Parasite Film 2019
Signs and traits of a Parasitic Person :
- They tend to become close to you eventually telling their problems and start longing for your answers or support to overcome their problem and this severity increases as days pass and as relation becomes thick.
- They never hesitate to call you at any time and use your important time to get their work done without the sign of shamelessness.
- They tend to spend more time with you and seek benefits to make their life better without paying concern to your resources or income.
- They master the art of convincing you and get their needs done, and this whole drama will never be understood until you are exploited thoroughly , it may sound— what is wrong in helping them at needy times, but at times when you ask for their help, they tend to show their back and helplessness at last !
- They are matured forms of Gold Diggers and they tend to dig either for money or emotional mindset of a person for their ego needs, in some cases they do both.
- Similarly Emotional parasites are people who prey on others feelings, emotions and thoughts. They might not be that bad people. They are simple people who live with their own difficulties of life and never likely to do anything for themselves.
Parasite (2019 film)
Directed by Bong Joon-ho
Produced by
Screenplay by
Story by Bong Joon-ho
Starring
Music by Jung Jae-il
Cinematography Hong Kyung-pyo
Edited by Yang Jin-mo
Production
companyBarunson E&A
Distributed by CJ Entertainment
Release date
Running time 132 minutes
Country South Korea
Language Korean
Budget₩13.5 billion
(~US$11 million)
Box office$161.3 million Parasite (Korean: 기생충, [gʱi.sʰɛ̝ŋ.t͡ɕʰuŋ]) is a 2019 South Korean dark comedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho, who also wrote the film's story and co-wrote the screenplay with Han Jin-won. The film stars Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, and Park So-dam, and follows the members of a poor household who scheme to become employed by a much wealthier family by infiltrating the household and posing as unrelated, highly qualified individuals.
The film premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2019, where it became the first Korean film to win the Palme d'Or and the first film to win with a unanimous vote since 2013's Blue Is the Warmest Colour. The film was then released in South Korea by CJ Entertainment on 30 May 2019. It received widespread acclaim from critics, with many hailing it as one of the best films of the year and one of the best of the 2010s. It has grossed $161 million worldwide so far, becoming Bong's highest-grossing release and the third highest-grossing film in South Korea.
Parasite received numerous accolades, with six nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best International Feature Film, making it the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award recognition. At the 77th Golden Globe Awards, the film won the award for Best Foreign Language Film. It received four nominations at the 73rd British Academy Film Awards. It also became the first non-English film to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
PlotThe Kim family, consisting of father Ki-taek, mother Chung-sook, son Ki-woo, and daughter Ki-jeong, lives in a small basement apartment, working low-paying temporary jobs and struggling to make ends meet. Ki-woo's friend Min-hyuk, who is preparing to study abroad, gifts the Kim family with a scholar's rock that is supposed to bring them wealth. Talking with Ki-woo, Min-hyuk suggests that he pose as a university student to take over his job as an English tutor for the wealthy Park family's teenage daughter, Da-hye. Ki-woo interviews with Da-hye's mother, and impresses her with his talent. As he is leaving for the evening, Mrs. Park mentions her son Da-song's fascination with art. Ki-woo tells a lie, saying that he knows an "art therapist" named Jessica, who, in reality, is Ki-jeong. Ki-jeong also impresses Mrs. Park and is hired as Da-song's teacher.
After Ki-woo and Ki-jeong are hired, the family sets a plan in motion to pose as sophisticated skilled workers, unrelated to each other, and integrate themselves into the lives of the Parks. Ki-taek is hired as a chauffeur after Mr. Park's driver is fired when Ki-jeong frames him for having drug-induced sex in the car, and Chung-sook is hired to replace the current housekeeper, Moon-gwang, after the Kims exploit her allergy to peaches, claiming that she has tuberculosis and discreetly dripping hot sauce on a napkin to look like Moon-gwang's blood. When the Parks leave on a camping trip, the Kims occupy the mansion in the Parks' absence, exploiting their luxuries.
