it is right time to give Bong a shot in his already robust arm

Rating: 8/10 (13 September 2019)

Two years in a roll, films from Far East have snatched the coveted Palme d'or, after Hirokazu Koreeda's SHOPLIFTERS (2018), here comes this year's champ, Bong Joon-ho's PARASITE, his 7th feature, also first Korean film to be crowned the top honor in Cannes, which denotes Bong's almost inconceivable triumph in conquering both cinema's box-office and artistic fronts, a feat even Steven Spielberg cannot achieve in his salad days, Bong can indeed have his cake and eat it as well!
Both SHOPLIFTERS and PARASITE hinge around the underclass, but a more apposite reference of the latter should be Lee Chang-dong's BURNING (2018), a Cannes also-ran, both Lee and Bong vigorously tackle the ubiquitous classism, the pathological canker in our modern society, while Lee deliberately and stylishly veils his central story with elusiveness and makes great play of the ambivalent mystique exuded from the unattainable pursuance of truth, here, Bong cunningly employs gripping genre tropes to underpin his trenchant perspicacity on the treacherous waters of rich and poor's co-existence.
In Seoul, the semi-basement dwelling Kim family - patriarch Ki-taek (Song), his wife Chung-sook (Jang), their two adolescent children, son Ki-woo (Choi) and daughter Ki-jung (Park So-dam), slyly insinuates their way into being employed by the high-flying Park family, respectively, as their driver, housekeeper, English tutor and art teacher. Sparks fly and laughter erupts intermittently in the beggar-belief process of how each member of Kim family tactfully excels in their designated jobs and consecutively sells on the unsuspecting....
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