Parasite (5 Stars)

I've been seeing trailers for this film in the cinema for the last two months, and I admit that the film didn't appeal to me. It just didn't look interesting. The only reason I went to see it today is because there were no other interesting films being shown. Okay, maybe the weekly sneak preview would have been an alternative, but that's a risk I don't often take. But as you can see from my five star rating, I was blown away. The film was nothing like what I expected.

The film is a tragicomedy, starting with comedy but developing into a tragedy as it continues. A four-person family lives in poverty in a basement apartment in a South Korean city. Father, mother, son, daughter. I shan't name them in this review because I always have problems remembering Korean names. The son calls himself Kevin, and the daughter Jessica, but they're fake names that they adopt to perform a con trick.

Kevin's friend suggests that he should get a job teaching the daughter of a rich company owner English. Jessica creates a fake university certificate for him, calling him Kevin. He's not a very good teacher, and his English isn't very good either, but the girl falls in love with him. The girl's eight-year-old brother is a budding artist, or so his parents think, so Jessica creates a university certificate for herself in which she calls herself Jessica. So now two of them have weaselled their way into the family. They plant incriminating evidence to get the chauffeur and the housekeeper fired, so that their parents can replace them. Now the whole family is working in the same house, pretending not to be related to one another.

If the story had ended there I would have been satisfied. It would have been a great comedy. But then a series of things happen which make the film take a dark turn. These things make a very good film even better. I shan't give away any spoilers here. I'll just say that you should get ready for surprises in the second half of the film.