Richly deserved Best Picture Award, superb social comment

Rating: 10/10 (15 February 2020)

Director Bong Joon Ho directed, wrote the screenplay and produced PARASITES. He deserved all the four Oscars that his film and he collected. There is something Tarantino-like about his style, in the way that he presents intersecting individuals from different social strata with apparently comic but definitely violent ultimate consequences. However, he is more polished than Tarantino was at the same age, and stage in his career.
He presents reality without judging: the Kims are a family of jobless and largely useless individuals who do not even know how to fold pizza boxes properly, who have no money for Wi-Fi, and find it only in a toilet in the strangest place in a house that I've ever seen.
The father - superbly played by Kang-ho Song - claims to have a plan but ultimately admits that the sole plan that won't fail is no plan. He tries to adapat to situations and is quick to react to any opportunity.
The mother is admirably played by Hye-jin Jang, a courageous and resilient fighter in the face of life's adversities, and a fantastic imitator of North Korean leaders' speech delivery styles.
Sun Kyun-Lee plays the son, a likeable young man who forges a university degree and copies a more successful friend's example, which will ultimately weigh him down like the rock that the friend gives him.
His sister, the extremely beautiful So-dam Park, is the most level-headed and intelligent of the lot, a quick thinker who has a touch for children,
The son finds a job as a teacher of English in a rich home run by a father who is often away on business in Paris, and a completely useless but physically gorgeous Yeo-jeong Jo (lovely legs!)
By first pulling in his sister to placate and teach painting to the bolshy child in the rich family, and then finding jobs in the household for his father and mother, the son gets the family's foot in the door to a world of wealth such as they had never imagined, and which they rapidly start wishing they could occupy. Needless to say, that can only be achieved with violence, and violence does indeed beget violence, but there are surprises along the way.
Acting is of the highest standard by all, but I would like to single out Jeong-eun Lee as the governess who is allergic to peaches, who keeps her husband hidden in the rich house's basement. The sequences where she rings the bell during the torrential rain, and where she tries to open the passage to the basement are unique and memorable.
Cinematography is immaculate, with memorable sequences like the flood in the poorer sections of town -- in contrast with the safety in the higher grounds occupied by the rich; the scramble for the cell phone before a video can be sent from it; and the overhead shot of Kang-ho Song running into hiding after stabbing the rich homeowner.
Credible and gripping screenplay, fantastic action sequences. Completely deserved Best Picture Academy Award.