Making historical past as the primary foreign-language film to take house the Greatest Image award on the Oscars, Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 film Parasite has had an enormous cultural affect already and inspired extra folks to interact with each world cinema in addition to extra left-field dramas and thrillers usually.
These movie followers who beloved the story and its execution, and wish to see one thing simply as unpredictable and expertly made, ought to make certain to take a look at a number of the different brilliantly unpredictable films like Parasite which can be on the market.
Up to date on February twentieth, 2022 by Mark Birrell: Motion pictures like Parasite do not precisely come round each week, and even yearly. Nevertheless, there are numerous examples of not solely nice Korean movies however world cinema additionally that replicate the standard and themes proven in Parasite. Whether or not they’re from Hollywood or the opposite facet of the globe, what the perfect films like Parasite all have in widespread is their top-tier course and flawlessly gripping tales.
Mom (2009)
● Accessible on Crackle, Vudu, Prime Video, and Tubi
Whereas all of Bong Joon-ho’s filmography needs to be of curiosity to somebody searching for films like Parasite, his 2009 movie, Mom, is of specific observe. This isn’t solely due to its unpredictable plot about an aged lady attempting to exonerate her son for the homicide of a younger woman but in addition due to its grounded have a look at working-class struggles in up to date South Korea.
Like Parasite, the movie expertly balances darkish comedy, ethereal drama, and jolts of stunning violence. The work of the movies’ shared cinematographer, Hong Kyung-pyo, additionally fantastically emphasizes the director’s most distinct traits all through.
Good Time (2017)
● Accessible on Netflix
This gritty and emotional crime thriller from Josh and Benny Safdie follows Robert Pattinson’s would-be financial institution robber as he loses his developmentally disabled brother to the jail system after a botched job. He then begins a frantic mission to lift the cash for his bail as shortly as humanly potential and thru any means essential.
Pattinson’s unwavering central efficiency, along with the equally boundless power from the presentation and course of the film, signifies that the viewers isn’t fairly certain the place Good Time goes to go subsequent. It isn’t a sublime crime film like Parasite however the depths that the lead character is prepared to stoop to so as to wriggle out of yet one more inescapable scenario make it equally ingenious.
Infernal Affairs (2002)
Starring Hong Kong film giants Andy Lau and Tony Leung as two undercover informers on reverse sides of the police’s struggle on a triad boss, Infernal Affairs shocked audiences the world over with its twisting sport of cat and mouse as every spy hunts for the opposite.
It is one in every of plenty of Asian fashionable classics remade in Hollywood within the 2000s however was fortunately among the many extra trustworthy and well-crafted, with the American model, The Departed, changing into the film that lastly earned grasp filmmaker Martin Scorsese his Oscar for Greatest Director. Bong Joon-Ho particularly singled Scorsese out as a serious affect when he gained his personal Oscar for Greatest Director, so his endorsement ought to imply rather a lot to a Parasite fan.
Anonymous Gangster: Guidelines of the Time (2012)
● Accessible on Pluto TV and Tubi
A certifiable fashionable basic within the vein of Scorsese’s personal gangster film creations, Anonymous Gangster: Guidelines of the Time follows Choi Min-Sik’s low-level corrupt customs agent on a journey up by the prison empires of Busan, South Korea within the Eighties and ’90s.
Much like a fashionable crime epic like Breaking Dangerous, the story could seem minimize and dried from the go nevertheless it all the time finds methods to maintain the viewers on tenterhooks as to how a scene goes to actually find yourself. Like Parasite, the film can also be an entertainingly insightful look into social ladder-climbing by crime in a altering nation, with the development of the story and the mannerisms of the characters being massively enriched by the idiosyncrasies of Korean tradition.
Shoplifters (2018)
• Accessible on Hulu
A Tokyo household residing in poverty shoplifts to outlive with the youngsters being the essential a part of the method. Although Hirozaku Kore-eda’s Palme d’Or profitable movie is rather more of an emotional drama than a criminal offense thriller like Parasite, these scenes of the particular shoplifting routine are as nail-bitingly tense as any con that the Kim household pull off.
Shoplifters is a heartwrenching exploration of the idea of household that has developed within the face of the indifference of the fashionable world and hides simply as satisfyingly stunning a third-act secret as Parasite does.
The Housemaid (1960)
● Accessible on The Criterion Channel
Bong Joon-ho has said quite a few instances that Kim Ki-young’s horror melodrama The Housemaid has been an enormous affect on his general voice as a filmmaker, in addition to being a direct inspiration for Parasite.
The story might ostensibly look like a traditional cautionary story concerning the weak-willed husband of a burgeoning middle-class family being manipulated by a monstrous femme fatale. Nevertheless, by sudden twists within the plot, the movie exposes lots of the deepest social anxieties being felt by a reworking Korea on the time. Im Sang-soo’s 2010 remake of the film also needs to be of specific curiosity to Parasite followers, because it takes a a lot much less sympathetic method to the middle-class household within the social hierarchy, as Bong Joon-ho would do in Parasite.
