Parasite

 

Did you ever see a film after which you felt you needed to take a bath or shower to disinfect yourself?   

That’s how I felt after seeing South Korean Writer/Producer/Director Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite.

It’s not that the film is not well-made, finely directed and excellently acted.   It is.

It’s the story with which I have issue.

All is well for the first half as the street-smart Kim family insinuates themselves into the upper class Park family under assumed identities as an English Teacher (Woo-sik Choi), Art Therapist (So-dam Park), Chauffeur (Kang Ho Song) and housekeeper (Hye-Jin Jang) by nefariously moving out the current staff.  Some of it is quite funny.

Then, however, when the Park’s go on a birthday trip for their young son’s (Hyun-jun Jung) birthday, they go on a drunken rampage that reveals they are not alone in the house.

The humor is drained out as things go from macabre to ghastly, making you think you’ve stepped into a Stephen King story.  For me, it stepped over-the-line and grossed me out.  (Which is hard to do.)

 

Perhaps you can stomach it.  But for me, Parasitewent from a 4 to a 2 out of 5.