Fleapit revisited:Parasite.

Why do some people have plenty and others go without? Why do some people live in luxury while others in squalor? Does the accumulation of wealth and material trappings bring happiness and, conversely, does poverty and struggle bring wisdom and a sense of community that could never be found in the gated and guarded lifestyles of the elite?

Bong Joon-ha's Parasite (the 2019 Academy Award winner for Best Picture was recently shown, quite surprisingly I thought, on Channel 4) will not answer these questions for you? But it will, in its own unique way, ask them? It's part horror, part black comedy, and part satire but it is never wholly, or even quite, any one of these things solely.

It's too original a story for that. It's a morality tale of sorts too. One that, on the surface, appears to be offering up quite a twisted view of morality. But underneath it's actually a fairly conventional tale that's being told. One where sins (lying, greed, arrogance, and duplicity) are, ultimately, punished.

That's not a spoiler. You don't know who will get their comeuppance because nobody in Parasite is inherently evil. Yet nobody in Parasite is entirely without fault. In that respect, and possibly that respect only, it is much like life. The Kim family are poor and live in a semi basement at the end of an alley where drunkards regularly urinate. The house is full of old pizza boxes, there's no Wi-Fi (early scenes see the family trying to log on using neighbour's and local coffee shop's Wi-Fi services), and there are various creepy crawlies wandering around the unclean pit that passes off as their home.

The Park family's abode could barely be more different. They live in a beautiful, clean, spacious architect designed house with huge wall sized windows looking out to a large manicured garden. They have a cleaner, a chauffeur, and employ private tutors for their children. Which is how the Kim family come into the lives of the Park family.

When English tutor Min-hyuk (Park Seo-joon) moves abroad, he recommends Kim Wi-koo (Choi Woo-shik), or Mr Kevin - often in South Korea a Western name is useful for advancement, as his replacement for the Park family's daughter Park Da-hye (Jung Ji-so). It's not just English he finds himself giving her lessons in.

The Kim family sense a chance to improve their circumstances and soon a plot is hatched that sees the rest of the family, on false - even nefarious - pretenses, find employment with the Park family. First Mr Kevin's sister, Kim Ki-Jung aka Jessica (Park So-dam), arrives as an art therapist for the Kim family's hyperactive son Park Da-song (Jung Hyeon-jun), a hyperactive young boy with a penchant for playing at 'Red Indians' and whose scribblings are indulged by his family to such a degree that when he is described as a budding Basquiat they don't even wince.

Dad, Mr Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho), arrives next to replace the family chauffeur Yoon (Park Keun-rok) who has been let go regarding an indiscretion with a pair of knickers. He drives Mr Park Dong-ik (Lee Sun-kyun) around Seoul while slowly winning his confidence. The respect is clearly not always mutual. Though Mr Kim takes a compliment about his excellent 'cornering' skills well, he looks less impressed when he overhears Mr Park talking about his unpleasant odour.

The final piece of the puzzle is completed when Mr Kim's wife, Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin) is employed to replace the longstanding housekeeper Gook Moon-gwang (Lee Jung-eun). Her job is, perhaps, the most onerous of all as she has to deal with Mr Park's wife, Choi Yeon-gyo (Cho Yeo-jong).

Choi Yeon-gyo, or Madame, is an impractical and gullible, though well meaning, socialite more concerned with status and keeping up appearances than anything else. She bellows into her mobile phone, treats her children as an extension of her own brand, and insists that one of her dogs is fed only Japanese crab sticks.

In fact food, and food sachets particularly, crop up with remarkable regularity throughout Parasite. The first half of the film, where the Kim family insert themselves into the Park family's house and life, is a well constructed, and very cleverly told, story. But when Gook Moon-gwang returns to the house to pick up something she left behind before her dismissal the story takes a dark, and very unexpected, turn.

Parasite then becomes properly chilling. There are violent scenes and there are scenes that reminded me of Inside No.9's A Quiet Night In episode but, with a soundtrack provided by Jung Jae-il (who went on to score Squid Game), the tension never lets up and it is clear all along that we are heading for something of an epic denouement. When it comes, in the form of an almost balletic set piece, it does not disappoint and, as a film, Parasite does not disappoint either. If you've left it even later than me to see it, I'd recommend you remedy that situation soon.