Movie Review: Parasite

Movie: Parasite
Genre: who the heck knows!! I've seen people call it a horror/comedy. 
Starring: Choi Wooshik, Park So Dam, Kang Ho Song, ChoYeo Jeong
Rating: R
My Rating: two thumbs up, I think...lol



So I'm not one that usually watches R movies, let's just say that. But because of my "connection" (geez what word do I use there? LOL... my love of all things Korean?)   I have been intrigued by this movie from the get go. Everyone was talking about it. I knew I needed to watch it.

THEN it won best picture, best director and a couple others at the Academy Awards. It had to be done. I had to watch it!

But I was nervous actually. I knew it would be a disturbing movie. A harsh movie. A hard one to watch. And I was right about that. Though I'm glad I watched and I don't think I'll be forever tainted by it or anything! (R rating for many subtitled fbombs, a weird sex scene, and violence)

Everyone describes this move as being about class warfare. The clash between lower and upper society in Seoul. We have a family who is living in a terrible basement apartment struggling to find work. We have a family living in a huge beautiful mansion struggling to find good help for their kids and family. The two get together and we have this crazy movie!

The boy ends up getting a tutoring job for the girl in the rich family. They then infiltrate by having the sister be the art teacher for the little boy. They cause both the chauffeur and the housekeeper to get fired and manage to get their parents into both of these positions. They feel they have succeeded and finally made it!

But then...

...stuff happens.

And you are watching it going, WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING???

And then it gets weirder from there.

And it's all quite depressing. This feeling that people who are in the lower dregs of society can not escape. I hate that. But it does also give hope... like tiny shred. So...hopefully there's hope!

The acting was amazing. The music was good. The suspense was fabulous. The snark was great. The whole feel of it was pretty crazy.  I really enjoyed seeing something so different. It was refreshing in that sense.

And in case you wondered, this did NOT feel like a kdrama. Other than the subtitles and language and such. While I didn't at first recognize their names, it turns out that I have seen pretty much all of the actors in a drama though. I thought that was cool.

Speaking of subtitles, on twitter the day after it won its Oscar, there was a huge debate about subtitles vs. dubbing. I'm guessing you probably know where I land on that debate. HA. It still baffles me that people would actually rather not hear the original language. So much of the acting nuances happen through that. You would lose SO MUCH if it was dubbed!

Anyway. It was fun to finally know what all the buzz was about and to form my own opinions on everything! I truly find it fascinating that so many people loved it.

I'm dying to know if anyone who reads this has watched it, or plans to? I would love to know what you think!

Here's the trailer, which is fabulous: