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Who would you say is the “Parasite” in this film?
Bong Joon Ho brings his work home to Korea in this pitch-black modern fairytale. Meet the Park Family: the picture of aspirational wealth. And the Kim Family, rich in street smarts but not much else. Be it chance or fate, these two houses are brought together and the Kims sense a golden opportunity. Masterminded by college-aged Ki-woo, the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist, to the Parks. Soon, a symbiotic relationship forms between the two families. The Kims provide “indispensable” luxury services while the Parks obliviously bankroll their entire household. When a parasitic interloper threatens the Kims’ newfound comfort, a savage, underhanded battle for dominance breaks out, threatening to destroy the fragile ecosystem between the Kims and the Parks.
Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus reads: “An urgent, brilliantly layered look at timely social themes, Parasite finds writer-director Bong Joon Ho in near-total command of his craft.”
In this podcast, Wes and Clay debate the merits of the Best Picture front-runner. It’s a beautifully directed film that shows Bong Joon ho to have complete control over his work. Parasite is a film that can hold the attention of both the blockbuster crowd and the critics who write in our most influential publications. The actors are uniformly terrific and the plot is a brilliantly subversive and metaphorical commentary on class warfare and the relationships between various cultural groups.
But is it a Best Picture nominee that can take home the Oscar? Or is the metaphorical nature a bit too on the nose? Wes and Clay attempt to explain a Korean film from an American perspective (and likely fail miserably). But whether or not you think the film deserves the top prize at the 2020 Academy Awards, it’s certainly one of the best and most interesting films from this year in cinema.