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Friday, February 12, 2021

PARASITE / GISAENGCHUNG (2019)

The unsettling modern class warfare of a Michael Haneke parable meets the rude, precise elegance of Blake Edwards slapstick in this award-winner for Korean writer/director Bong Joon Ho.*  While hardly his best (there are at least three I’d place in front), it’s a fine, funny deep-dish affair, loaded with laughs, terror and thoughtful absurdities, fully worthy of all the attention, cash & acclaim.  Plus, it never hurts a film to keep getting better as it goes along.  The setup has a family of ne’er-do-well grifters moving in on a matching upper-class clan, finessing quick exits for the current staff thru creative lies & suggestion as they take over all positions: tutors, housekeeper, chauffeur.  If the film has a fault, it’s in this first half where the ‘Haves’ are too conveniently gullible/naive and domestic usurper ‘Have-Nots’ too competent at every task.  It’d be a lot less work to simply get real jobs.  No doubt, the point, deceitfulness in their nature.  But things really click into place in the second half when the former housekeeper returns to pick up something she forgot . . . and how.   No spoilers, but we wind up with three groups vying for the prize and, while you know something’s gotta give, you may not be prepared for how this Korean Society Dam bursts.  Beautifully staged in hilarious multiplane comic action, rhythmic narrative paybacks & repetitions, and more than enough gore to settle the score . . . permanently.   An audacious delight.  (Note: Family Friendly, but NOT a kiddie film!)

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *For Haneke FUNNY GAMES (the 1997 original); for Edwards THE PARTY/’68.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-party-1968.html

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