Parasite (2019) Review

Parasite (2019) (기생충, 寄生蟲, gisaengchung, kisaengch’ung)

Directed by Bong Joon-ho

Starring: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Lee Jung-eun, Chang Hyae-jin

Plot Synopsis: (via Wikipedia)
Parasite stars Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, and Park So-dam, and follows the members of a poor household who scheme to become employed by a wealthy family by infiltrating the household and posing as unrelated, highly qualified individuals.

My Opinion:

After a year of hearing everyone raving over this on Twitter, the UK is FINALLY getting the chance to see it today. I was beyond excited & extremely happy to see it two weeks early with my cinema membership. It’s a very good film. But is it a masterpiece as so many are claiming? I hate how any halfway decent current film gets declared a damn masterpiece. Let a movie age a bit! See if it stands the test of time. Will Parasite be a “masterpiece” 20 years from now? I’m not sure about that but I think it’ll always be a well respected film. I expected this to be my favorite Best Picture Oscar nominee as I love foreign films. It might be my favorite but in some ways I think Joker is a better film despite people whining about it (although Parasite is far more “me” than a Scorsese-wannabe comic book movie). Okay, yes – Parasite is probably my favorite Best Picture nominee this year… I admit it’s grown on me over the past two weeks.

Despite the hype, I didn’t go into a Parasite with really high expectations as I’ve not loved any of Bong Joon-ho’s work that I’ve seen. Although the concept for Snowpiercer was amazing, the film was a bit of a mess. Okja was mostly just annoying as, with Snowpiercer as well, the characters were so unpleasant & ridiculous (especially Swinton & Gyllenhaal). I think I may have actually enjoyed his film The Host the most as I like a decent monster movie & the young girl in it was really good (and one of the only Bong Joon-ho characters to not be hateful in some way). However, as much as I hate hateful characters (which is why I suppose I haven’t gotten on with his work), they work perfectly for Parasite. I mean, it’s a social satire & the whole point of the film. Actually, these are probably his least hateful movie characters as the bad in each of them is far more subtle & none of them are the ridiculous Swinton-type caricatures. Everyone is flawed in some way, making them feel more real (we’re all flawed). You feel both sympathy & repulsion for every character at various points in the film.

I do think Parasite is a clever film with far deeper characters than we’ve had in Bong Joon-ho’s other work (that I’ve seen) & I understand some of the hype. It’s certainly his best film & I did enjoy the strange mix of genres, especially the dark humor. I was just hoping I might love Parasite. It’s been a while since I’ve watched a new movie that I know will be an all-time favorite of mine. Parasite is a very good film but I doubt I’ll ever watch it again. I respect it. It’s well-written, it looks fantastic (it’s too bad I’m doing a short review so don’t have many images from the film as there are some great shots), and the acting is very good. But there are loads of foreign films I’ve thought were much better that didn’t get this same level of acclaim. Still, I’m happy to see a foreign film getting so much attention & hope that maybe it will open more people up to the idea of checking out some non-English language movies.

My Rating: 8/10

Train To Busan (2016) Review

Train To Busan (부산행, 釜山行, Busanhaeng)

Directed by Yeon Sang-ho

Starring: Gong Yoo, Ma Dong-seok,Jung Yu-mi, Kim Su-an, Kim Eui-sung, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee

Plot Synopsis: (via Wikipedia)
Train to Busan is a 2016 South Korean zombie apocalyptic action thriller film. The film takes place on a train to Busan, as a zombie apocalypse suddenly breaks in the country and compromises the safety of the passengers.

My Opinion:

Happy Halloween! This is my final movie review for October Horror Month & I’ll post a recap later ranking all 32 horror movies I’ve watched in the past year. I’m ending with Train To Busan as it was my favorite horror that I saw this year. Well, that I saw at home – there’s one I saw in the cinema that I’ve ranked as number one.

So why was this movie so good? More than anything, it was the characters. How many times does it need to be said that we need characters we actually give a shit about if we’re meant to care if they survive or not? Why do so few horror movies bother to spend any time developing their characters? I’m not saying Train To Busan was perfect but we got to know the main characters really well and there was just enough time spent on several of the lesser characters too, making for a much more enjoyable (and intense) experience for the audience.

Yes, this is another “apocalyptic zombie film” and we’ve had loads of these in the last several years. However, this is a genre I’ve adored ever since falling in love with Romero’s original Dawn Of The Dead a good twenty years ago & I have yet to tire of these films. As long as they’re done right, that is. There are too many shit ones lately. Train To Busan is done right and I highly recommend it, even if you’re getting sick of zombie movies.

I know this is my last review of the month but I’m going to keep it short due to lack of time but, also, there’s not much more that I can say about this movie. The story, set mostly on a train (believe it or not!), is just original enough to feel like a somewhat fresh take on the zombie thing. The action moves along at a nice pace and the gore is at the right level (nothing overboard or extreme). And, most importantly, we get to know the characters and want to see them survive this sudden plague. Mainly: a father & his young daughter and a man & his pregnant wife. I loved seeing these strangers come together while trying to survive this violent outbreak. I’m so glad I finally got the opportunity to see this one and I hope that more people will check it out. It’s a good human story that I think even those who don’t necessarily love horror films might like.

