Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite made history at the Oscars by being the first non-English film to win Best Picture.
I remember thinking that 1917 would win the award but then Bong won Best Director and that made me do a double take and wonder if it could win.
Lo and behold, Parasite was awarded Best Picture and I was thrilled, even though I hadn’t watched the movie yet.
The reason for this is because the academia has almost always awarded only English films and the fact that a South Korean film won Best Picture could open the door for more foreign films being nominated in other categories.
I have my fingers crossed that the day will come when anime gets the recognition it deserves in the Best Animated Film category.
Back to Parasite, after it won the award, I knew I could no longer sit on it and had to watch the film.
Coming into it, I had no idea what to expect other than I would almost certainly find it fantastic; this is Bong Joon-ho we’re talking about, after all.
I have watched a lot of his films over the years from The Host, to Snowpiercer, to Okja, but my favorite film of his is definitely Memories of Murder, which is a deeply disturbing masterpiece.
And, while I do not think the film is quite as good as Memories of Murder, I can state with absolute certainty that Parasite is a masterpiece too and more than deserving of the Best Picture award.
Is it my favorite film of 2019?
Well, as of this moment, I am unsure if I enjoyed it more than 1917 and Joker but it is definitely up there.
The film follows two families, the Kims and the Parks, who live in two very different worlds.
While the Parks are wealthy and live the good life, the Kims are impoverished and live in a half-basement where they struggle to support themselves.
After the son of the family, Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik), manages to scam his way into the Parks’ house as a tutor, the entire family eventually scams their way in as well, until all are employed by the Parks who believe they are not respected experts in their fields.
What happens next, I will not spoil, but the movie takes a turn at a certain point that raises the tension to another level and keeps you guessing as to what will happen.
Not only was I constantly trying to guess where the movie would go (and wrongly at that) but I was also constantly wondering who the real parasite of the movie is, the Kims, the Parks, or both?
And then there is the ending, which is absolutely perfect and hit me like a train.
This gripping story is supported by the fantastic cast of Choi, Song Kang-ho, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin, Lee Sun-kyun, and Cho Yeo-jeong, who all give amazing performances.
And, with Bong Joon-ho directing, the end result is a masterpiece of a film that will keep you riveted right up until the very end.
Bong does, indeed, deserve to “drink until the next morning.”
THE REVIEW MONSTER 