parasite

• summary (genre, writer, academy awards)

  genre: black comedy thriller

  writer: bong joon-ho and han jin-won

  4 academy awards: best director, best picture, best original screenplay

  budget: $15.5 million

  box office: $262.7 million
• historical & social context: income inequality


  household debt in korea risen to over 100% of its GDP

  top 20% have 166x worth bottom 20%, government policies to stop curb-borrowing, turn to high risk lenders so left at mercy of debt collectors
• historical & social context: middle class failure

  prior to crisis: join company that pays for house, car, college tuition, pension

  1997: system failed, lots of retirement, had to turn severance pay into steady cash flow

  made quick-serve restaurants (low skill & family works) in 2018, were 125 restaurants per 10,000 people

  2015: restaurants filing for bankruptcy
• institutional context

  credits Del Toro & Martin Scorsese for inspiration

  many films are black comedy

  famous trait is tonal shifts, often show working class struggles

  
  

  gives actors freedom of interpretation, meticulous & deliberate in cinematography and editing

  editor often on set receiving footage as it's filmed
• genre & story structure

  more like 2 films in 1, first = comedy with kim's infiltrating parks, feature dramatic irony (art lessons) exaggerated scenarios (peach)

  second = shift to thriller when old housemaid shows up, tone, lighting, music, tempo change

  
  

  circularity: film starts and ends with ki-woo sitting under window in semi basement, shows how they're stuck in poverty despite hardest attempts
• symbolism scholar stone

  ki-woo gifted it, practice of collecting these which is expensive today

  he says "it's so metaphorical"

  appears 7 times, including: when semibasement floods, sleeping in gym, ki-woo going to basement
• symbolism smell

  smell as a motif, da-song says mr & mrs kim & jessica smell the same

  mr park says mr kims smell crosses the line, associating it with lower income

  mr kim holding nose whilst getting keys from dying man

  "through smell the films tensions and suspense mounts"
• symbolism light

  kims = dark semibasement, parks = bathed in sunlight, they both have horizontal window for visual similarity of differences

  geun-sae = full basement

  
  

  light tracks ki-woos journey, circularity sitting by window, sits in sun when parks are away, watches party can't reach them, dreams set in sun drenched garden
• themes

  social mobility: hope for better life, infiltrate parks they dream of better life, dream is crushed by end of film

  didn't end film with dream sequence "showing you the terrible explosive weight of reality"

  
  

  both families are parasite (infiltrating parks, relying on kim's for labour)

  
  

  poverty bringing out worst in people, mrs kim says mrs park is nice because she's rich, moon-gwang beg for mercy appealing as another "member of the needy", other way round then she rejects mrs kim's begging
• representations - gender

  gender tied to social class

  femininity: women are smart, resourceful & resilient. physically strong & protective. cant be sisterhood in inequality

  mrs park = traditional & stereotypical, cares about her and house appearance

  ki-jung as jessica exhibits more stereotypical qualities

  
  

  masculinity: mr kim emotionally fluent, good family relationship whilst mr park is emotionally unavailable, providing for family but not spending time with them
• general cinematography

  cinematographer: Hong Kyung-pyo

  framing: proscenium (audience observing from afar) through long static shots & layered blocking & lighting, characters walk into frame

  
  

  near-symmetry to feel like we're getting somewhere but never do (like kims poverty)

  diving frame with physical location, separate wealthy & poor

  
  

  lighting: rich/poor shown in lots/little sunlight, poor = green fluorescent sickly lights

  kim's running back in storm, lighting shifts from blue LEDs to red lamps
• general mise en scene

  semibasement: dark, cheap lights, cluttered multipurpose rooms, claustrophobic, no privacy, homely surrounded by dirt

  
  

  mansion: bright, tidy, spacious, comfortable, isolated, surrounded by greenery

  
  

  stairs vertically show the class divide

  
  

  food: parks = expensive fruits & meat, kim's = mouldy bread & cheap beer

  as they work their way up they start eating better food

  geun-sae only eating when he gets brought food
• general sound

  emphasises doors in parks house: iron gate, front door, threshold between having and not

  semibasement noise from outside

  parks house minimal outside noise

  
  

  original music by composer Jung Jaeil, minimalist piano with light percussion

  Soju One Glass written for film by Bong
• general editing

  on set editor who edits on the same day

  meticulous rhythm (suspenseful scene followed by chaotic quick scene) by stitching clips

  "able to create exact beats and rhythm we wanted"
• intro key sequence

  cinematography: tight framing & pan between room = cramped space, lines on window = bars = trapped, characters walk into frame, top lighting from window on ki-woo

  
  

  mise en scene: multipurpose rooms, outside dirty & messy, small table = unity & cramped, plain costumes, light material = oppressive heat, cheap food, pizza boxes = take space but necessary for money

  
  

  sound & editing: non-diegetic mixed emotion music w j-cut, cut from coughing to quiet = jarring

  pan shots hide edits, kims in one frame, with others there's shot reverse shot
• basement key sequence

  cinematography: tracks mrs kim downstairs, long shots of stairs = hierarchy, high angle mrs kim low angle moon-gwang, green & yellow/orange lighting = sickly, moongwang side lighting, cool in parks house

  
  

  mise en scene: spacious house vs cramped basement, water puddles = not cared for, milk bottle & pyjamas = infantilising, kim's colours fit into basement, phone & pliers = danger of being found

  
  

  sound & editing: high pitched strings = increase tension, doorbell then silence = change tone, amplified sounds of comfort

  invisible edits & stitching = quicken pace, cutaway to wire

  
  

  performance: crawl upstairs = animalistic, ki-jung laying on sofa = fits
• final key sequence

  cinematography: long takes build suspense, climax has quick cuts, bird eye view of mr kim going downstairs, tracking shots, bright vs dark (garden/basement, imagine/real ending), mr park blocks sun

  
  

  mise en scene: stairs, mr kims clothes match basement, gean-se in black, upper class & ki-jung in white

  
  

  sound & editing: soju one glass, silence = isolation, contrapuntal of singer/violence, voiceover

  fade to black before final shot, long takes vs quick cuts