My Rating: 8.5/10

Okja (2017) Review

Okja (2017)

Directed by Bong Joon-ho

Starring: Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Ahn Seo-hyun, Byun Hee-bong, Steven Yeun, Lily Collins, Yoon Je-moon, Shirley Henderson, Daniel Henshall, Devon Bostick, Choi Woo-shik, Giancarlo Esposito, Jake Gyllenhaal

Plot Synopsis: (via IMDB)
Meet Mija, a young girl who risks everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend – a massive animal named Okja.

My Opinion:

Well, this was an odd one. But I really liked the sound of it and got suckered into watching it on Netflix thanks to all the hype. What a massive disappointment. Okja isn’t awful but it also isn’t anything all that special. If it hadn’t been for the godawful & annoying characters played by Tilda Swinton (who I normally like) and by Jake Gyllenhaal (who I can take or leave), I may have enjoyed this film more. The “big name” stars were the biggest distraction and what took away from an otherwise intriguing story & setup. And I’ve been desperate to see Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer for ages now since it never got a proper UK release for some odd reason. Now I’m wondering if I’m not missing much. If it’s anything like Okja, I’m no longer in a rush to see it. And I still crave a good Nando’s so Okja clearly failed me in its efforts.

The good: I liked the parts of the film set in South Korea with Okja the “super pig” & the young girl, Mija. Mija helped her grandfather raise Okja from a baby super pig to a big, huge, yummy, adult super pig. Okja, as a character, was done pretty well. Hubby moaned about some dodgy CGI or whatever but I don’t tend to notice that unless it’s really bad or just too obvious & distracting. However, I didn’t connect with Okja or any of the human characters as much as I was hoping & as much as I think was intended. The girl, the grandfather & Okja herself are easily the most likable characters (well, the only likable ones) but, as I said, the other characters are so godawful that I think it took away from what at first seemed like it might be a promising film. I liked the relationship between Okja & the girl and, at first, was almost hoping I might get a My Neighbor Totoro vibe from the movie because of the whole “young girl & strange creature form a friendship” type thing. Unfortunately….

The bad: The film then moves to America and goes totally (pig)tits-up while Swinton’s & Gyllenhaal’s characters grow more & more annoying. They completely ruined the movie. I’m not necessarily blaming them as I assume they performed these roles as written & directed. I just don’t understand why these characters were written/directed/performed this way. Was the film going for a dark humor thing that just didn’t work? I think it’s what made the film’s message fail to have any sort of impact on me.

The message: Yes, this movie has an extremely obvious & blatant message (which I’m sure you’ll have figured out by now if you’ve not yet seen it). My concern beforehand was that it would be heavy-handed and preachy, which is a huge pet peeve of mine. I don’t watch movies to be told how I should think/behave/feel and to have a filmmaker’s values shoved down my throat. So, going into Okja knowing this may happen, I thought the message was handled just fine. Heavy-handed? Maybe. But it was done in a way I didn’t find offensive and I didn’t feel like I was being forced to feel a certain way. It’s a pretty unique story and it felt like the movie’s focus was on telling a good story more than on telling humanity how to behave. I have no issue with a movie having a message: I have an issue with how that message comes across. I tried to explain this when reviewing the movie Zootopia (which I didn’t like). I want a movie to entertain me. I want a good story. If the effort is first put into making the story good, any message the movie may have will then come across much more naturally and will be more likely to make people think. I don’t want to watch a “message” that’s then had a weak story written around it.

Summary: I’m going to wrap this up since I think I’m making a pig’s ear of explaining my feelings on this film… I did appreciate Okja’s originality. I think the message is handled in the correct way despite its blatancy. The story is told well, the character of Okja is unique & certainly memorable, the relationship between Okja & the girl is enjoyable, and the film gets off to a pretty strong start while it’s just Okja, Mija & the grandfather in the South Korean countryside. Oh – I’ve not even mentioned Paul Dano & his group of activists! They were okay (it may be the first time I didn’t slightly hate and wasn’t thoroughly creeped out by Dano). BUT! The film’s positives are pretty much entirely undone by the outrageous silliness of Swinton’s & especially Gyllenhaal’s obnoxious characters. I pretty much hated the entire second half of the film, which was disappointing after liking the start. Luckily, I can at least say that I liked the very end just fine. This helped save the movie a tiny bit. Overall, Okja feels like two films and like it’s not sure what it wants to be or how to get where it’s going. It’s a shame as I thought it had some good potential. I’m thinking I prefer South Korean horror. Train To Busan, The Wailing, The Host, A Tale Of Two Sisters… I recommend all of these before Okja.

My Rating: 6/10

**I posted a couple of polls yesterday where you can vote for which movie(s) I should review next. You can go & vote HERE. The one currently winning is Star Trek Beyond. What? Why?! It sucked. Here’s my review: Star Trek Beyond sucked. I fell asleep for about an hour somewhere in the middle. Briefly woke up & said “Is that Idris Elba?” then zonked out again. Woke up for the final ten minutes & decided I couldn’t be arsed to ever watch the hour or so that I missed. The end. Rating: 4.5/10. 😉