Until we started watching. It's a parable, about class struggles, the highest grossing South Korean movie in history, and the only one to win best picture at the Academy Awards.
I still didn't like it. I hate movies that suddenly shift from comedy to horror.
The Kims, a family of grifters -- Mom, Dad, young adult son and daughter -- live at the bottom of the bottom of Korean society, literally -- in a basement apartment at the bug end of an alley where homeless guys come to piss. They have jobs as pizza-box folders while waiting for their next score.
It comes from the ultra-rich Park family, who live at the top of the top in an impossibly elegant house where every room is the size of a football field. We don't know where Dad Park Dong-ik (Lee Sun-kyun, left, old photo) acquired his wealth; there's a framed magazine article on the wall about him playing in Central Park, so a musician; but he's also shown evaluating electronic gadgets, so an entrepreneur.
1. Old friend Min-hyuk (Park Seo-joon) is going away for a year, and suggests that son Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) fake a university degree and take over his job tutoring the Parks' 16-year old daughter.
Kim Ki-woo gets the job. He and the daughter also start kissing, which I found distasteful. He's at least 23 (the actor is 30), and in a position of authority. Besides, the daughter doesn't seem to be all there.
He suggests that the Parks' 10-year old son, a troubled, hyperactive boy who paints disturbing surreal pictures (how does he sit still long enough?), could benefit from expensive art therapy from:
2. Daughter Kim Ki-jeung. He pretends that they don't know each other (and 20% of the Korean population is named Kim, so no one comments on the similar name).
Daughter gets the chauffeur (Park geun-rok, top photo) fired by leaving her panties in the car, and recommends a new chauffeur:
3. Father Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho, left, old photo).
Then they get the housekeeper, Gook Moon-gwang, fired by making everyone think that she has tuberculosis. And recommend as a new housekeeper:
4. Mother Choong-sook.
They've conned their way into their jobs, but they are perfectly competent, so not much of a problem, right?
Then things start to get bizarre.
The Parks are not aware that there is a secret door in the lower kitchen that leads through a maze of tunnels and stairways to a bunker, where the ex-housekeeper's husband Oh Geun-sae (Park Myung-hoon) has been hiding from loan sharks for four years. He's gone a bit daffy due to isolation. Well, a lot daffy.
Each group of grifters wants to expose the other's secrets. There is a lot of slapstick comedy violence. Then suddenly the tone shifts, and things get deadly. A lot of people get brutally murdered. I'm not sure who -- people who were lying in pools of blood turn up alive later, and people who were stabbed in the shoulder end up kaput. According to wikipedia, ex-housekeeper, her husband, the Kim daughter, and Mr. Park, but there could have been others.
I hate it when you're expecting a comedy and you end up with a tragedy,
Beefcake: A lot of hunky Korean actors, but no one takes off a shirt.
Other Sights: The house is a work of art.
Gay Characters: When Min-hyuk suggests the tutoring job, he tells the Kim son, "I know you won't try anything with her." I interpreted that to mean that Kim Ki-woo was gay, until the kissing begain.
Heterosexism: Rampant frisky hetero-horniness: "let's do it in the kitchen! Pretend that you're the chauffeur...put on daughter's panties...."
Disgusting Plot Twists: From Benny Hill hijinks to a stage littered with blood-soaked bodies.
My Grade: D-
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