by Norman Barry

Parasite won the Best Picture at the Oscars and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It gained the almost universal acclaim of the critics. All this despite the fact that it is Korean with subtitles. It was showing when lockdown started. It can now be rented for less than a cinema ticket.

It’s about two families. It begins with the Kims who eke out an existence in their basement flat making up pizza boxes. Not very successfully. The first scene is them trying to get their money because the woman paying them says their work is not up to standard. Then they get a break. Their son Ki-woo if offered the job of English tutor to a rich girl. His sister, Ki-jung, makes up documents claiming he’s been to university.