Parasite review – a gasp-inducing masterpiece | parasite movie review
TheidealwaytoexperienceSouthKoreanauteurBongJoon-ho[1]’sawards-garlanded,internationalbox-officesmashiswithaslittlepriorknowledgeaspossible.Soifyou’rereadingthisbeforeseeingthefilm,andyou’vemanagedtoavoidthewhirlwindofpublicityithasattractedsincewinningthePalmed’OrlastMay,itmaybesimplertojuststopandheadstraighttothecinema.Because,attheriskofaddingtothehype,Parasite[2]reallyisthekindofremarkableexperiencethatmakesmodernmovie-goingsuchajoy.IsawitforthefourthtimelastweekandI’mnowdesperatetoview...
The ideal way to experience South Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho[1]’s awards-garlanded, international box-office smash is with as little prior knowledge as possible. So if you’re reading this before seeing the film, and you’ve managed to avoid the whirlwind of publicity it has attracted since winning the Palme d’Or last May, it may be simpler to just stop and head straight to the cinema. Because, at the risk of adding to the hype, Parasite[2] really is the kind of remarkable experience that makes modern movie-going such a joy. I saw it for the fourth time last week and I’m now desperate to view the black-and-white version[3] that Bong recently unveiled at the Rotterdam film festival.
Described by its creator as “a comedy without clowns, a tragedy without villains”, Parasite is more Shakespearean than Hitchockian – a tale of two families from opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, told with the trademark genre-fluidity that has seen Bon...