★★★★☆  

By Nicholas Ntaganda, Columnist  

If film directing truly is, as Joel Coen once put it, all about “tone management”, then a case could be made that Bong Joon-Ho is the finest director working in the medium today. Bong’s ability to orchestrate sudden fluctuations in tone throughout his films – and sometimes in a single scene – remains unmatched by his contemporaries. With his latest film Parasite, which has received near unanimous praise, the South Korean auteur has only further cemented his unique reputation as the world’s wackiest genre-bender.

Parasite, which opens wide this Friday, tells the story of the Kims, a low-income family living in a rundown apartment, desperately trying to make ends meet by working odd low-paying jobs. When Ki-Woo (Choi Woo-shik), one of the Kims’ children, is given a tutoring job by a wealthy family, he begins to develop an elaborate scheme to raise his family out of poverty. During this first movement, Parasite has the propulsive energy of a heist film; the intricacy of the plotting and the mastery Bong displays in revealing the Kims’ convoluted ruse offers some thrills far greater than any genre picture you’re likely to see this year.

But Parasite has far more on its mind than nimble entertainment. The film also works as a trenchant commentary on class warfare and economic inequality, a surefire palate cleanser for anyone disappointed by just how vapid and reductive Joker was when handling similar themes. Unlike that film and its unbearable self-seriousness, Bong’s movie has a far more satirical bent. In fact, for most of its runtime, Parasite and its wonderful ensemble are consistently hysterical, but as the Kims’ morality becomes more and more ambiguous, the film takes a sudden, sinister turn. Though it is rather difficult to reconcile these two halves once the film reaches its sobering end, the craft on display is undeniable. Parasite may not be the towering masterpiece some claim it is, but it is certainly a perfect vehicle for Bong’s uncanny talent: the ability to incite laughter and horror in equal measure.

Nicholas Ntaganda is a second-year student who is working to complete a double major in Business Administration and Rhetoric and Media. A native Sudburian, his great passions include impromptu musical numbers, crying during the happy parts in movies and bad transatlantic accents. For a more comprehensive (and less refined) look at his movie-watching, click here.