One night, the doorbell rings, and Chung-sook is shocked to find Moon-gwang, who claims that she left something in the basement before she was fired. Chung-sook catches Moon-gwang attempting to open a secret bunker, and Moon-gwang reveals that her husband, Geun-sae, has lived there for years to hide from loan sharks. As she begs Chung-sook to keep their secret, the eavesdropping Kims accidentally slip and stumble into each other, falling down the bunker stairs and into sight. Moon-gwang records the occurrence, taking the family hostage, and threatening to expose their scam after realizing they are a family. The Parks suddenly call, informing Chung-sook that heavy rain has ruined the trip and that they are arriving home shortly. The Kims regain control of their hostages and force Geun-sae and Moon-gwang back into the bunker, but Moon-gwang attempts to escape and is kicked down the stairs by Chung-sook, suffering a fatal head injury.
When the Parks return, Mrs. Park tells Chung-sook that her son was traumatized years earlier by seeing a "ghost." As the other three Kims hide nearby, Mr. Park complains to his wife that while Ki-taek is a competent driver, he smells terrible. The three Kims narrowly escape the mansion undetected but arrive home find their apartment flooded by sewage water driven by the pouring rain. They spend the night in a local gym, along with hundreds of others driven out by flooding. Ki-taek and Ki-Woo discuss what to do next, with Ki-taek becoming indifferent yet frustrated with their life circumstances. The following day, Mrs. Park throws a birthday party for Da-song and invites the staff. During a private conversation in which Ki-Taek tries yet again to speak in a friendly way with Mr. Park, he is reminded that he is merely a paid servant.
Ki-woo secretly returns to the bunker with the scholar's rock but is ambushed by Geun-sae, who bludgeons him over the head multiple times with the rock. Geun-sae escapes the bunker, leaving Ki-woo to bleed out on the floor, and rushes outside where the party is being held, brutally stabbing Ki-jeong with a large kitchen knife. Geun-sae's sudden appearance triggers Da-song's traumatic memory, causing a seizure and chaos to ensue. As Ki-taek rushes to help his daughter, Mr. Park yells at him to drive Da-song to the hospital. Ki-taek throws him the car keys, which land under the struggling Chung-sook and Geun-sae. Chung-sook manages to kill Geun-sae with a meat skewer, but as Mr. Park retrieves the keys, he recoils from Geun-sae's smell. Ki-taek, pushed to the breaking point by Mr. Park's indifference towards Ki-jeong's injury and angered by his disgusted reaction to the smell, fatally stabs Mr. Park before leaving, while Mrs. Park faints from shock.
Weeks later, Ki-woo awakens from a coma and, along with Chung-sook, is sentenced to probation for fraud. He finds out that Ki-jeong died from her wound, and that the whereabouts of Ki-taek, who is wanted for Mr. Park's murder, is unknown. While watching the Parks' recently sold mansion from afar, Ki-woo notices a light flickering in Morse code, which turns out to be a message from Ki-taek. Ki-woo decodes it and learns that Ki-taek now lives in the mansion's basement as Geun-sae did previously, sneaking upstairs to steal food when the coast is clear. Ki-woo writes a letter to his father, promising to work hard and earn enough money to buy the mansion so his family can live together again.
Cast
The incident of Christine and Léa Papin gave some ideas to Bong. He conceptualized the ending while at a pedestrian crosswalk in Vancouver.
Darcy Paquet served as the translator for the English subtitles. He rendered Jjapaguri or Chapaguri (짜파구리), a dish cooked by a character in the film, as "ram-don", meaning ramen-udon. It is a mix of Chapagetti and Neoguri.
Filming Principal photography for Parasite began on 18 May 2018 and ended 77 days later on 19 September 2018. Filming took place around Seoul and in Jeonju.
The Parks' house, said in the film to be designed by a fictional architect named Namgoong Hyeonja, was an entirely newly-built set. Production designer Lee Ha-jun said the sun was an important factor with building the outdoor set. "The sun's direction was a crucial point of consideration while we were searching for outdoor lots," explained Lee. "We had to remember the sun's position during our desired time frame and determine the positions and sizes of the windows accordingly. In terms of practical lighting, the DP [director of photography Hong Kyung-pyo] had specific requests regarding the color. He wanted sophisticated indirect lighting and the warmth from tungsten light sources. Before building the set, the DP and I visited the lot several times to check the sun’s movement at each time, and we decided on the set's location together."
