Ever since it premiered at Cannes Film Festival last May and went home with the coveted Palme d’Or, the film world hasn’t shut up about Parasite. The new film from South Korean maverick Bong Joon-ho, who counts Okja, Snowpiercer and The Host (the monster movie, not the Twilight spin-off) in his illustrious filmography, has stunned pretty much every critic who’s seen it.
Set between Seoul’s grimy underworld and the utopian, palatial homes of the upper class, Parasite is the story of a strategic home invasion executed by a poor family keen to get back into the working world. The Kims live in a rough-around-the-edges, overcrowded basement apartment, folding pizza boxes for pennies trying to get by. But when Ki-woo, the son of the family, is offered the chance to become an English tutor for a stupidly rich family living in the suburbs, the Kim family implement a plan to dupe their wealthier counterparts, incriminate their current therapists, nannies and drivers, and turn their life around with the fine art of deception.
Right now, it’s sitting pretty with 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. In fact, the response has been so glowing that critics are predicting it will be just the 11th foreign language feature to break into the Best Picture category at the Oscars — and even has a strong chance of becoming the first to take home the main prize on the night.
The film doesn’t hit UK cinemas until February, but you can now read the Golden Globe-nominated script in full, courtesy of Deadline. For our American and Korean counterparts, Bong’s screen direction is so pin-sharp and delicious that consuming it in both formats is a double dose you shouldn’t deprive yourself of. You might just uncover little morsels of detail that will go over your head in the frenetic 132 minutes you’ll spend inside the tense, topsy-turvy world of Bong’s creation.