"Parasite" - Film Review

By Emilia Ippolito

Hollywood has awarded the South Korean film Parasite several Oscars this year : best feature film, best director and best international film of the year. It’s not a coincidence that the film had already deservedly won the Palme d’Or in Cannes



After much controversy about the lack of diversity of this year shortlist, Hollywood has selected for the first time in its history a foreign, very diverse narrative in a foreign language

The awards are certainly well deserved; the film pleasantly surprises with original script and story, excellent direction - all by the Bong Joon-ho, a real solo endeavour and success; performance is equally high quality, perfectly matching the rest and giving once more credit to the Academy’s judgement.



The story of two siblings climbing the social ladder by ‘intruding’ into a wealthy family as tutors and tricking them into employing their parents as housekeeper and driver, and so getting access to a new world full of promises and possibilities makes us smile at the beginning, falling for the more pleasant and ironic part of the film; after a few truly unexpected twists, the narrative takes a tragic turn : with no return



The message of the multi awarded film is clear: lies, forgeries and pretensions will never fulfill anyone’s dreams, and illusions can only turn into tragedy



This is certainly a high quality film, a gift to international audiences often drowning in a sea of mediocrity, deja-vu and crying for entitlement due to belonging to minoritarian groups rather than to quality



Excellent sense and use of irony, a few intriguing twists, very good cinematography and soundtrack leave us with new perspectives for the future of truly original cinema: we know which side of the planet to turn for potential good surprises



I would definitely recommend!

Release date: 7 February 2020 (United Kingdom)

Director: Bong Joon-ho

Language: Korean