7PM
No Food or Drinks
Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.
Can anything topple “1917,” the new best-picture front-runner? I suspect that this formerly wide-open race is now a contest between the World War I film and Bong Joon Ho’s contemporary thriller, “Parasite,” which is vying to become the first foreign-language film to win the best-picture Oscar.
“Parasite” pulled off a separate victory by taking the top drama prize from the American Cinema Editors on Friday, another first for a foreign film. Its cast also won the top prize Sunday night at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where a nomination in the best-ensemble category eluded “1917.” – New York Times
Cinematiki Maui 
If the aim of tragedy is to arouse sensations of pity and fear and to have the audience leave with a “heightened understanding of the ways of gods and men”, as Aristotle suggested (thank you, Wikipedia) then Bong Joon-Ho’s
Parasite accomplishes that purpose.
Although many of us were virtually traumatized by the denouement…the bloody massacre that everything in the story had led up to… most of us were in awe of the storytelling, the largeness of the vision, the universality of the theme. Not to mention the intelligent camera work, the impeccable acting or the cultural enlightenment. This was, in my view, a dramatic work in the tradition of Greek tragedy. To be caught up in the totally believable lives of these ordinary/extraordinary people was a life affirming experience for me. They were real…though some of the details felt surreal. (Yet totally “real” to those of us who are familiar with nightmares.)
It was a privilege to experience this masterpiece among a group of highly attuned cinemaphiles. Though some were (justifiably) appalled….everything in the story led up to the inevitable massacre. A tragedy Aristotle would recognize.