"Since Mr. Park's house is built by an architect in the story, it wasn't easy finding the right approach to designing the house," he added. "I'm not an architect, and I think there's a difference in how an architect envisions a space and how a production designer does. We prioritize blocking and camera angles while architects build spaces for people to actually live in and thus design around people. So I think the approach is very different."
According to editor Jinmo Yang, Bong Joon-Ho chose to shoot the film without traditional coverage. To give them more editing options with limited shots, they sometimes stitched together different takes of the same shot.
Themes[The film uses staircases to represent the positions of the Kim and Park families as well as those of Moon-gwong.
Release
Director and stars at an April 2019 press event.The film had its world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May. It was released in South Korea on 30 May 2019.
Neon acquired the Northern American rights to the film at the 2018 American Film Market. The film's rights were also pre-sold to German-speaking territories (Koch Films), French-speaking territories (The Jokers) and Japan (Bitters End).
It was released in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Films on 27 June 2019 (becoming both the highest-ever-grossing Korean film in the region[29] and the distributor's highest-ever-grossing non-English language film in Australia), Russia on 4 July 2019, and in the United States and Canada on 11 October 2019.
The film was originally scheduled to be screened as a closing film at FIRST International Film Festival Xining in China on 28 July 2019, but on 27 July, the film festival organizers announced that the screening was cancelled for "technical reasons."
It was licensed for the United Kingdom and Ireland by Curzon Artificial Eye at Cannes, and will have preview screenings with an interview with Bong Joon-ho shared live by satellite on 3 February 2020, followed by the film's general release on 7 February.
Reception[edit]Box office[edit]As of 28 January 2020, Parasite has grossed $31.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $129.9 million in other territories (including $72 million from South Korea), for a worldwide total of $161.3 million.
In the film's United States opening weekend, the film grossed $376,264 from three theaters. Its per-venue average of $125,421 was the best since La La Land's in 2016, and the best-ever for a foreign-language film. It expanded to 33 theaters in its second weekend, making $1.24 million, and then made $1.8 million from 129 theaters in its third. The film made $2.5 million in its fourth weekend and $2.6 million in its fifth.The film's theater count peaked in its sixth weekend at 620, when it made $1.9 million. It continued to hold well in the following weekends, making $1.3 million and $1 million. In its tenth week of release the film crossed the $20 million mark (rare for a foreign-language film), making $632,500 from 306 theaters.
The film grossed US$20.7 million in its opening weekend in South Korea.
Critical response[]On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 99% based on 368 reviews, with an average rating of 9.38/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "An urgent, brilliantly layered look at timely social themes, Parasite finds writer-director Bong Joon Ho in near-total command of his craft." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 96 out of 100 based on reviews from 48 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Writing for the New York Times, A.O. Scott described the film as "wildly entertaining, the kind of smart, generous, aesthetically-energized movie that obliterates the tired distinctions between art films and popcorn movies." Bilge Ebiri of NY Mag wrote that Parasite is "a work that is itself in a state of constant, agitated transformation—a nerve-racking masterpiece whose spell lingers long after its haunting final image." In his five-star review of the film, Dave Calhoun of Time Out praised the social commentary and stated that "This is a dazzling work, surprising and fully gripping from beginning to end, full of big bangs and small wonders." Variety's Jessica Kiang described the film as "a wild, wild ride," writing that "Bong is back and on brilliant form, but he is unmistakably, roaringly furious, and it registers because the target is so deserving, so enormous, so 2019: Parasite is a tick fat with the bitter blood of class rage." The A.V. Club's A. A. Dowd gave the film an A−, praising the fun and surprising twists. Joshua Rivera from GQ gave a glowing review and declared Parasite to be "Maybe 2019's best film", further adding, "It's so top-to-bottom satisfying that even being completely spoiled couldn't ruin it – but if you can come to it cold, you'll be floored."
