Parasite

Basically, without objections. Very viewer-friendly, very entertaining, but also very bold and relevant. Exactly the type of film that makes me like films, while also proof that entertainment and art aren’t opposites. It’s so perfect that it couldn’t be ignored even by the jury at Cannes, who mostly overrate other types of films. #KVIFF2019 (30/06/2019)

Bong’s brilliance consists in the fact that he is able to approach a complexly caustic and, at the same time, excruciatingly empathetic image of society as an extremely rewarding film that draws the audience in with a suspensefully initiated and superbly escalating premise. And above that, it elicits amazement through its precise directing and the sophisticated staging and camerawork of the individual sequences. (09/04/2023)

The Koreans pulled this off in all aspects. The humor that accompanies the film is edgy and the viewer easily gets caught up in the internal strife. Should we hate them or love them? Should we wish them well or condemn them? Either way, I haven't seen a script this masterful in a long time. The acting was superb, the cast was every bit as good, and the soundtrack bumped the experience up a notch. 5 stars. (31/08/2019)

The cult Czech one-liner "Don't be angry that I'm bothering you again, but I forgot to ask if you have a cellar. Do you have a cellar? And could I see it?" elaborated in the form of a feature film consisting in (by far not only) a thriller mixed with a black-humor class satire in which you never know what you can believe as a spectator. This could have easily ended up as an embarrassing mishmash (and this has happened to Bong Joon-Ho in the past), but it resulted in a scathing masterpiece that give the South Korean wave a second wind. Second wind? This is not a simple revival, but a full-fledged comeback in several respects. (28/09/2019)

In Parasite, the South Koreans twist human emotions and create a premise just as absurd and obscure as when Rammstein were singing about that Austrian guy who kidnapped Natascha Kampusch and held her in his cellar for more than ten years. Moreover, they do it with dangerously dark humor, which I don’t even know whether it’s funny at all, because it makes me gape at the screen rather than laugh. In the context of South Korean cinematography, however, this is a unique gem that has no match. (05/02/2020)