UPDATE: “Parasite” has been officially selected to represent Korea as their official submission for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. This automatically puts the Bong Joon-ho films as the front-runner to win the top prize this year.
I do look forward to audiences catching Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite.” It is no doubt going to be a movie that will have people buzzing and an excellent post-screening conversation starter to boot.. However, One thing that irked me most about “Parasite” is that there is almost no subtlety being used by Joon-ho. That’s why I wrote in my Cannes review that watching it felt like “Kore-eda on steroids.”
Regardless, A rather over-the-top but highly watchable movie.
Geek culture has embraced “Parasite” like no other, it’s slowly turning into their “Citizen Kane.” I do understand that we are living in rather less-than-subtle times, this being the Trump-era et all, but Bong doesn’t seem to have a firm grasp on how people talk, act and feel — at least judging by his movies. He’s a glorious visualist but a childish screenwriter.
An excerpt from Jeffrey Wells’s review of the film:
“There’s no believing that the desperately poor Kim family (mom, dad, son, daughter), each having wangled jobs from the rich Park clan, could successfully pretend over the long run to be non-related strangers in the eyes of their employers. It’s completely reckless and stupid for the Kims to gorge on fine food and get drunk while the Parks are away on on a brief vacation, and it makes no sense to admit a resentful former employee into the home while they’re bombed. And the violent ending is absurd.”
“Parasite” will be released by NEON on October 11th.