Parasite

[Incandenza]

2019
dir. Bong Joon-Ho

**** (4/4)

A bit late seeing it here in the US, but I managed to avoid finding out too much about the story so I basically went in having only seen the trailer. I'm still thinking about it hours later. One of the best movies I've seen in a long time, also one of the most entertaining.

I read it doesn't come out in the UK until next February. Get to your local theater cinema and see it.

[Hot Pepsi]

I hope to see it, but it's not available here yet or on any streaming service that I'm aware of.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Yes, it's very good.

[Ginger Yellow]

Very much looking forward to it, to the extent that I'm saving my last "free" Picturehouse cinema ticket for it.

That said, I'm keeping my expectations in check as I find that Bong's films always slightly underwhelm, despite enjoying most of them quite a bit.

[Hot Pepsi]

No idea when this will be widely available.

[Ginger Yellow]

I thought it got a wide (for a foreign film) release in the US a month or two back

[ursus arctos]

It went from two or three screens here and in LA to almost 500 across North America

I expect it will be widely available again after it wins Oscar(s). It is a virtual lock for Best Foreign Film, but the producers are aiming higher.

[Incandenza]

I feel like the buzz has died down now, I remember there being serious Best Picture talk, but I wonder if that has cooled since it was only in Foreign Film for the Golden Globes.

Hot Pepsi, do you have an arthouse there since you're in a college town? I'm surprised that it wasn't there already.

[San Bernardhinault]

I watched it today in a full cinema - admittedly in Cambridge Mass, but even so that’s amazing for a Korean language film. It’s just utterly fantastic. I don’t even know what kind of film it is, let alone who I was rooting for. So much to think about. I think it’s by far the most interesting of the Oscar nominated films I’ve seen so far.

[Hot Pepsi]

I feel like the buzz has died down now, I remember there being serious Best Picture talk, but I wonder if that has cooled since it was only in Foreign Film for the Golden Globes.

Hot Pepsi, do you have an arthouse there since you're in a college town? I'm surprised that it wasn't there already.

We have one venue that shows movies once a week or so. They might get this in a few months, but not while it’s still in regular theaters.

Likewise, films on campus. But there don’t seem to be as many films shown on campus as there once were. I think big TVs and streaming have dramatically reduced the demand for that.

But it’s available on Prime for sale. Hopefully it will be available for rent soon.

[WOM]

What a marvelous film. It starts as a comedy, turns into a drama and does a sharp left into a thriller. Just incredibly well thought-out, paced and shot. It's such a beautiful film, too.

[Cal Alamein]

Watched it yesterday. Went into theater w/ no real idea of what it was about. The wife and I were truly impressed - fantastic film all around. Hope it wins best picture.

[Hot Pepsi]

I just saw this. In an actual theater. I figured it would be the only way I could watch it properly, since subtitles are harder to deal with on a small screen.

It’s remarkably well-made and I can’t recall anything else exactly like it. I can see how it’s inching into the discussion to not only win best foreign language film, but maybe even best picture.

I liked it, but don’t ever want to see it again.*

Now the only BP nominees that I haven’t see are JoJo Rabbit and 1917. I may do 1917 on Tuesday. Not sure how I’ll see JJR. As I’ve said, there are really only two movie theaters in this county, and neither have JJR. It may have come and gone and I missed it.

***spoiler***

*I’m not sure I like how it ended. Or maybe it was just so sad that I didn’t like how long it took to get on with it.

I also found it highly implausible that the main character could have survived that head injury and blood loss with, apparently, not much cognitive impairment. I had a much less severe head injury and it took years to recover. I couldn’t have done Morse code within the first year without getting a splitting headache.

[Ray de Galles]

I watched it tonight as a romantic Valentine movie date with my wife.

I'm the opposite of HP in that I would happily sit down and watch it again tomorrow, partly because it's excellent and partly because I think there's a lot more one can get from the film from repeated viewings.

It's so layered and tightly wound that I get the Hitchcock comparisons and it's shot through with humour too.

I think it's a film that really lives inside your head for while after seeing it, my wife and I are still chatting about it now.

[Bored Of Education]

I really reminded me of a feature length Korean "Inside Number 9" which is a compliment. I am not sure it strikes me as a "Wow" tons of Oscars type film in the same way as, say, 1917 did but it was really excellent. Like Ray, Kermode said that it bears rewatching for things that you miss while you are keeping track of the plot. I am not sure I would need to see it again in a cinema but will again if it is on Netflix or whatnot. It feels a bit lazy to say that it reminded me of "Roma" but it did in that it centres around one house, has beautifully studied and structured cinematography, includes little detours into whimsical little scenes and you aren't quite sure what genre it is.

