Cert 15 Stars 5
Winner of 2 BAFTAs and nominated for 6 Oscars, this extraordinary South Korean dark comedy thriller by director Bong Joon-ho is a bleak, bloodily violent and thought-provoking satirical modern day fable.
It sees a shameless and charismatic family of con-artists swindle their way into the employ of an upper class home where they plot the overthrow of the lawful inhabitants.
As the collision of unthinking privilege and the desperately needy erupts in violent farce, it comments on the smell of poverty, the corrupting Western influence on the Far East, and genocide.
Very much in keeping with Joon-ho’s previous films, the eco-fable Okja, and sci-fi train thriller, Snowpiercer, it’s also a distant cousin to last years period black comedy and Oscar winner, The Favourite.
Parasite is hugely moral, strangely moving, constantly surprising and full of arresting images, not least of someone smoking a cigarette in the middle of a flood while trying to hold down the seat of a toilet as it vomits effluent. As one character is fond of crying, ‘it’s all metaphorical!’
Chris Hunneysett 