Parasite Bem Mozi Budapest
March 1st 2020
Well this was quite a surprise (majorly British understatement!). It did NOT go in the direction that I thought it seemed to be going – and in fact it shot off in a variety of different directions in its duration.
Without giving too much away, it started as an initially quite light social/family comedy that gradually got a little bit darker and more savage as it progressed. This darkness and drama grew with a very surprising revelation that switched the film in a completely direction – that of thriller plus. But just when one thought one had accepted this change of direction, there was another sudden switch – down the ‘horror’ path and then finally with the conclusion, a powerful hitting of almost tragic grandeur and emotional power. This sounds bizarre and on paper one would think – how can this work – but that I think is the uniquely remarkable strength and skill of the film and perhaps why it got the Oscar that it did as the film-maker kept a masterly control over these sudden changes of tone and direction so that one never felt baffled or irritated in the direction we were now going dramatically. Rather, it was all astonishingly convincing and there can be few compliments greater than this for a film maker to so successfully ‘play’ with the audience but have them (or at least as far as this one audience member was concerned) totally believing in and involved in what he was doing.
Even on one showing I began to be aware of how beautifully structured the film was and how there were hints and suggestions early on not of what was going to come, but somehow the establishing if a situation so that when one or more of the big dramatic switches came, we were prepared. I strongly suspect that on a second or third viewing, even more would be revealed.
I do not know if there were aspects of the film, particularly in the social setting that I as non –Korean was not aware of – I have read some comments which suggest that this is the case but all I can say is that I did not feel in any way excluded or baffled by anything that I saw or heard. Perhaps because this was above all a story of people and their feelings and relationships – the relationships of the two families were wonderfully observed and utterly different from each other.
So a quite remarkable and gripping and thought-provoking film which it was very encouraging to see gained the top award that it did. It was not in any sense flashy and worked as it was superbly written and performed and remained, always, totally and utterly convincing human and an exploration of many aspects of the human experience – love, hatred, envy, social class and politics, love and passion - all human life was there in this little microcosm. Perhaps that was finally the key to its success.