Parásitos (2019)

Gran película

Puedo entender por qué recibió la atención de la crítica y del público occidental; es una película diferente en general, no sólo por una cuestión regional. El director tomó una decisión muy interesante al ir cambiando el género del film conforme avanza; casi la primera hora es una comedia negra con la que no me dejé de reír, hasta que de pronto todo se desvirtúa y sigue descarrilando. Los plot twists son buenísimos y el ritmo de la película la hace muy entretenida y pochoclera, de esas con las que vas reaccionando a todo lo que pasa y la re vivís.

Además de su humor negro, hay momentos extremadamente incómodos y turbios que me encantaron, con una toma en particular que amé porque me perturbó en serio, algo que no me suele pasar. Me gustó cómo está filmada, la paleta de colores y los espacios. Las actuaciones son excelentes y las críticas sociales que se hacen por medio de paralelismos son tan obvias que es imposible no notarlas.

Estoy muy agradecida de no haberme espoileado nada, puesto que realmente es una de esas películas que funcionan por el impacto de la experiencia al verlas por primera vez, ya que el guión es MUY lineal y no hace falta estar conectando cuestiones que pasan previamente con lo que se sucede luego. "Parasite" es como una montaña rusa que la primera vez que te subes viene todo el impacto del recorrido. La segunda vez ya sabes qué es lo que espera y por ende el factor del impacto desaparece, ergo ese elemento emocionante no está, pero igualmente sabes que ese fue un recorrido espectacular y una atracción que recomendarías a cualquiera.

Leer más

Una joya del cine coreano, así debo describir a esta película que ha hecho historia y es parte de la historia coreana.
Ya he dicho en varias ocasiones que el director Bong Joon Ho es mi director coreano favorito y considero que Parasite es uno de sus mejores trabajos. El director suele hacer producciones con crítica social pero sin que sea muy obvio, y eso es lo que ha traído una vez más con Parasite.
La historia ya de por sí nos muestra dos mundos totalmente diferentes y que se mantienen en cohesión porque se necesitan unos a otros y ya con eso podemos ver la crítica a las clases sociales que presenta la historia. Sin embargo, hay otros detalles de crítica social que son más sutiles. Un ejemplo, y mi favorito, es el agua, un elemento que aparece mucho en la historia. El agua, si vemos atentamente la película, significa cosas diferentes para ambas familias de clases tan diferentes. Por un lado, para la familia rica, el agua es una bendición y algo bueno, ya que como ellos dicen “ha limpiado el ambiente”. Sin embargo, para la familia pobre, el agua es un elemento de desgracia ya que ocasiona la inundación de todo su barrio. También, si nos fijamos podemos ver que siempre que aparece el agua, esta corre de arriba hacia abajo, como indicando que lo bueno que lleva a la familia rica se va cayendo y se va convirtiendo en la desgracia de la pobre.

Leer más

,,You will see the consequences of social inequity shot in such a interestingly relatable manner, it will be hard to dislike it''

Filmmaker Bong Joon Ho once again surprised us with another masterpiece named Parasite. Where powerful social satire meets tragedy. The director did a great job portraying South Korea's current views on society exposing the underprivileged slums of most modern cities and it's citizens living in completely different worlds despite staying in close proximity. You are likely to find it relatable as the themes of this story are not just localized to Korea, but all over the world. Having its fair share of global capitalism and universal materialism, Meritocracy being the biggest trope of this movie.

Now, the best way to enjoy this film is to cluelessly get into it, its charm is to watch it progress and unfold in many satisfying, unexpected ways.
You can definitely see a unique directorial vision as Parasite welcomes the audience into multi-genres and tonal shifts that mix and take its turn after every act. Pure comedy, dark comedy to heavy drama, horror, thriller, mystery, you name it. It is one of the hardest things to pull off but the director converts them smoothly without letting the audience feel indifferent to the transformation. It manages to elicit the full range of responses, making the viewer react with uneasy laughter to unexpected situations that eventually lead to disturbing events full of horror.

Now, who are the real parasites? The poor who attach themselves to the rich or the rich who suck the marrow of the poor?
Satirically, it managed to portray how we may live under the same skies, but have different views regarding life.
--
"You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan. No plan at all. You know why? Because life cannot be planned."

Success and fortune are reserved for those who deserve it, those who develop solid plans according to their talents and abilities and who execute those plans through hard work and determination. Anyone can rise to the top, but for those who cannot escape their sad reality will ultimately turn for the worse and thus start to justify their immoral backstabbing, deceit, and callousness for reasoning that can be only explained by growing up poor without support from others.

The characters all have different aspects to them that will be received and viewed differently due to the viewers own biases and world views. This isn't a bad thing as the movies main point is to deliver a provocative social commentary in various metaphors. And the best way to do so is to create morally questionable characters that will resemble at least one familiar person known to you.

