February 24th, 2020

Watching Parasite, I'm reminded of a lone loaf of bread and bottle of mustard from childhood, standing in as the evening's meal. A personal thought, with the weight of the world unknowingly upon it. In the movie, To me, this is Parasite and for me, one of the driving factors of it being a masterpiece. For all of the awards that Bong Joon Ho's film has won, it is the universality of poverty and the associated desperation, missteps and blinding hope that comes along with it. The story is probably familiar by now, the Kim family sees an opportunity to rise above their lot in life and scheme -one-by-one - to infiltrate themselves into their rightful spot right alongside the Park family.

Social classes and the weight of hierarchy are quite literally in-motion here, though tremendous performances, cinematography and terrific script. The layers of complexity to the movie are really second to none of what I've seen in 2019. Being late to the Parasite train, I was concerned that there might be too much hype for it, with some of the feedback being some of the tonal shifts maybe not quite hitting the mark. However, what I found were expertly crafted scenes, including the transformation of the Kim family into disparate parts, yet moving as one into the Park's world. Much like when one is living in poverty, the door opening is often met with resounding shutteringnof that same door - yes - sometimes with that stacked deck falling harder and harder down on you, deeper and deeper you get with your own failed attempts, misjudgments and ill-fated plans and schemes.

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?
A celebration of life and all that it offers with a trip to your favorite noodle spot and a hurried ask for jjapaguri with sirloin, all in about 7 minutes 😉