Suspenseful, but...

Rating: 7/10 (27 August 2019)

Parasite is a South Korean Movie directed by Joon Ho Bong, who also directed Snowpiercer, Okja, and most brilliantly Mother. Now this movie probably has more twists and turns than any of his other films, which is saying a lot.
You never know where the story is headed so there's a lot of suspense throughout the film. At first, you're given a glimpse into the lives of a family living in wretched poverty. Their wifi doesn't work, their basement dwelling gets flooded, and worst of all the local drunk pisses right outside their door. Perhaps this is what makes the family turn into a band of scam artists. That's actually one of the things that bothers me about the film. All of the family members are fully integrated in the criminal activities without any second thoughts about how it will affect the victims. I wanted to see more fleshed out characters who question each other and themselves. I wanted there to be a reason for their turning out the way they did. Poverty isn't enough.
Even so, the cataclysmic turn of events is more than enough to keep you engaged. The conniving planning that goes into their schemes keeps you entertained for the first hour. After that a curveball is thrown at them, as well as us, the audience.
And again more characters are shown to be treacherous without any explanation as to how they arrived to have that mindset. I'm sorry to point this out again, but it gets irksome. I expected more from the director of the masterpiece, Mother. That is a film that kept me engaged because the characters had motives, even though those motives were somewhat ambiguous. Despite all my criticisms, Parasite is a suspenseful thriller with plenty of content to keep you enthralled for its entirety.