The self-portrait you think you watched was actually a gorilla

Rating: 10/10 (12 February 2020)

Just saw it, blown away like everyone else. As I walked out the theater door I started reading the film reviews that I'd been avoiding in order to dodge spoilers. I was met with yet another shock:
Instead of finding others peeling their jaws off the pavement at the miracle of Bong's ingenious and politically powerful satire of a satire film, all the reviews seem to stop at ground level (maybe half-basement run-down 1960s Seoul apartment level-- you'll understand that if you've seen the film,) and they never 'cross the line' to descend into the full-on hidden underground BUNKER level of what Bong is doing with this film.
I'm reading review after review, all authored by viewers smug that they were sharp enough to deduce the film's 'subtle commentary' on 'economic inequality' and ''the evils of consumerism.'
WHAT? Idiots! That commentary was NOT subtle. It was obvious to the point of being ridiculous. Bong has made fools of you, although I don't think that was his ultimate intention. He made use of the satire genre to throw fresh light on another subject, and it's a subject that has been overdone by everyone, especially westerners, in the arts, in international politics, in every possible aspect: It's that whole pesky North/South thing that all 77 million KOREANS, north and south, have to deal with.
In support of this, there are dozens of scenes worth citing. But the most glaringly obvious one is crazy little DaSong's backyard overnight during a brutal rainstorm. He's in a mini-teepee (he's obsessed w/ US 'indians,' who are used as code for 'americans' throughout the film) w/his floodlight & walkie-talkie. His parents are sitting on the couch in their grand living room watching his antics through the huge window that frames their backyard like a big-screen TV.
Dad: 'Do you think that tent will keep the storm out?'
Mom: We had it made by americans, so we should be fine....'
I'm sorry, that backyard IS the DMZ, with its floodlights and speakers. The kid is the 'crossing line' between N. and S. Korea. During the brutal murder scene @ the climax of the film, the guest tables for the 'party' are laid out like combat lines around the DMZ 'teepeet' that was 'made in america' so 'we'll be safe.'
And the whole scene @ the b-day party when Park, Sr. is instructing Driver Kim, (both wearing american native headdresses) on the 'role' he is supposed to play in the fight scene they're staging around the teepee....never has an actual Native American man been cast to play a Hollywood role where he looked more like an american stereotype than Kang Ho Song did in the scene where the camera paused on his sad/irate face in that ridiculous headdress. Kang Ho Song's character represents THE AVERAGE KOREAN, not north, not south, that has succeeded @ living through the last 600 yrs of Korean history. At the end of the film, he's a KOREAN, who just needs to 'walk up the stairs' (or, 'cross the DMZ line') into the world South Koreans are making for themselves now that they're economically capable of 'buying the (national) house.'
I swear I could write a 300 pg thesis on this film, but I'll just leave it at this: since Bong won the Oscars, N Korea's 'dear leader' Kim Jung weasel has used the film as propaganda supporting the idea that South Koreans have been forced into capitalism by 'americans' and would really prefer to be like supposedly less consumerist N. Koreans. There's therefore an EXCELLENT chance that at least some form of the film will be widely viewed in North Korea. And Bong is hoping that North Koreans will, unlike western reviewers, be smart enough to deduce the REAL content of his message.
Fave, & very telling quotes:
"Brilliant! That's a gorilla isn't it?'
--"It's supposed to be a self-portrait..."
(pause) "Oh, yeah, of course it is...."
"Opening my eyes for the first time in a month, I saw a detective who looked nothing like a detective. Then the doctor who looked nothing like a doctor spoke..."
Clue in, fools... this film is NOTHING that it appears to be to the average internet keyboard warrior reviewer who thinks he's smart enough to have decoded Bong's 'anti-capitalist' message. AND, R. Brody's attempt @ a review in the NY Times is particularly pathetic and misguided. Just sad.