Directed by Bong Joon-ho
Produced by
- Kwak Sin-ae
- Moon Yang-kwon
- Bong Joon-ho
- Jang Young-hwan
Screenplay by
- Bong Joon-ho
- Han Jin-won
Story by Bong Joon-ho
Starring
Music by Jung Jae-il
Cinematography Hong Kyung-pyo
Edited by Yang Jin-mo
Production
companyBarunson E&A
Distributed by CJ Entertainment
Release date
- 21 May 2019 (Cannes)
- 30 May 2019 (South Korea)
Running time 132 minutes
Country South Korea
Language Korean
Budget₩13.5 billion
(~US$11 million)
Box office$161.3 million Parasite (Korean: 기생충, [gʱi.sʰɛ̝ŋ.t͡ɕʰuŋ]) is a 2019 South Korean dark comedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho, who also wrote the film's story and co-wrote the screenplay with Han Jin-won. The film stars Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, and Park So-dam, and follows the members of a poor household who scheme to become employed by a much wealthier family by infiltrating the household and posing as unrelated, highly qualified individuals.
The film premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2019, where it became the first Korean film to win the Palme d'Or and the first film to win with a unanimous vote since 2013's Blue Is the Warmest Colour. The film was then released in South Korea by CJ Entertainment on 30 May 2019. It received widespread acclaim from critics, with many hailing it as one of the best films of the year and one of the best of the 2010s. It has grossed $161 million worldwide so far, becoming Bong's highest-grossing release and the third highest-grossing film in South Korea.
Parasite received numerous accolades, with six nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best International Feature Film, making it the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award recognition. At the 77th Golden Globe Awards, the film won the award for Best Foreign Language Film. It received four nominations at the 73rd British Academy Film Awards. It also became the first non-English film to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
PlotThe Kim family, consisting of father Ki-taek, mother Chung-sook, son Ki-woo, and daughter Ki-jeong, lives in a small basement apartment, working low-paying temporary jobs and struggling to make ends meet. Ki-woo's friend Min-hyuk, who is preparing to study abroad, gifts the Kim family with a scholar's rock that is supposed to bring them wealth. Talking with Ki-woo, Min-hyuk suggests that he pose as a university student to take over his job as an English tutor for the wealthy Park family's teenage daughter, Da-hye. Ki-woo interviews with Da-hye's mother, and impresses her with his talent. As he is leaving for the evening, Mrs. Park mentions her son Da-song's fascination with art. Ki-woo tells a lie, saying that he knows an "art therapist" named Jessica, who, in reality, is Ki-jeong. Ki-jeong also impresses Mrs. Park and is hired as Da-song's teacher.
After Ki-woo and Ki-jeong are hired, the family sets a plan in motion to pose as sophisticated skilled workers, unrelated to each other, and integrate themselves into the lives of the Parks. Ki-taek is hired as a chauffeur after Mr. Park's driver is fired when Ki-jeong frames him for having drug-induced sex in the car, and Chung-sook is hired to replace the current housekeeper, Moon-gwang, after the Kims exploit her allergy to peaches, claiming that she has tuberculosis and discreetly dripping hot sauce on a napkin to look like Moon-gwang's blood. When the Parks leave on a camping trip, the Kims occupy the mansion in the Parks' absence, exploiting their luxuries.
One night, the doorbell rings, and Chung-sook is shocked to find Moon-gwang, who claims that she left something in the basement before she was fired. Chung-sook catches Moon-gwang attempting to open a secret bunker, and Moon-gwang reveals that her husband, Geun-sae, has lived there for years to hide from loan sharks. As she begs Chung-sook to keep their secret, the eavesdropping Kims accidentally slip and stumble into each other, falling down the bunker stairs and into sight. Moon-gwang records the occurrence, taking the family hostage, and threatening to expose their scam after realizing they are a family. The Parks suddenly call, informing Chung-sook that heavy rain has ruined the trip and that they are arriving home shortly. The Kims regain control of their hostages and force Geun-sae and Moon-gwang back into the bunker, but Moon-gwang attempts to escape and is kicked down the stairs by Chung-sook, suffering a fatal head injury.
