SO GOOD!

Rating: 10/10 (26 October 2019)

Although Bong Joon-Ho's American movies have been subpar, his Korean movies still continue to be must see, especially on the big screen. His direction and attention to detail is something to marvel at. Every scene has a plethora of minuscule features hidden in plain sight of the background, which most certainly was not put there by accident. If you have seen Joon-Ho's other film, you would know that Bong punctiliously puts all of these portend in the back drop of his scripts.
Honestly, this is one the few movies in a long time that I can appreciate the emotions it put me through after watching it. I can't stop thinking about all the excitement, agony, disturbance, turmoil, and sorrow that was brought upon me. Bong did a tremendous job creating the atmosphere with the music and complexity of his characters. It certainly deserves the Palme d'Or (I haven't seen The Lighthouse yet) and all the praise that comes with it. I hope Parasite gets an Oscar nomination for best picture but I'm most certain it won't because it's an international film (bunch of cowards).
This film is a great social commentary of the economic gap between the rich vs. the poor (a common theme for Korean movies). At the beginning, the Kim family seems to be like hearted and content on being good people. Later on, after making money beyond their wildest dream, they slowly started to change. For example, before when the drunken guy was peeing in front of their house, they were content on keeping to themselves and let him be. After the money had been rolling in, they decided that they had enough "status" to throw water at the drunken guy and kicked him out. Not to mention that they were willing to kill the maid and her husband just so they can keep their image.
My favorite scene is when the sister is sitting on top of the flooding toilet smoking a cigarette. For some reason that scene just resonates with me. She had been putting on this act for so long and just found out that her home had been flooded. Her home, the place where she can drop her act and truly be herself is now gone. So she sits there on top of a toilet that's now bursting with back flow of fecal matter and septic waste. She takes a puff from a lit cigarette in between her fingers hoping that for just one minute she can drop her guard.
The dad tearing up as he carries what little belong he has left from his flooded home was my second favorite scene of the film. He had for the longest time, wanted the rich home and forgot where he came from and what a home is to him.
From what I just said above, I feel like an unspoken character in this movie is the rich house. Everybody strives to get to the house for no other reason than their selfish greed and appraisal for a higher status. The basement is where you can go and hide to get away from your mistakes. The son, after he gets out of the hospital, went back to the house to check on, I presume, the girl. They are all drawn to the place.
As a cinephile, I was pleased to go into this blind. The less you know, the better and the more suspense you will feel. There are so many layers that keeps getting uncovered at each act. The twist and turns in the third act is worth the price of admission alone.
The only drawback I have for the US release is, the film was very limited in my area. It wasn't too bad for me but from what I read, other people said that the closest theater playing Parasite for them was over 50 miles away. I know that not a lot of Americans care for foreign films, but you are really doing yourself a disservice by demarcating yourself and not seeing it.