Yes thanks for bringing this up. Not horrible but far from the masterpiece it's being called. Must be a good year for South Korea, what with Parasite now. Add to that BTS getting on the Grammys and New Year's Eve Show. The message of the film I assume is better understood in SK. Just another freaky Asian film to me. One psycho family that is poor and one that is rich. Of course it all goes wrong.

People need to check out The Vengeance Trilogy, a series of three films, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Lady Vengeance (2005), directed by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook. Now thats top notch SK cinema.

@OddRob said:

People need to check out The Vengeance Trilogy, a series of three films, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Lady Vengeance (2005), directed by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook. Now thats top notch SK cinema.

Kim Jee-woon's I Saw the Devil (2010) doesn't have a very high rating here, but I find it to be outstanding. The dynamic between the cop and the villain is powerful. The ending choked me up, although I won't give anything away.

@Satch_the_man said:

@OddRob said:

People need to check out The Vengeance Trilogy, a series of three films, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Lady Vengeance (2005), directed by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook. Now thats top notch SK cinema.

Kim Jee-woon's I Saw the Devil (2010) doesn't have a very high rating here, but I find it to be outstanding. The dynamic between the cop and the villain is powerful. The ending choked me up, although I won't give anything away.

Traumatized my wife with that one. If you liked I Saw the Devil give The Chaser 2008 a try.

Thanks, man. I'll look into it.

Well, at least I don't need to start this thread. I came here to start one very similar. I have been watching Korean cinema for years and there is FAR better out there. Kim Jee-woon's A Bittersweet Life comes to mind or any of Park Chan-wook's revenge trilogy. Hell, even Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring is a better film. Parasite was an OK film. There were some good shots in it for sure so in the cinematography department, no complaints from me. The story started off strong and was quite entertaining however it did peter out at the end. Everything just happened so fast that it wasn't believable. I think the film winning the Oscar says more about the state of Hollywood more than anything and that it is and has been for a long time creatively bankrupt. You rarely see original screenplays as good as this (as mediocre as it was) in Hollywood anymore. It's based on books and comic books and books about comic books. I just hope that if this is someone's first foray into Korean cinema that they do not get turned off and think it is all crap. The Koreans have been making great films for a long time. I highly recommend A Bittersweet Life if you can stomach gangster flicks.

Parasite (2019) - 7 outta 10 stars

And some more recommendations for those looking to get into Korean cinema: The Wailing (2016) The Man from Nowhere (2010) The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil (2019) Thirst (2009) The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008) Train to Busan (2016) Memoir of a Murderer (2017)

Not a hater, it was a good laugh for the first 90mins. Last 30mins did nothing for me really (a blunt exit from an intricately set up scenario) and it still had that whiff of style over substance that, in my opinion, modern South Korean film is steeped in (slightly more elevated than K-Pop, but similarly aching for mainstream appeal over all else). So it gets what I think is my joint highest score for a film from that country.

7/10