The Master Of Suspense

With a string of dazzling, high-concept thrillers, bong joon ho has drawn comparisons to hitchcock. But his films also have a strong social message, and his latest, parasite, is no exception

- Al Horner

Bong Joon Ho has set movies in monster-infested sewers, on trains travelling through post-apocalyptic blizzards, and in abattoirs awash with the blood of giant pigs. Look a little closer, though, and the South Korean director’s films actually all take place in a single setting.

“In my films, you really see the people on the bottom rungs,” says the filmmaker. “Normal human beings in conditions in which they can no longer act human, in situations where they become treated like ghosts.” Bong’s heroes tend to live at the foot of a ladder that’s impossible to climb. The people far above, meanwhile, are incompetent idiots, living lives of luxury, oblivious to the desperate, daily struggle of those beneath them. It’s these strugglers’ stories that Bong has dedicated his career to telling.

Parasite, Bong’s latest razor-sharp, darkly comic social satire, pushes this concept to new extremes. The less you know about it going in, the better: all you need to know is that it’s thrillingly unpredictable, the film scuttling between genres like cockroaches between floorboards. It’s part slapstick comedy, part home-invasion horror, part family drama and part pulse-pounding heist film — think Ocean’s Eleven if Clooney and co, instead of attempting to steal millions amid the bright lights of Las Vegas, were simply trying to scam their way out of the gutter, into minimum-wage jobs. “It’s a story about capitalism,” its maker shrugs and smiles, running a hand through his soft, black mop of hair.