LIKE its namesake, the South Korean film Parasite twists and turns while slowly boring its way into your brain.
Part comedy, drama, farce, thriller, horror and social commentary, it’s a film that defies any attempt at definitive categorisation.
One moment you are laughing out loud, the next squirming with embarrassment and then suddenly knotted with tension, but always riveted to your seat.
Writer/director Bong Joon Ho’s previous films have included eclectic offerings like Okja (2017), Snowpiercer (2013) and The Host (2006), but Parasite is now his most successful and critically acclaimed.
It’s won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film and is likely to repeat this effort at the Oscars.
To get the most out of the film it’s best to know just the basic set-up.
Ki-taek and his family, wife Chung-sook, son Ki-Woo and daughter Ki-jung, live in a dingy apartment below street level, battling on a daily basis just to make ends meet. Their resourcefulness extends to stealing nearby wi-fi and milking every dollar possible out of a series of menial jobs they collectively undertake.
One of Ki-woo’s student friends is taking a sabbatical and recommends Ki-woo to take over his private tutoring job for the daughter of a wealthy family. Ki-woo isn’t sure he can land the job as he lacks the skills and flair of his friend.
But the friend convinces him that the girl’s mother is stupid and the father is too occupied to care. The street-wise Ki-woo gets the job.
A few weeks later the girl’s mother shares with Ki-woo her concerns about the mental being of her young son who she thinks could be an artistic genius if he had the right counselling and guidance.
No problem says Ki-woo; I know somebody who would be perfect. Enter Ki-woo’s sister Ki-jung passing herself of as an in-demand ‘art psychologist’. Now two members of the family have ingratiated themselves and it’s only a matter of time before the web of deceit widens.
There is an obvious direction in which the story will go, but Bong Joon Ho isn’t interested in taking us straight there; instead leading us along an engrossing crooked path that is full of shocks and surprises until we almost stumble into the bizarre, yet fitting and satisfying climax that eloquently speaks to the class divide and its potential ramifications.
The regularly shifting tone is a difficult balancing act and may annoy some viewers, but it’s also a welcome change from the predictability, safety and sameness of so much Hollywood output.
Another of the great strengths of the film is the cast – Kang-ho Song, in his fourth film for Bong Joon Ho, as Ki-taek, Woo-sik Choi (Okja) as Ki-woo, So-dam Park as Ki-jung and Hye-jin Jang as Chung-sook all surprise and excite with their authentic performances.
Best of all is Yeo-jeong Jo as Park Yeon-kyo, the well-intentioned but gullible wife in the affluent family targeted for takeover by the parasitic, working-class battlers.
You’ll be thinking about Parasite for weeks to come. I can’t wait to watch it again.