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The Kim family folds pizza boxes for a living in the film “Parasite” before latching on to the well-heeled Park family. Photo courtesy of TIFF
Bong Joon Ho’s wildly successful film “Parasite” has been wowing audiences around the world and winning many major awards at the Golden Globes, BAFTA, SAG, Academy Awards and other ceremonies. It is the first foreign language film to win Oscars for Best Picture and Best International Feature Film.
A darkly-comic social satire from Korea, “Parasite” explores themes of class, materialism, and social inequity through two very different families.
It introduces us to the Kims, a hardscrabble family of four living in a grubby basement apartment, who eke out a living folding pizza boxes. Their fortunes change when the elder son secures a tutoring job with the wealthy Park family who live in an ultramodern opulent mansion. Once exposed to the opportunities of this “other world”, the Kims employ various schemes to insinuate themselves into the lives of the well-heeled Parks. Director Bong has asked festival audiences not to reveal what happens next – and for good reason, as the second act jumps wildly in tenor and tone. The film surprises the viewer over and over again and its style refuses to fit any box, pizza or otherwise.
Parasite has been described as “hilarious, incredibly entertaining, heartbreaking, and devastating”.
The Sunshine Coast Film Society screens “Parasite” on Thursday, March 12 at 2pm at the Raven’s Cry Theatre in Sechelt, and Monday and Tuesday, March 16 and 17 at 7:30pm at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons. Members, $5, others $9.
Submitted by Bette Chadwick
