In a movie unlike many that have been even nominated for the amount of awards this one has, "Parasite" is the little movie that could, if you will.
It won the Best Picture, Best Director , Best Screenplay & Best International Film, a historic night being the first ever film nominated for Best Picture to not be in English at this year's Academy Awards.
I was sent a Blu-Ray copy of the film to review for Taro PR.
Synopsis:
A poor family, the Kims, con their way into becoming the servants of a rich family, the Parks. But their easy life gets complicated when their deception is threatened with exposure.
In the first scenes we see the Kim family in their living room trying to understand how to fold pizza boxes, they all share the task as this is the only know source of income for this family. They live in a basement suite where the four of them live.
The Park family live on the other side of town and are the exact opposite, they have money, a big house, a chauffeur and a maid.
Their family size is the same, both families have a son and daughter, of different ages of course.
The story starts with the friend of the Kim's family son Kim Ki-woo (as Choi Woo Shik) friend comes over and gives the family a rock, signifying something that is to bring the family wealth.
This is where the film really starts to take it's shape, with characters so believable they almost pour through the screen with their richness of the writing and acting all around.
Choi Woo Shik's friend asks him to tutor the Park's daughter when he is away as he feels that he is the only one that would be best for the position and it really makes way for more of the family to get in the house in their own way, creating some really interesting scenes of how it all unfolds.
Midway through the story, it takes a swift left turn and really throws the audience for a loop and as an avid movie watcher I was so enthralled with everything that happened from the first frame of this film to the very end.
This sudden change in the film makes it even more interesting and not being one to ruin the experience for anyone, I will only say that it totally left me shocked as to how it all turns out.
Everything in this film works and in the old school of film-making of where less is more is definitely used here, with slow momentum and letting the characters build as the story grows are key elements to great storytelling, the visuals certainly add to this as well.
The camera is ease dropping on the conversations basically, sometimes almost feeling like an intruder as I watch this film. If you have seen the film I am sure you know the scene I am talking about.
Thank you for reading this
Anthony