Review of Parasite (2019) by Shininglion — 11 Feb 2020

As a fan of Bong Joon-ho's other films that I've seen, I thought this film would be up to the same quality. I was left quite disappointed, as nothing really "stuck" with me after viewing it, aside from how uncomfortable it made me feel. This film won Best Picture over Joker at the Academy Awards. While there are probably others in the category that might have deserved it better, these are the only two nominees I've seen and I disagree with the choice. There's a difference between addressing the elephant in the room (which Joker did) and stating the obvious (which is what Parasite does). This film does not give any insights about wealth inequality that don't warrant a "yeah, no sh*t" response. Furthermore, the film fails on several basic levels, particularly in that it's just hard to care about the main characters and hard to care what happens to them (surprising, considering I felt that both Okja and The Host did a great job of making me care for the protagonists). At first I did, then as the film ticks along you are given plenty of reasons not to. This film is simply overrated as hell and metaphorically impotent on par with Jordan Peele's "Us" (in a word: pretentious), too far-reaching to lead to any actionable solutions or helpful change of mindset among the viewers. Compare this to films from the same two directors like Okja and Get Out, which each target a specific topic, one that is culturally relevant and which viewers have the potential to make actionable changes to affect. Those films work where this one doesn't. Parasite basically says that the dream of escaping poverty in an honorable manner just by working hard is nothing but a fantasy, yet it offers no solution to that. It also mischaracterizes the poor as conniving and cutthroat with dishonesty and competition among each other being the only way "up". I guess this film was made so that woke filmmakers like Joon-ho can sleep at night, in their gated communities, feeling like they're justified in living in their upper world, and have done something significant to help the poor just by stating the obvious about us, that ourr lives are hard and filled with struggles the rich won't have to endure. If this film had reminded viewers that the sky is blue it would have been equally insightful.

Why 3 points and not 0? Cinematography was great. Opening act of the film was compelling mostly. Some scenes were thrilling or humorous, and there was decent suspense and dread when needed. However, all that said, there were some serious pacing issues, and one of the all-time most annoying suspense/horror no-nos pertaining to strange visitors in the night and what you should probably not do if one shows up.