Metascore : 96
IMDb rating: 8,6/10
Synopsis : A poor family, the Kims, con their way into becoming the servants of a rich family, the Parks. But their easy life gets complicated when their deception is threatened with exposure.
It was really hard for me to have a clear opinion on Parasite. And I have very mixed feelings about it, but I can say I understand the fact that it won Best Picture.
Parasite is definitely different, and that brings the wow factor to this film. I was surprised by its complexity, and the movie makes a good job of making the story believable and I enjoyed a lot of the subtle jokes about Korean culture. Production-wise I have no complaints, it is definitely a masterpiece: beautifully shot, well-thought frames, and I really liked the fact that the movie opens and closes with the same shot. I also liked the cleverness behind the title, not only that the poor family is comparing themselves to cockroaches at some point, but I think that there can be numerous interpretations of what Parasite actually refers to.
But, I think that being so different blinds us regarding some other things. It took me two views and some research on Bong Joon-Ho to form some sort of an opinion. “It is a very strange film” that were exactly my words after I first saw it. This strangeness is typical to Bong but it took a while to get used to it.
The thing that bothered me the most is the fact that I felt that were no actual characters, it was like they had no personality. The second time I have watched it I realized that they had the same personality and this made it hard for me to empathize with the characters. I don’t know if this was a reference to the fact that Koreans joke about this.
I wanted a deeper analysis of the class differences. The first two-thirds of the movie were quite amazing, but after the plot-twist, I think it was quite flat. I had the feeling that the ending lacked something. I don’t know if I just had such great expectations from this movie, a really acclaimed movie, a movie who just passed The Godfather in the highest-rated narrative feature film
I think that this movie is weird enough to seem ironic, something that made me feel a little bit more comfortable watching it. I recommend watching it as it is undoubtedly a unique cinematic experience.
hARTS magazine 