Review: Parasite
Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-ho, tells the tale of Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) who live in near poverty trying to make ends meat alongside his family. But when Ki-taek’s son Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) stumbles on a job offer to tutor the daughter of an incredibly wealthy family, the Kim family take this opportunity to scheme and act their way into high society and improve their well-being, whatever it takes.
This is the latest film from Korean director Bong Joon-ho and is a film I’ve been looking forward to for a while. Bong is known more for his English language films like Snowpiercer and Okja, but his Korean language films like Memories of Murder, The Host, and Mother are in my opinion all better representations of what this director is capable of, and in my opinion Parasite is quite possibly his best film yet. This film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year and was one of the runner-ups for the People’s Choice Award at Toronto International Film Festival, and after finally getting to see this film I can easily see why it’s being praised almost universally. This film has the makings to be a new modern day classic and is definitely one of the best films of 2019.
Almost everything about this film is done phenomenally well. The performances were all top notch, the cinematography was excellent, the editing was great, the music was gorgeous, everything about this film is fantastic. The screenplay and story especially makes this one of the best written films of the year. Every character is incredibly layered, the themes are cleverly incorporated in every scene, and the story is so incredibly engaging. There wasn’t a single dull moment to be had anywhere in the film. If I have any nitpicks about the film it’s that some of the character decisions in the story are not explained well as to why they happened, or that the ending is a little rough around the edges, but those issues are incredibly minor and didn’t affect my enjoyment of the film as a whole.
Overall I’m blown away by this film. This is a definite front runner for the best film of 2019 and time will tell if I would end up considering it a new classic. I highly recommend everyone to check out this film despite it not being in the English language; you don’t have to know Korean to enjoy this film. If you happen to find this film playing near you then go ahead and see this awesome film for yourself. Believe the hype from the critics and just go see it.
Final Verdict: 10/10