Parasite (2019)

Elevator Pitch: The son of a hard up Korean family living in a gritty basement, blags his way into the job of being an English tutor to the daughter of a super rich family, and over time he manages to enrol his sister as an art teacher for the son, his father as the replacement chauffeur and his mother as the housekeeper. The rich family suspect nothing, and nor do they know that they have a secret bomb shelter deep under their property, occupied by the old housekeeper’s husband. The old housekeeper returns to rescue him and threatens the whole scam. What to do?

Content: There is one unconvincing sexual event , the rich parents stimulating each other through their pyjamas. There is also quite a bit of drinking. The family construct pizza boxes in their run down basement. The young man forges his qualifications and finds himself in the super luxury house, the rest of the family gradually following. The father drives the owner around in his Merc.  When the family are away they pig out on the booze and the provisions. Once the bomb shelter has been discovered they spend time down there. There is violence.

A View: This film won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and have a 99% approval on Rotten Tomatoes. The luxury house is actually impressive. It was a bit of a slow starter, although I was a bit hampered by the Spanish subtitles, but once it got going it was worth the wait. It made a lot of money in South Korea, and more inernationally. It would probably not be for everyone, but if you saw the very original “Snowpiercer” you would know what to expect, so worth the cost of a ticket.

Additional Info: The filming was done in a real luxury Korean house. Saw this before the international frenzy. Won Best Picture and Best International Picture at the 2020 Oscars.