Meade's Ball
Well-known member
Sat in a&e at the minute, with what I think is a broken fingertip that was foolishly squashed when unfolding a scooter I'm not hip enough to scoot upon. I yelped when it occurred, but haven't really had her time to get it seen to, in spite of its incessant pulsing and tingling and blackening. So, I thought, I finally have time to speak of The Parasite, which I saw on friday night in a packed house. They were right to come and watch too, as it was rather good.
Korean cinema has been on something of a high for a decade or 2, and quite often with Song Kang-Ho involved, and here he is again, as the semi-cowardly head of this con-artist family from the gutter. I recall him in a semi-similar state of weak-heartedness in The Host, Bong Joon-Ho's monster pic from a while back, and he carries a likability to it too. In this, whilst married to a former champion hammer thrower, and father to a more charming son and art-forging daughter, they infiltrate a rich family, feigning to be specialists they helped make themselves be replacements as. As they do this we applaud their wit and schemer, as we did with Ealing Studio tearaways looking to survive and increase their social status. Whilst the rich family they deceive are superficial and naive and seem to have enough to care little about loss to small fry. So in with black comedy is a consistent prod toward class struggle, although neither side is complimented.
As the ruse nears completion, the story changes sharply into thrills and chills, whilst again class simmers with resentment and disgust. Some of the scenes from here onwards are still semi-comic, and beautifully shot, but hugely unexpected. It's excellently strung together, and brilliantly horrifying as the conflict grows to explode. Not a typical Cannes winner, but is justly applauded, and very much worth a watch. I thought of Ealing movies, of course, and Les Diabolique in one fiendishly amusing moment, and even Shoplifters a tad with the unorthodox construction of family.
I might watch it again, as I think there's more to it still.
Korean cinema has been on something of a high for a decade or 2, and quite often with Song Kang-Ho involved, and here he is again, as the semi-cowardly head of this con-artist family from the gutter. I recall him in a semi-similar state of weak-heartedness in The Host, Bong Joon-Ho's monster pic from a while back, and he carries a likability to it too. In this, whilst married to a former champion hammer thrower, and father to a more charming son and art-forging daughter, they infiltrate a rich family, feigning to be specialists they helped make themselves be replacements as. As they do this we applaud their wit and schemer, as we did with Ealing Studio tearaways looking to survive and increase their social status. Whilst the rich family they deceive are superficial and naive and seem to have enough to care little about loss to small fry. So in with black comedy is a consistent prod toward class struggle, although neither side is complimented.
As the ruse nears completion, the story changes sharply into thrills and chills, whilst again class simmers with resentment and disgust. Some of the scenes from here onwards are still semi-comic, and beautifully shot, but hugely unexpected. It's excellently strung together, and brilliantly horrifying as the conflict grows to explode. Not a typical Cannes winner, but is justly applauded, and very much worth a watch. I thought of Ealing movies, of course, and Les Diabolique in one fiendishly amusing moment, and even Shoplifters a tad with the unorthodox construction of family.
I might watch it again, as I think there's more to it still.