When the Parks return, Mrs. Park tells Chung-sook that her son was traumatized years earlier by seeing a "ghost." As the other three Kims hide nearby, Mr. Park complains to his wife that while Ki-taek is a competent driver, he smells terrible. The three Kims narrowly escape the mansion undetected but arrive home find their apartment flooded by sewage water driven by the pouring rain. They spend the night in a local gym, along with hundreds of others driven out by flooding. Ki-taek and Ki-Woo discuss what to do next, with Ki-taek becoming indifferent yet frustrated with their life circumstances. The following day, Mrs. Park throws a birthday party for Da-song and invites the staff. During a private conversation in which Ki-Taek tries yet again to speak in a friendly way with Mr. Park, he is reminded that he is merely a paid servant.
Ki-woo secretly returns to the bunker with the scholar's rock but is ambushed by Geun-sae, who bludgeons him over the head multiple times with the rock. Geun-sae escapes the bunker, leaving Ki-woo to bleed out on the floor, and rushes outside where the party is being held, brutally stabbing Ki-jeong with a large kitchen knife. Geun-sae's sudden appearance triggers Da-song's traumatic memory, causing a seizure and chaos to ensue. As Ki-taek rushes to help his daughter, Mr. Park yells at him to drive Da-song to the hospital. Ki-taek throws him the car keys, which land under the struggling Chung-sook and Geun-sae. Chung-sook manages to kill Geun-sae with a meat skewer, but as Mr. Park retrieves the keys, he recoils from Geun-sae's smell. Ki-taek, pushed to the breaking point by Mr. Park's indifference towards Ki-jeong's injury and angered by his disgusted reaction to the smell, fatally stabs Mr. Park before leaving, while Mrs. Park faints from shock.
Weeks later, Ki-woo awakens from a coma and, along with Chung-sook, is sentenced to probation for fraud. He finds out that Ki-jeong died from her wound, and that the whereabouts of Ki-taek, who is wanted for Mr. Park's murder, is unknown. While watching the Parks' recently sold mansion from afar, Ki-woo notices a light flickering in Morse code, which turns out to be a message from Ki-taek. Ki-woo decodes it and learns that Ki-taek now lives in the mansion's basement as Geun-sae did previously, sneaking upstairs to steal food when the coast is clear. Ki-woo writes a letter to his father, promising to work hard and earn enough money to buy the mansion so his family can live together again.
Cast
- Song Kang-ho as Kim Ki-taek, father of the Kim family
- Choi Woo-shik as Kim Ki-woo, son of the Kim family
- Park So-dam as Kim Ki-jeong, daughter of the Kim family
- Chang Hyae-jin as Chung-sook, mother of the Kim family
- Lee Sun-kyun as Park Dong-ik, father of the Park family
- Cho Yeo-jeong as Yeon-gyo, mother of the Park family
- Jeong Ji-so as Park Da-hye, daughter of the Park family
- Jung Hyeon-jun as Park Da-song, son of the Park family
- Lee Jung-eun as Gook Moon-gwang, the housekeeper
- Park Myung-hoon as Geun-sae, Moon-gwang's husband
- Park Geun-rok as Yoon, the chauffeur
- Park Seo-joon as Min-hyuk (cameo)
The incident of Christine and Léa Papin gave some ideas to Bong. He conceptualized the ending while at a pedestrian crosswalk in Vancouver.
Darcy Paquet served as the translator for the English subtitles. He rendered Jjapaguri or Chapaguri (짜파구리), a dish cooked by a character in the film, as "ram-don", meaning ramen-udon. It is a mix of Chapagetti and Neoguri.
Filming Principal photography for Parasite began on 18 May 2018 and ended 77 days later on 19 September 2018. Filming took place around Seoul and in Jeonju.
The Parks' house, said in the film to be designed by a fictional architect named Namgoong Hyeonja, was an entirely newly-built set. Production designer Lee Ha-jun said the sun was an important factor with building the outdoor set. "The sun's direction was a crucial point of consideration while we were searching for outdoor lots," explained Lee. "We had to remember the sun's position during our desired time frame and determine the positions and sizes of the windows accordingly. In terms of practical lighting, the DP [director of photography Hong Kyung-pyo] had specific requests regarding the color. He wanted sophisticated indirect lighting and the warmth from tungsten light sources. Before building the set, the DP and I visited the lot several times to check the sun’s movement at each time, and we decided on the set's location together."
