-jeong) only hire staff on recommendations so Ki-woo finds a way to get his sister a job as an art therapist to the youngest Park child. With more subterfuge, the family’s chauffeur and housekeeper lose their jobs and are replaced by Mr and Mrs Kim.
For a while, it all goes swimmingly, then the youngest Park child wonders why they all smell the same. Do they use the same washing powder? Or is it just the stench of poverty?
To say any more would ruin the fun.What makes this film so compelling is the way the script keeps wrong-footing us with twists and sudden shifts in tone.
The satire could be leaner and perhaps a little meaner but Parasite definitely burrowed under my skin.