And as the title page to the movie also reminds us, the Cannes 2019 Palme d’Or
I went and saw this today. My son was turning 25 and he chose this movie to go and see. I went in completely blind. I had never seen a trailer and was Shocked to see no thread exists here on QT3 for this.
This movie builds tension so phenomenally well over the course of the movie, that I can’t help but compare it to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The number of false leads and dead ends this movie lead me into believing is a testament to the craft of the director and how he fakes left and goes straight.
Parasite starts out as a jovial movie as we meet the family that somehow is surviving on odd jobs and stealing wifi from neighbors. “Why don’t they go outside?” I’m wondering about 5 minutes into the movie as they all think the world is coming to an end because they can’t get on WhatsAp.
Things start to turn around with the receipt of a scholar rock and the turn of events. I’m not afraid of saying that the whimsy and camaraderie within the family unit really had me liking them. They live lower than shit and yet their plucky can-do attitude and scheming had me straight away plugging them as a parasite, living off others as much as they could do, but then why wasn’t the movie called parasites?
This is but one misdirection and one set of emotions that tumbled from one to another throughout the movie to its astounding climax, and we all left the movie really enjoying our experience. In fact, our conversation was almost all about Tarantino movies all the way home and why I can’t shake the comparison between this & Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - another movie that had it’s whimsy and misdirection with a wonderful climax.
I can’t comment on most Oscar nominees except for OUTH, Parasite and the Irishman which I’ve seen - and the Irishman doesn’t even belong in this league that’s for sure.
I’m really happy I saw Parasite and we were wondering what a second viewing might be like.
I haven’t seen this, but I definitely wanted to. The fact a foreign language film won best picture is striking.
Also I agree on The Irishman being overrated. At three hours my wife and I started it, but never finished. Got a little over two hours and had to stop for the night, and just never were motivated to continue. It wasn’t bad, but it was… lethargically over indulgent.
I won’t catch this in theaters, but definitely will try and get it on video. Thanks for the review, it definitely pushes me from on the fence.
I actually watched this movie! Unlike most that are discussed in this forum. The Best Picture award was well deserved. All the performances were great, too, and several probably should have had nominations as well. I thought Yeo-jeong Jo as the rich wife was especially good.
The director has only made 6 films and I inadvertently have already seen all them, except for Parasite. I remember Netflix put all his released films on Netflix streaming after he released Okja on the platform. The only film I had not already seen at that time was his first one about the dog.
I also saw this yesterday, and loved it. We went in totally blind, and this really wasn’t what we expected. Walked out from the theater completely numb from the tension, which I last remember happening with Dunkirk.
Yeah, no doubt. Best Picture of the Year. Just incredible storytelling. Damn near everything is perfect in this movie. Clearly the masterwork of an artist firing on all cylinders. There’s also a maturity or restraint that feels new to Bong Joon Ho. You can’t watch The Host or Snowpiercer and not feel like the metaphors are slamming you on the head. Parasite is subtler, but also much sharper as a result.
saw it in a theater finally after I skipped it a few weeks before. They took it back in after winning the Oscar award. CAn anybody explain to me, did they change the nominations? Are now any foreign films eligible for nominations as best pictures? Why?
My wife and I saw it in a theater this past weekend and I loved it until the garden party scene. I don’t mind gore. I do mind when a film suddenly shifts drastically like that. It seems like it became a different film. And the hit-you-over-the-head symbolism, noted perfectly by @Matt_W in this post, was a bit much.
Beautifully photographed, though, no doubt about that.
To me, the “not subtlety” is the point. It’s so obvious that it’s clearly not an unintentional flaw but rather something he did purposely. I loved Klepek’s review for pointing this out:
The overhead shots reminded me of Rashomon and I think it needs a second viewing to see remind myself what scenes they were to see if there were any significance or if they were just cool.
One thing my son and I were discussing today over lunch was the ending…
How can the dad get to the staircase without stepping over his son? We are shown Parks’ daughter coming down the stairs looking for “kevin” and since we see the end where he’s still alive, she must have reached him and called for an ambulance as well, but the timing of the dad escaping and Kevin being in a pool of blood, how did the dad manage to walk by that??
