Masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (25 January 2020)

Parasite is, if not the best, definitely one of the top 5 movies of 2019. The film is almost perfect in every aspect possible.
Both the cinematographer Kyung-pyo Hong and the director Bong Joon-ho make an outstanding job with a production design that is off the charts. These three aspects together result in one of the most eye-grabbing movies of the decade. Every shot is, at the same time, beautiful and meaningful, to the point that you could understand the whole movie even if it had no dialogues.
The screenplay is also one of the strengths of the film. Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won came up with a great idea that is as original as it gets and managed to make it funny, interesting, sarcastic, sad and verisimilar.
The movie shows the difference between classes like "Roma" (2018), but has the rhythm and its core similar to "Get Out!" (2017).
Every character is important and has its moment of protagonism. Due to the complexity and the nuances put in the screenplay, none of the characters is a villain or a hero. The only villains in this story are the unfairness of the capitalistic society and the lack of empathy of wealthy people towards the less resourceful ones.
The acting by all the main cast is sublime, but the highlights are Kang-ho Song and Yeo-jeong Jo.
Kang-ho plays Kim Ki-taek, father of the Kim family. He captures the essence of this experienced man that has gone through a lot in his life and has his pride taken from him in the course of the movie, making his character's arc of development the most interesting of the film.
Yeo-jeong plays Yeon-gyo, mother of the Park family. She is the complete opposite of Ki-taek; she's naive and has, and seemingly has always had, an easy life. She's clearly not aware of the things that happen outside her bubble, and that makes her vulnerable to smart people like the Kim family.
Last, but definitely not least, the music. It dictates the current state of the film and manipulates the spectator so you get absolutely fixated on the screen. It has hints of suspense, comedy and even horror.
Parasite (2019) is one of the finest movies made in the past decade and, most certainly, deserves a watch. It's eye-grabbing in every sense of the word and really fun to watch, but is also very dense and insightful, providing a vision of how things work that's not usually shown in the mainstream content.