Parasite escaped me when it emerged to a smorgasbord of acclaim. There’s a chutzpah to the direction which anchors the movie as it goes through various phases. The build-up, the takeover, the long night, the catastrophe, the coda. Perhaps something Shakespearian in this structure, and the film is rangy, shifting focus, with scope for surprises and new characters. Evidently the Upstairs Downstairs thematic is present, but at times it feels as though the film is too mired in narrative and humour to really get to grips with what it means to be poor in South Korea. It might be said that this is encapsulated by the way the deluge floods the Kim family home, but equally this could be a metaphor for a sinking planet (and has strong echoes of Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness with their mutual exploding toilets). The film’s humour and the warmth of this family unit clearly help to explain why Parasite became such a break-out hit. Bong Joon-ho’s direction is assured: he knows exactly which buttons to push to maintain the pace and keep the audience on-side.
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