,,Greed is inside each one of us, but the question is, how much are you willing to sacrifice for an idea of life in comfort?''
---
All in all, Parasite is a fantastic case of hard-hitting yet entertaining cinema.
And one of the best movies recently made in Korea.
Thus I will rate it 9.5/10

Leer más

Marxism on acid.

Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” deserved more than Palme D’Or. After getting 8 minutes of a standing ovation in Cannes, this movie was just more than an award. But, I’m grateful to finally be able to watch this film and this is probably one of the best and insane movies in 2019. There is so much to talk about this movie, not just about Marxism, class consciousness, and social hierarchy, but more than a symbolism. The genius doesn’t prove we become bourgeois, but neither does the proletariat. There is a tradeoff between the two and in the satire comedy thriller drama, Joon-ho takes us into the depressing picture of a social class.

Bong Joon-ho always pokes issues about social class and hierarchy like one in “Snowpiercer", about a ruler’s fight for prosperity. In “Parasite”, Joon-ho places his audience in a unique but unusual circumstance. We try to move and also struggle to “sneak” and “alight” in the fertile flower. A detailed sequence shows the plan of deception so that this poor family is able to control the rich family. However, there is no root in this movie. Instead, we laugh at the richness of a rich family with this poor family. “Parasite” makes a serious incident into a funny yet ridiculous situation.

“Parasite” is not just a home invasion film but there is a lot of symbolism and satire both in society and country. Like for example the life of Ki-taek’s family, no more than poor families but the world has never looked at them. They are only more concerned with status, social class, and wealth compared to poor communities. The film is terrorizing its genre in horror, not just about socialism yet about people. The ladder is a strong symbolism, where the Ki-taek family may temporarily enjoy rich family wealth. When they go down a ladder, it’s not separated from the fact they still remain as a poor family.

This movie is like a rollercoaster, you want to breathe but you can’t. This is a sad experience. Seeing the Ki-taek family and other families is a suspense of the main plot. In fact, back again to a stereotypical of the rich and the poor. Poor people can be geniuses but not rich people. Conversely, rich people can have all but not for the poor. The house is a temporary place where you want to look after and care for but makes you feel comfortable about the house.

Not on intelligence but on chance. There are up and down, good and bad. But, this movie combines all of these so it’s difficult to know which ones are worthy of pity. There are just unworthy characters, jumping up one flight of stairs to another, trying to find a way up but it’s so easy to fall. Business and work aren’t shortcuts but in order to be successful, live prosperously, and become rich, there is a process. And finally, the characters in this film fail to keep their “ladder” each. All of the characters are free, as well as actors and actresses, whether a dialogue is on their expression, we really stand and easy to understand.

The acting, the camera, the tone, the symbolism, the case for this movie is just everything and I still think about it when the end-credit appears. At first, you laugh but then, between feeling sorry and sad. Bong Joon-ho presents an idea that’s easy to understand. “Parasite” is fantastic in terms of criticism, messages, plot, tone, performance, score, etc., deserved more than anything. This is a “fun” movie.

Leer más

Left Underwhelmed

I was excited to watch this movie after seeing its praise and hype continuously pop up in my news feed, as well as in light of the many prestigious awards it's won. However, having finished it, I must say that I am firmly rooted in the camp that's left a little underwhelmed. I found the movie entertaining and remained interested until the end, but for reasons stated below, I couldn't bring myself to rate it as highly as others have.

Perhaps the best thing about this film are the actors. Each one was amazing, performing incredibly well in his or her role. That said, the characters fell flat for me. All of them were stock characters: one-dimensional creations that lacked depth and complexity. The plot left me feeling like little was accomplished, and story lines felt under-developed and rushed. Certain scenes seemed to be added only for the sake of shock value; they added little (if anything) to the story and didn't, in my opinion, serve much meaningful purpose. The theme of class warfare, which has been highly praised as one of the film's accomplishments, was superficial and shallow, relying on stereotypes to portray a message that could have been explored more deeply had more time been spent on it.

Overall, it's a decent movie, but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. For as many awards as it won, I wouldn't say that this is the best Korea has to offer (which is what I'd expect given the number of accolades). It's not that I don't understand what the writer and director were trying to accomplish and portray; it's that the message got lost in one-dimensional, stereotypical characters and situations, as well as scenes that added little to the story beyond gratuity and cheap thrills.

Leer más

Dark Humor

This is a dark comedy movie. Despite winning the Oscar with 4 awards, I can't say I like it. The acting is fine, so are many other movies. This movie depicts the great divide between the haves, and the don't haves. It also shows how easy it is to forge any documents in today's digital world. And how the unscrupulous can cheat their way out in a world that demands paper qualifications.

I have to admit I do enjoy watching how the family of four get themselves out of their predicament living in a squalid condition to live in a multi million dollar home. But as the story unfolds, I sense more stormy waters ahead. As expected, the story takes on a dark turn, becomes psychopathic and murderous.

My verdict? This is not my cup of tea. As much as I'd love to have an Asian movie to receive the Oscar, I really can't say this is it.

