"Parasite" is the mashup of "Shoplifters" and "Burning" we never knew we wanted

by Lynn Lee

For a 132-minute Korean film that isn’t yet in wide release, Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite is already one of the most talked-about movies of the season, and for good reason.  Alas, most of the reasons can’t really be discussed without major spoilers – but that’s all the more incentive to see it as soon as it hits a theater near you.

When I saw it, I loved it, which I wasn’t necessarily expecting considering I hadn’t been a fan of either The Host or Snowpiercer, arguably the director's most popular films.  Despite its run time, Parasite is tighter than those films, and its tonal shifts and genre-melding smoother.  It's also more focused, its treatment of one of Bong’s favorite themes – class disparities – razor-sharp yet also oddly compassionate, ultimately condemning the system rather than any individual players.

Parasite, which took the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year, also felt to me like the deranged evil twin of last year’s Palme d’Or winner, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters...

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Posterized: Bong Joon-ho

by Nathaniel R

With Parasite rapidly collecting box office loot ($95 million worldwide to date) and looking very strong for awards season and top ten listsd, let's talk about the master behind the camera Boon Jong-ho. The Palme d'or winner turned 50 last month and had yet more cause to celebrate his half century mark with Parasite opening to sensational box office and expanding rapidly (lots more cities this weekend, so go see it!)

Let's look at his short but stellar filmography in poster form after the jump...

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Tweetweek: Directors vs Marvel, Regina King, Parasite, and More...

 All anybody on twitter has been talking about of late is Martin Scorsese vs Marvel (which was very funny until it was sad but some good tweets came of it) but before we get to the auteurs vs the "oppressed" corporate product (lol) some Parasite enthusiasm and other random topics...

The best sexts I’ve ever gotten are friends sending me #Parasite raves after they leave the theater

— Zack Sharf (@ZSharf) October 19, 2019

FYC: "Jessica, Only Child" for Best Original Song https://t.co/6oavcG04L5

— The Wolf Matt 🎃 (@filmguy619) October 23, 2019

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"Parasite" explodes --what did you see over the weekend?

What did you see over the weekend? I went to Pain & Glory for a second time and as with all Pedro Almodóvar movies, the second viewing is richer than the first. But the big story of the weekend was Bong Joon-ho's Parasite. EVERY SCREENING in NYC was sold out by Friday morning. It must have also been crowded in Los Angeles because it achieved the highest per screen average of the entire year, and the best since La La Land (2016) and we all know what happened to La La Land. Not that Parasite is going to earn $151 million in US release alone and win 6 Oscars but, still, what a feat for its opening weekend. 

Weekend Box Office October 11-13 (ACTUALS) 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = recommended
WIDE RELEASE (800+ screens)	PLATFORM TITLES
1 JOKER $55.8 (CUM $193.5) REVIEW	1  🔺 PARASITE $384k *new* PODCAST, BEST OF TIFF ★

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Podcast: Parasite + Listener Qs

with Murtada Elfadl & Nathaniel R

 

Index (58 minutes)
00:01 Parasite's opening weekend success and its basic premise
06:30 through 22:59 [SPOILER SECTION]
23:00 Its Oscar prospects and the joys of sold out theaters
30:00 CHANGE OF TOPIC. Continuous shot movies. 
32:38 More Parasite chatter (non-spoilers) plus a Portrait of a Lady on Fire tangent
39:13 Listener Questions 

 You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Parasite plus