A considerably poor and desperate family (the Kims) con their way into becoming workers for a rich household (the Parks) within the same district, where each family member manages to adopt a distinctively different role after they were all acquired in a wicked, dishonest and deceitful manner. Who comes out on top of this classic tale of rich vs poor? A good movie but one that perhaps didn’t quite live up to the hype that had been thrust upon it by most.

⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 3 out of 5.

Director: Bong Joon Ho

Writers: Bong Joon Ho, Jin Won Han

Starring: Kang-Ho Song, Hye-Jin Jang, Sun-Kyun Lee, So-Dam Park

Struggling to get by and with very little hope, each member of the Kim family manage to acquire a role as an English tutor, art tutor, maid and driver respectively, but their methods in doing so made you question whether or not they actually deserved to be out of the predicament they originally found themselves in. The movie doesn’t villainise any particular “class” on a whole – both the rich and the poor have their good and their bad moments but I’d argue the scale of disgust tipped more towards the poor, who conned their way into their job roles even at the expense of the innocent others around them.

Much of the films deserved praise was down to the fact that the director was able to flawlessly take the viewer on a journey of genres. Parasite ranged from being a thriller, comedy, drama and even horror. The filmmakers also did a solid job in making the Kim family seem extremely unlikable but at the same time, you did find yourself sympathising with them to an extent. During the movie, there was even an ironic moment where Kim Chung-Sook (Hye-Jin Jang), explained that she thought her daughter Kim Ki-Jung (So-Dam Park) would have been a good “con artist” in another life – but that’s exactly what she was in this life and so were the rest of her family…

It’s also worth noting that the flick was spectacularly well made and produced throughout. Some of the camerawork and scenes were shot beautifully and the soundtrack was one of the best in a movie of this kind and rivaled many of the great films of 2019.

With that being said, along with the positives, there were also plenty of negatives to take. I don’t believe the story and plot in general was strong enough to stick with me in the future. The second half of the flick took a rather unexpected direction and it wasn’t one that I was a fan of. It started becoming a little far-fetched and extremely unbelievable in nature at times and some of the twists and turns were just a little too much to handle as the movie wore on. It could also be argued that it became an unnecessary “gore fest” and the runtime was a little too long.

In my opinion, it’s definitely not on the level of other great movies of 2019 (Joker, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and 1917), but it was a good thought-provoking picture that kept you wondering what was going to happen next – even when very little was actually happening… A worthy watch but not one I’ll be re-watching anytime soon.

“She said she got diagnosed with active tuberculosis and she was practically shouting over the phone!” Kim Ki-Taek – Parasite