The four members of a poverty-stricken brood slyly infiltrate the household of a wealthy communications specialist and his family under the guise of a skilled tutor (the son), an art specialist (the daughter), a driver (the father) and a housekeeper (the mother). The plan appears to be working brilliantly until the former housekeeper returns and reveals an underground bunker off the basement in which she's been hiding her husband, on the run from loan sharks. For the better part of an hour, director and co-writer Bong Joon Ho keeps this crafty tale of lies and deceit bubbling along--the have-nots taking full advantage of the trusting, naïve (and "simple") haves--with the gleefulness of their operation underlined by an encroaching insidiousness. One might expect the ruse to be exposed in some grandiose way, but Bong is actually more ambitious than that (in most instances, an enviable trait); however, the tangled plot goes off-the-rails at a certain point in the picture's second-half, leading to a ridiculous "ironic" chain of events. It's certainly well-made and acted, with beautiful cinematography by Hong Kyung-pyo and a pensive score from Jung Jae-il. ** from ****
Review of Parasite