"Since Mr. Park's house is built by an architect in the story, it wasn't easy finding the right approach to designing the house," he added. "I'm not an architect, and I think there's a difference in how an architect envisions a space and how a production designer does. We prioritize blocking and camera angles while architects build spaces for people to actually live in and thus design around people. So I think the approach is very different."
According to editor Jinmo Yang, Bong Joon-Ho chose to shoot the film without traditional coverage. To give them more editing options with limited shots, they sometimes stitched together different takes of the same shot.
Themes[The film uses staircases to represent the positions of the Kim and Park families as well as those of Moon-gwong.
Release
Director and stars at an April 2019 press event.The film had its world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May. It was released in South Korea on 30 May 2019.
Neon acquired the Northern American rights to the film at the 2018 American Film Market. The film's rights were also pre-sold to German-speaking territories (Koch Films), French-speaking territories (The Jokers) and Japan (Bitters End).
It was released in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Films on 27 June 2019 (becoming both the highest-ever-grossing Korean film in the region[29] and the distributor's highest-ever-grossing non-English language film in Australia), Russia on 4 July 2019, and in the United States and Canada on 11 October 2019.
The film was originally scheduled to be screened as a closing film at FIRST International Film Festival Xining in China on 28 July 2019, but on 27 July, the film festival organizers announced that the screening was cancelled for "technical reasons."
It was licensed for the United Kingdom and Ireland by Curzon Artificial Eye at Cannes, and will have preview screenings with an interview with Bong Joon-ho shared live by satellite on 3 February 2020, followed by the film's general release on 7 February.
Reception[edit]Box office[edit]As of 28 January 2020, Parasite has grossed $31.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $129.9 million in other territories (including $72 million from South Korea), for a worldwide total of $161.3 million.
In the film's United States opening weekend, the film grossed $376,264 from three theaters. Its per-venue average of $125,421 was the best since La La Land's in 2016, and the best-ever for a foreign-language film. It expanded to 33 theaters in its second weekend, making $1.24 million, and then made $1.8 million from 129 theaters in its third. The film made $2.5 million in its fourth weekend and $2.6 million in its fifth.The film's theater count peaked in its sixth weekend at 620, when it made $1.9 million. It continued to hold well in the following weekends, making $1.3 million and $1 million. In its tenth week of release the film crossed the $20 million mark (rare for a foreign-language film), making $632,500 from 306 theaters.
The film grossed US$20.7 million in its opening weekend in South Korea.
Critical response[]On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 99% based on 368 reviews, with an average rating of 9.38/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "An urgent, brilliantly layered look at timely social themes, Parasite finds writer-director Bong Joon Ho in near-total command of his craft." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 96 out of 100 based on reviews from 48 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Writing for the New York Times, A.O. Scott described the film as "wildly entertaining, the kind of smart, generous, aesthetically-energized movie that obliterates the tired distinctions between art films and popcorn movies." Bilge Ebiri of NY Mag wrote that Parasite is "a work that is itself in a state of constant, agitated transformation—a nerve-racking masterpiece whose spell lingers long after its haunting final image." In his five-star review of the film, Dave Calhoun of Time Out praised the social commentary and stated that "This is a dazzling work, surprising and fully gripping from beginning to end, full of big bangs and small wonders." Variety's Jessica Kiang described the film as "a wild, wild ride," writing that "Bong is back and on brilliant form, but he is unmistakably, roaringly furious, and it registers because the target is so deserving, so enormous, so 2019: Parasite is a tick fat with the bitter blood of class rage." The A.V. Club's A. A. Dowd gave the film an A−, praising the fun and surprising twists. Joshua Rivera from GQ gave a glowing review and declared Parasite to be "Maybe 2019's best film", further adding, "It's so top-to-bottom satisfying that even being completely spoiled couldn't ruin it – but if you can come to it cold, you'll be floored."