Parasite at the movies

I know that the Parasite movies cleaned up at the Oscars, which automatically deems it a good movie. I was more circumspect. A great premise. Set in South Korea, a likeable-roguish family living in squalor get to trick their way into the home of a sleek super-rich family.

Light touch humour progressively darkening, blended with social commentary and cinematically shot.

The poor basement dwellers get free fumigation, when the man with the spray walks the street while they deliberately leave their windows open. They get free wifi too, from the adjoining businesses, so long as they sit on the loo to receive it. Then a lucky break to go tutoring at the rich house. A fake University certificate is all that is needed. 괜찮아요 - gwaenchanayo - no problem.

It makes a change from the family's routine of folding pizza-boxes for piece work rates. We see the whole family is able, through deception, to gain employment at the rich house, with its hissing sprinkler-fed lawn. Yes, the understated class struggle.

Ki-taek: Rich people are naive. No resentments. No creases on them.
Chung-sook: It all gets ironed out. Money is an iron. Those creases all get smoothed out.

The Micawber-like father of the subterranean poor house has an aroma, noticed by the rich family's child who innocently pairs it with the aroma of the replacement housekeeper. That's a portent to the unhinging of the plot. There are no rich monsters in the rich house, but a claustrophobic and twisted situation leads to a striking denouement.

The pace of the ending was at odds with the prowl of the first three-quarters of the movie. I can't say more, although I'm intrigued at the fashions of movie selection when this subtitled piece grabs so many of the main awards.