Parasite

i want to rewrite my review because i have so much more to say BAHAHA every. single. frame. every single frame of parasite is so meticulous. not a single shot in this movie is wasted, no single line is just thrown out casually. bong joon-ho didn’t just make a movie, he created a trap. i have genuinely never seen a film balance tone like this. it goes from heist comedy, to a domestic drama, to a psychological thriller to a fucking horror movie by the end. it’s funny until it’s not, and it’s clever until it’s cruel and that’s what makes this movie great. the title functions on every level. who is the parasite? is it the poor family leeching off the rich? or is it the rich family who can’t do a single thing for themselves without someone poorer propping up their lifestyle? the movie is about class (obviously) but it’s also about rot, and the seepage of it, and the things we choose to ignore while we eat fruit in a sunlit living room. i could write a THESIS on the layout of that house, the verticality of it, how it becomes a character in itself and also how it quite literally creates a line between the rich and poor throughout. the rich live above on the top of a hill whilst the poor quite literally descend into what can only be describe as a flood from hell.  every single character deserves their flowers. but song kang-ho. the man is heartbreaking in his silence, in the way he says so much with so little. and cho yeo-jeong plays clueless and kind with terrifying ease.  the moment it all shifts (the peach, the basement, the smell, THAT MOMENT) is the moment where the movie takes a knife and twists it straight into your ribs whilst you sit there and let it because you have to see just how far this will go. parasite doesn’t scream its message, it lets you sit in it. it’s one of those rare movies that doesn’t just let its ending land, it detonates.  when people say “everyone should watch this movie” this is what they mean. not because it’s trendy, or that it’s foreign and makes you feel cultured, but because it tells the story so sharp that it becomes unavoidable. it is a masterpiece in a gut punch of a way and if you didn’t get it the first time around? watch it again, i promise this movie watches you back.