No Other Choice

After going to a doctor’s appointment and then getting lunch at KazuNori, I was able to catch a showing of this at the Time Square AMC. It felt so familiar to be in that area with my MoviePass card. A coworker told me to watch this and described it as a black comedy that escalates quickly.

I thought a lot of it was so beautiful. The striking yellow colors of those trees when Mansu visits Beom-mo’s house for the first time. The comedic beats. Honestly the way the mom and dad had such different approaches to helping keep the family afloat was too real too, like. Got our ass.

I do struggle with movies like these with the Parasite Effect. I dunno, it feels like everything that it’s saying has been said already, and even when done really well, it fell kind of flat. I felt like there was such an opportunity to go absurd with it, especially with the way Mansu contorted the second guy, Sijo’s body. Like, keep escalating it until the whole situation spirals inside out. Or for Mansu to be sought after by another Paper Guy who had the same idea as him.

Once I realized that the director was the same as the one who made The Handmaiden, it made a bit more sense. This guy sucks at endings.