TV Review: Snowpiercer (Netflix) – Season One

Created by Josh Friedman and Graeme Manson and based on the Bong Joon-ho film of the same name which was released in 2013, which in turn is based on the 1982 French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, the ten-part Netflix series aired in May 2020. A reboot of the film’s continuity, the series follows the passengers of the Snowpiercer, a gigantic, perpetually moving train that circles the globe carrying the remnants of humanity seven years after the world becomes a frozen wasteland. Built by billionaire Wilford, the train is rigidly separated by class, with passengers caught up in a revolutionary struggle against the strictly imposed social hierarchy and unbalanced allocation of limited resources.

Film Review: Parasite

Directed by Bong Joon Ho, Parasite is a South Korean black comedy that follows two families. The Park Family are the picture of aspirational wealth, while the Kim Family are rich in street smarts but not much else. Be it chance or fate, these two houses are brought together when the Kims sense a golden opportunity. Masterminded by college-aged Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik), the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist, to the Parks. But when an interloper threatens the Kims’ newfound comfort, an underhanded battle for dominance breaks out.

Film Review: Snowpiercer

Based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette, Snowpiercer is an epic sci-fi that serves as Korean director Bong Joon Ho‘s English language debut. Set in a dystopian future world, the film follows the final survivors of Earth who have boarded the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine, after a failed global-warming experiment killed off all life on the planet. But for the few that remain, life only gets more difficult as a class system is enforced on the Snowpiercer’s passengers. When cryptic messages make their way to the back section of the train – into the hands of Curtis (Chris Evans), Edgar (Jamie Bell), Gilliam (John Hurt), Tanya (Octavia Spencer), and Andrew (Ewen Bremner) – the less fortunate of the survivors are incited to revolt, thrusting the train full-throttle towards disaster, as those at the front of the train – Wilford (Ed Harris) and Mason (Tilda Swinton) – must do their utmost to maintain control.