Parasite
Pupule rating 3.6 (out of 4)
Consolidated Ward
The search for Asian movies never ends in Honolulu. For me and old pal @fatlark, it often — too often — means long droughts of one week, one month until another movie from the Far East arrives. Usually, that means a trek to Consolidated Pearlridge, where several great — I mean 3.5 or better (out of 4 stars) Korean films have played. It's not enough, but it quenches the thirst temporarily.
The arrival of "Parasite", which opened to international audiences four weeks ago (Oct. 11) to a larger venue, Consolidated Ward, was largely anticipated. Like other Korean movies that are extremely good, this one has a cast of celebrities in Korean pop culture, but with this director (Bong Joon Ho) expectations are through the roof.
Some observations.
1) I don't remember seeing any film that hyped itself in the intro with its Cannes honors.
2) Because of the honors and big names attached to this film, I had to wonder in certain scenes — especially one that involves a flood of sewage water into the home of the protagonists — how much these big celebrities were handling it. Fair or unfair, I would have thought the same if J-Lo, who I enjoy as an actor, had been on a set as extreme as that, even though it wasn't real sewage.
3) The director did not disappoint. The material was complex, and he could have kept things simple, but he provides enough space between notes to learn about each of the four family members. They might seem nice enough, but how callous have they become to basically con another family, causing a driver and housekeeper to lose their jobs?
4) Well before the climax, this is clearly a message about class warfare. Parasites, yes, but three of the four survive the brutal, gory scene in the final minutes. If the message was that crime pays, all four would have been killed or seriously injured, and that's not the case. It's the wealthy family that gets conned, loses its father. They suffer the consequences for just being a rich family with a housekeeper and an amazing house. The con artists lose a daughter because they, as a family, covet what the rich folks possess. It's an anti-materialism theme, perhaps, that works. I couldn't pull for anyone, really, except the rich family's children.
5) That house is a de facto cast member. It is Frank Lloyd Wright meets Stephen King.
This is not a film, like Joker, that had me thinking and wondering for days. That still has me skimming through YouTube videos about this and that. Parasite doesn't do that. In that sense, the story is simple. It's the telling of the story, and the nuances along the way, the plot twists and the way it goes from fairly innocent to bizarre to suspense one page at a time.
There are enough holes in the story to warrant healthy debate, but it doesn't take away from the entertainment value. More Asian films in more Honolulu theaters, please.
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