I liked this, but online discourse surrounding the film had hyped this up as though it were the new Parasite, which it can’t live up to by any measurement. Park Chan-Wook does some really interesting things here that I’d never seen before, but I’m not sure if his level of invention is interesting or off putting.
When the film was over, I found myself wondering if this was it. Surely there would be some other twist, I assumed. But this was a straightforward romp about a man who is willing to ensure corporate status quo continues, so much so that he and his family are willing to give up their souls to make sure that they can live a soulless existence.
The point was beaten into my head with a flower pot.
I wish that anybody in the film figured out the corporate ghouls are the problem. The whole point is, obviously, that the protagonist becomes a corporate ghoul. But it’s not executed with a level of pathos that makes me truly feel he had no other choice.
I wanted a more elegant take on this situation. I desperately wanted a midpoint twist like Parasite or Gone Girl to upend my expectations, which were admittedly far too high.