[San Bernardhinault]

I am not sure it strikes me as a "Wow" tons of Oscars type film in the same way as, say, 1917 did but it was really excellent.

Hmm. Interesting comparison: I was impressed by 1917 as a spectacular technical achievement that had just enough story to keep you watching. Parasite was a spectacular storytelling achievement that was also (as far as I can tell) technically impressive. But it wasn't showy about its technical achievement, unlike 1917 which at times was working very hard to retain its single shot style.

I think Parasite also had a whole lot more to say than 1917 - 1917 said basically nothing much apart from that trench warfare isn't very nice. Parasite says so much about class and power, and about relationships, and all sorts of other stuff.

I guess Parasite isn't a "tons of Oscars" type film, because the kinds of films that generally win tons of Oscars are heavy handed and blindingly obvious American morality stories like Green Book, rather than clever and nuanced films where it's not clear who or what the title even refers to.

[WOM]

Ah, see the title Green Book refers to this Green Book. And how it works is....

[Bored Of Education]

San Bernardhinault make good points even though, in some ways, they could be seen to be contradicting me in part. You hit the nail on the head in that 1917 is more of a what I refer to as "Wow" tons of Oscars type film" in that it is more " showy about its technical achievement". Doesn't, of course, mean that it is necessarily a better film and, in some ways, it may not bear repeated watching nor the test of time in the way that Parasite may do. I did go into 1917 wondering, having already known about the single shot device, whether it would be a cinematic version of Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' - looks amazing but shame about the song. However, the story matched the visuals.

'Parasite' is much conventional although, as you mention, technically accomplished. I wasn't even that surprised when the second act got into gear although, of course, I couldn't have predicted a lot of it nor how it ended

: Show

although it was obvious it had to end badly for the Kim family

Perhaps, we are fortunate in Britain that we have a lot of TV that has an element of sophisticated storytelling. As I say, Parasite reminded me of "Inside No. 9" (and even, to an extent, its' forerunner "Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected) and, specifically, this episode (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...quiet-night-in). I am not saying that British TV is always better than US TV just that we have a reasonable heritage of well-written, occasionally brilliantly acted (albeit only recently well and expensively staged and filmed) programmes that often cross genres. Indeed, at their best, even our soaps can be brilliantly written and acted. I am digressing but my point was that the storytelling in 'Parasite' didn't come as quite so much as a surprise to me - even if the manner of the change of gear and the ending did - and that was what left me wondering about how it became quite so Oscar-worthy. Certainly - again, apologies for the lazy comparison - Roma genuinely had me wondering what was going, where the film was going and what sort fo film it was. However, comparing Parasite to, as you say, more direct Hollywood films - however good they are - is quite a contrast in thinking about it. The very fact that there is a thriller element without elongated and elaborate action scenes set this apart.

[Incandenza]

I started following a Parasite gifs account on Twitter, they posted something yesterday that I didn't catch when watching it...when the rich guy is being driven around and is talking about the old housekeeper, he said

Spoiler: Show

"She always ate enough for two"

[Ginger Yellow]

The Unspooled podcast, which is kind of like The Canon but without the toxic asshole, just broke its own rules and did Parasite. It's a great episode, though I wish they'd spent a bit more time putting it into a Korean cinema context - Burning gets a very brief mention in an interview at the end, for instance, but there' s no direct parallel drawn.

[Bored Of Education]

I started following a Parasite gifs account on Twitter, they posted something yesterday that I didn't catch when watching it...when the rich guy is being driven around and is talking about the old housekeeper, he said

Spoiler: Show

"She always ate enough for two"

I wasn't sure whether I should click on that as I think I do want to watch it again for aspects I never saw the first time around. However I did and that is great.

Why hasn't my 'Spoilers' tag not worked/?

[Incandenza]

I wasn't sure whether I should click on that as I think I do want to watch it again for aspects I never saw the first time around. However I did and that is great.

Why hasn't my 'Spoilers' tag not worked/?

I think this is just the first time that I've gotten the spoilers tag to work, I hadn't really understood the order things were supposed to go in before. This is what it is:

[ SPOILER="Spoiler (or whatever else you want to show on the page" ]"Text you want to hide"[ /SPOILER ]

Remove the spaces in the brackets, obvs.

[Bored Of Education]

Eyethangyew

[slackster]

Saw Parasite last night. Can see why it’s the first non-English language film to win an Oscar (Roma should have won last year, mind). Beautifully filmed & a very good study of class , aspiration & manners which shifted gears from satire to drama to thriller, though I suspect some of the symbolism of use of language by the characters was lost on me via subtitles.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Fantastic film but yes, both TLMG and I felt we probably missed out on a lot of cultural triggers. I'll definitely watch it again though, to try and pick up on the incidental detail.