Leer más

It has an emotional effect hard to describe. Just sublime.

This film is a lot of things ...

Is it a black comedy ? Yes
A social commentary? Yes
Art? Most definitely..

I can describe Parasite as an appropiatian of art and poetry with Marxism that screams like a Basquiat painting.

Its an uncomfortable film that depicts social and class divide. Its full of metaphors and cultural anecdotes all juxtaposed with morally ambiguous characters that make for an exuberant watch. I really liked how exuberant the whole mood of the movie was even though the viewer is made acutely aware of the darkness looming. Its also not those artsty fartsy silent films where characters talk after 20 mins which was much appreciated.

For the most part -Human beings are truly portrayed as awful and just not worth celebrating. The angle that poverty does not bring virtue and nobilty was generously explored .The characters are grotesque and the dystopian world Bong Joon Ho spins actually makes a lot of sense as well as the dramatic consequence of his characters and the plot.

Its such a flooring watch and deserves all the praise and udulation!

"RESPECT'' if you know , you know...

Leer más

This movie was very well made, the cast was spectacular, the setting was great, the plot had tons of potential.... but it it morphed into a beast of incomprehensibility....

It had a slow start but started to pick up near a third into the movie and kept that going for the second 3rd. the final third of the movie is completely out of left field and ruins what the first 2 thirds built up. Especially the very last scene which further emphasized the pointlessness of the whole thing. I'd only rewatch this movie to try and figure out if it did, in fact, have a point.

Leer más

this review is probably more to preference bias. Perhaps the meaning of the view is too deep for someone simple minded like myself but honestly the first 30 mins is super boring, I almost stop watching but because I have seen everyone raving about it so decided to complete it. The movie itself doesn't really honestly bring any meaning (probably more to the difference between the riches and poors). Until the end, I am still wondering what did I just watch, and why are we watching, what's exactly the story?

anyway nothing much to say here, I just simply doesn't like it. not recommending anyone to watch it.

Leer más

Masterpiece? Expectation?

Few spoiler for the first half.
Masterpiece? Expectation? Are you kidding me? What a disappointment!
This is my first review for "..." (Answer at the bottm)
Kim Gi Woo (Choi Woo Shik) betrayed his friend who trusted him to take care of the girl he likes. Did he have no conscience? But Kim Gi Woo doesn't seem that serious so I just continue the movie. Later, all of Kim Gi Woo's family members got job at the same house. Everything is good and funny up to this point although the rich family is dumb.

After that, poor family went crazy and got drunk in the house. Then, they let the old maid came in. Then, their mum want to call police because of the old maid and hers husband. She must be faking or she is not in rational state because they were drunk. What comes worse than that is that old maid and his husband didn't make a negotiation after founding out that these people are family. Everything went chaos from drunk part to the end. It makes me cringe from that moments on. This kind of story line is too bad to call 'masterpiece'.
If the script writer is wanting to give lesson to viewers, they should show us the right way. Now, script writer is telling viewers to do opposite of every dumb things they did in a movie. e.g. no conscience, getting drunk, threatening instead of negotiating, no plan? (That is if you want to dig your own grave.), Trusting too easily, Greed, ...

For rich family, dumbness/navieness is at a whole new level. Why they trust people so easily? Why no private investigation for employees? Why they don't check where they live? Why no cctv or hidden cameras in the house when you are that rich? Why get male tutor instead of female tutor for their daughter? Because normally, parents like to have same sex tutor not to have any love relationship.
Park Dong ik (Lee Sun Kyun) hate the smell of Kimg Gi Taek (Song Kang Ho) so he could have told him to take shower well or bought a shampoo and soap that he liked or even told him to shower at guest room before work. Because he hate smell and he hate that his driver kept on saying "You do love your wife". It made me think that Park Dong ik (Lee Sun Kyun) doesn't love his wife. Why would he get serious and angry whenever Kimg Gi Taek asked that question?
From this whole movie, Park Dong ik's son, Da Song seem to be smartest because he is the only one who noticed something but still not smart.

In conclusion, the story is too bad and characters are too dumb. Acting and situational background music are great.
Parasite, Bong Joon Ho and the entire team took home four Academy Awards:
Best International Feature Film
Best Original Screenplay
Best Director
Best Picture
Anyway, 4 Oscar it got are right for this movie so I can agree to that. The movie has brilliant picture quality and good angles. But not the story/plot! "What a letdown".

Leer más

I have watched it because it has received a lot of awards so my expectation was very high.
I think this movie is way too overrated. The cast is overall good, the story is well written since we can clearly see the difference between the rich and the poor, the movie draws a clear separation between the two and illustrates how difficult it is to cross that separation for both of them. For the music, I think it was too simple, it did not attract me.
I would not recommend this movie to be honest. It is a little bit too weird and the start is too slow which makes the movie a little bit too boring. I wanted to skip many parts because I felt it was too slow. In clear words, I was disappointed. The last 30 minutes were better.

Leer más