It may come as a surprise to hear that I wasn't really looking forward to this, despite all the accolades it has received. Bong Joon-Ho's work was always entertaining and stylish, but the narratives were always so blunt. Snowpiercer dealt with wealth divides in a very literal way and Okja used the same approach to portray two-faced corporations. So when the synopsis of this story involved a lower class family who actually live in a basement I had some reservations. It was bound to be eclectic and twisted but the overt social themes would probably still be depicted with that same on-the-nose presentation. However I was pleasantly surprised to find that the results are refreshingly nuanced in a tale which goes beyond simple parable and ventures into more interesting territory.
The initial drama is fairly restrained as the Kim family, an unemployed household, struggles their way through a mundane reality. But there are hints of things to come as the pizza company hiring them to assemble cardboard boxes hands them a low wage for substandard effort - and they swarm around the delivery agent and coerce them into paying out anyway. There is always some plan or some scheme going on between them, and at first it seems that this group are the eponymous leeches. As things unfold this idea is certainly strengthened but thankfully the themes being presented are never so simplistic. There are suggestions that this is a film about scroungers and snobs coming to blows, but it's done with subtlety.
Elsewhere in the upper levels of the social order the other family unit in this tale is able to afford chauffeurs, fine food, and most interestingly of all a sleek modernist house once owned by the architect who designed it. The Parks don't have urinating drunks outside the ground level windows and they don't have to eat at shared buffets. Again perhaps this suggests that these are the parasites, living in a world of ease thanks to work involving frivolous computer peripherals. Others are hired to do the housework for them and even teach their children. But they're never presented as evil despite being naive and occasionally cruel. But they are clearly out of touch with reality in some ways which will be to the Kim family's advantage.
Thanks to a friend of the Kim family leaving to study abroad, the Park's require an English teacher for their daughter. Soon enough youngest son Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) becomes her private tutor 'Kevin' thanks to some clever acting and a few bogus references. Perhaps this is a commentary on employment itself and the idea of not what you know, but who. Or it may even be examining the way real experience is irrelevant in a world where you can fake it until you make it. But these details are part of a broader experience full of interesting questions and dilemmas. Which is where things start to become far stranger as Ki-Woo begins a long term con in which his whole family will find their way into the Park family payroll.
The actual genre here isn't easy to define. There are even heist movie conventions present at times as fake documents are created, plots are constructed, and existing staff are slowly ousted by the Kims. Father Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) loves it when a plan comes together. Almost unrecognisable from his role as the dead-beat dad in The Host he gets the stand out role, helping to form the core of the drama. Is he a crook like the rest of his clan? Well obviously yes. But the characters are relatable and drawn with depth. It's a film which never defines all the grey areas as the two households merge. It's a story that even looks at how these kind of groups use one another. But it's also an off-beat and often suspense laden thriller as so many plans start to come apart at the seams.
Like the sleek glass and wood design of the central home this all feels so purposefully constructed, from the controlled editing to the way the camera moves. It's never truly fantastical but it glides between each layer the film's world in ways that lend it a kind of heightened reality. Little touches like the fish-eye perspective through a security camera or a face hiding in shadows allow it to go beyond simply being well shot. There are tiny breathless moments of claustrophobia, and there are big sudden set piece sequences. A handful of words from Ki-taek manage say so much about his situation or that of the Park family, while moments of both frenzied action and slow motion deftly show without telling.
Perhaps that's the main takeaway here; some food for thought about the acting people have to do and the worlds they construct around themselves. The finale might go too far in some places as the momentum runs out and the last plan runs its course, but the way the epilogue comes together is hardly a major issue. Purely as a character film and as an eccentric drama there's plenty to enjoy even before thinking about who did what, if they went too far, and if it was justified. The hidden secrets of story can never be the same on reflection but it's certainly a film that demands repeat viewing so that all the details can be savoured. Does it deserve all those statues? Who am I to say. My views hardly align with the establishments that want to define prestige. But it's a fascinating movie that goes beyond what you might expect.
4/5
BONUS REVIEW
VFW (2019)
On the other hand I'd better make a few notes on the opposite side of the spectrum - a film that I wanted to see but for some reason it just didn't push my buttons. The ingredients are all here from the Precinct 13 inspired setting and score, and a cast of genre actors that are fun to watch. But there's just something slightly off about this all and it's hard to pinpoint why. It's a gory siege movie, sure. Violent scenes are abundant and there's a lot of practical effects. Familiar faces like Stephen Lang, David Patrick Kelly and William Sadler fill out the ensemble in what should be a dream throwback line-up. But maybe that's the problem; it's trying too hard to be something it's not when it needs to be something fresh.
The classic genre movie actors are all great but the new blood is very watery to say the least. The action is suitably gruesome, but the modern editing is often hectic or just sloppy. The small scale of the location and the real city streets are appropriately filthy, but the neon lights are a clichéd distraction. It should be hard to get a story like this wrong when it involves a thief trying to hide from a crime lord in a bar full of Vietnam veterans. But the addition of several apocalyptic elements like a futuristic drug and a horde of ravenous addicts is unnecessary, and leads nowhere. The simplicity of the central conceit is muddied by elements that feel like an obligatory retro inclusion whether they works or not.
At the end of the day I'm left wanting more from these older guys, perhaps a story that is darker and more interesting. Something that would let them get their dramatic juices going but is more grounded and relies on the human element instead of a series of splatter gags. I'd even take a mundane day in the life story without any action at all, just a band of gruff misfits that become increasingly intoxicated as things progress. This isn't necessarily a waste of time, but it needs more focus on what works and less of the noise. The time for wannabe Grindhouse type efforts is long over, maybe this cast deserves something with more substance.
2/5
