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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 MARCH 2020 6 FILM EVERY once in a while, a film shows up at the multiplexes with such a whiff of perfection that one wonders how it even came together with such effort- less aplomb that one begins to wonder how it even managed to materialise in this flawed world with its impressive integrity in- tact. I would hazard to say that Bong Joon Ho's Parasite – win- ner, among many other acco- lades of this year's Best Picture Academy Award – is just one such production. Skewering the South Korean class divide in a way that still feels univer- sal to anyone toiling under the unofficial diktat of late capital- ism, Ho's follow-up to the Net- flix-released environmentalist romp Okja carries over a lot of that film's anger and playful- ness, but transmutes them into a more poignant and efficient beast altogether. The Kim family exists at the lowest ebb of society. Literally confined to an underground hovel subject to regular gusts of pollution and grime, they eke out a meagre existence folding pizza boxes and doing other menial jobs, which they score depending on how good the stolen WiFi they pick up from neighbours is that day. When an opportunity to ingra- tiate themselves into the lives of the affluent Park family pre- sents itself, they take to it with sneaky, diabolical relish. Gain- ing an entry point into their world when the son, Kim Ki- woo (Choi Woo-shik), scores a job as an English tutor to the Park family daughter, Park Da- hye (Jung Ji-so), the patriarch, Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) is soon brought in as the personal driver to his far richer coun- terpart, the video game mogul Park Dong-ik (Lee Sun-kyun). When both Kim mother Park Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin) and daughter Kim Ki-jung (Park So-dam) are brought in – as ev- er, through a deceptive game of good word of mouth, with Park family remaining completely in the dark about the family re- lationship between their new helpers – the stage appears to be set for a total professional takeover, with the Kim's fami- ly fortunes finally set to change after their collective wages amass handsomely. But in se- curing a place for Park Chung- sook, they have had to unseat the Park's long-standing and ever-loyal housekeeper Gook Moon-gwang (Lee Jung-eun). And when she comes knocking after being left out in the cold, she arrives with a bombshell of info that may turn out deadly for all concerned. Scripted and edited with a finesse that cannot be faked, Parasite ensures its success by building a perfect ticking bomb of suspense, helped along by the thematic clarity of its vi- sion. In lesser hands, one could easily have accused Ho of being far too aggressively didactic in his messaging, but the film is actually too naughty to allow that to happen. There's a trick- ster energy at play all through- out the serpentine movement's of the film's plot-work, and there's no whiff of sentimen- tality or contrived retribution at play in the Kim family's manipulative manoeuverings. Though certainly privileged to the point of unwitting cal- lousness -- as revealed in a dis- turbingly hilarious love scene Making history as the first international film to take home Best Picture at the Academy Awards this year, Bong Joon Ho's Parasite is both a slick, suspenseful thriller and a scathing dissection of social inequality Teodor Reljic Trading places, Korean style Son father mother daughter From left: Choi Woo-shik, Song Kang-ho, Jang Hye-jin and Park So-dam play the impoverished but resourceful Kim family in Bong Joon Ho's award winning Parasite