A Arduous Day (2014)
● Accessible on Vudu
Thrillers do not come rather more suspenseful than Kim Seong-Hun’s A Arduous Day. The film’s plot follows a corrupt cop coping with his mom’s funeral and a sudden inside affairs raid on his workplace when he unintentionally hits and kills a person together with his automotive, with all of this solely being the very starting of his extremely darkish, humorous, and grueling ordeal.
Although actually extra of an motion film than a drama like Parasite, the story has its personal distinctive tone and greater than sufficient surprises to stun essentially the most discerning of movie followers.
Oldboy (2003)
Tailored from the manga of the identical identify, Park Chan-Wook’s iconic thriller thriller is an odd, bleak, stunning, and completely enthralling film expertise that follows a person who’s imprisoned for 15 years with out rationalization solely to be all of a sudden launched and challenged to seek out out why by his elusive captor.
Together with the opposite two films within the director’s so-called Vengeance Trilogy, Oldboy helped popularize the Twenty first-century Korean cinema increase within the West, ultimately being remade to little fanfare a decade later. The unique is important viewing for followers who like Parasite‘s darkest and most violent bursts of power, although it could push the bounds of their style for these issues.
Sort Hearts and Coronets (1949)
● Accessible on Kanopy
Launched simply 2 weeks shy of precisely 70 years aside, on completely different sides of the globe, Sort Hearts and Coronets was–and nonetheless is–simply as darkly humorous and as insightful a narrative about social ladder-climbing by any means essential as Parasite is now.
Following a deceptively genteel assassin, as he exacts an extremely unbelievable plan to reclaim the upper-class title that he was denied because of the lowly standing of his father, this Ealing comedy is each steeped in historical past and antiquated tradition but nonetheless feels a long time forward of its time even at present.
The Handmaiden (2016)
● Accessible on Prime Video
Park Chan-wook’s interval drama, The Handmaiden transposes the category construction of Victorian Britain for Korea beneath Japanese rule on this adaptation of Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith and the story is not any much less of a stunning and beguiling trip than any of the films within the Vengeance Trilogy.
Centering on an elaborate con involving numerous layers of seduction and then-taboo wishes, the ever-changing plot all suits collectively ultimately as a part of the movie’s satisfying puzzle. Apart from the plot involving lower-status characters infiltrating and manipulating a high-class family, Parasite followers will probably be sucked in by Chung Chung-hoon’s attractive cinematography.
The Chaser (2008)
● Accessible on AMC+
A former detective turned pimp tracks a person who he believes is kidnapping and trafficking his intercourse employees when, in actuality, he is looking a diabolical serial killer on this thriller from director Na Hong-jin. The amorality of the principle character makes The Chaser a darkly unpredictable race towards time and its despicable villain retains the temper set to nerve-shredding.
It is a way more constantly violent and bloody thriller than most different fashionable Korean films like Parasite however its equally grim humorousness will probably be acquainted to followers of Bong Joon-ho’s movies, and Na Hong-jin is counted alongside him as one of the revered Korean administrators working at present.
The Idiot (2014)
• Accessible to hire on AppleTV
Yuri Bykov’s drama follows a younger plumber who’s known as out to examine a broken pipe in a rundown housing block. When he arrives, nonetheless, he discovers that the dilapidated constructing might collapse at any second onto its a whole bunch of occupants.
Consistent with the Russian director’s working theme of no good deed going unpunished in fashionable life, the principle character’s discovery solely serves to disclose way more severe structural injury throughout the morality of his native authorities and the constructing turns into the least of anyone’s issues. Like Parasite, The Idiot is a gripping story concerning the cascading calamities brought on by class inequality in fashionable life.
The Final Seduction (1994)
● Accessible on Tubi and Vudu
One of many extra unique examples of the neo-noir style, The Final Seduction ditches any semblance of morality and focuses fully on having enjoyable making it a must-see for followers of the pitch-black humor seen in crime films like Parasite.
Linda Fiorentino creates an ice-cold femme fatale for the ages together with her lead character as she dodges the assaults of her husband–who she stole $700,000 of drug cash from–and manipulates a smalltown wannabe into serving to her understand her devilishly excellent grasp plan.
Burning (2018)
● Accessible on Pluto TV, Tubi, Viki, Prime Video, and Vudu
An enormous precursor to the worldwide recognition of Parasite, the thriller drama Burning gained widespread popularity of its masterful execution of an ambiguous narrative that integrated advanced themes about class construction.
Tailored from a brief story by Haruki Murakami, the plot revolves round one man’s obsession with a lacking woman and the mysteriously rich socialite that she launched him to shortly earlier than her disappearance. The category struggles on the coronary heart of the movie are a bit extra beneath the floor than those offered in Parasite however they’re no much less affecting, and the cinematography of the movies’ shared director of pictures, Hong Kyung-pyo, is as equally arresting.
Home of Video games (1987)
● Accessible on Prime Video
One other underrated neo-noir masterpiece, David Mamet’s con artist film feels like one of many author/director’s performs with its intensely particular dialogue however has all of the meticulous beauty of basic Hollywood filmmaking.
A concurrently straight-talking and misleading thrill, the story follows a profitable psychiatrist who turns into fascinated by a gaggle of confidence males and follows her impulses into their seedy world. Those that had been captivated by Parasite‘s dissection of the strategies of the lengthy con needs to be sucked proper into this story.
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