Parasite

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Parasite (2019), was the first foreign-language film to win the Best Picture Oscar. Writer-director Bong Goon Ho here again explores the class divisions between the privileged and the poor, as he did in other films such as Snowpiercer and Mickey 17.

The first shot is that of the view from a basement apartment, stressing the subterranean life of the poor. Mr. Kim (Song Hang Ho) and his family live there. He is an out-of-work driver. Phones are shut off and they have been stealing the internet from a neighbor, who recently changed her password, cutting off the family members crowded together in the cramped dwelling. There is a picture and medal that was won in a track and field event, which shows that there is talent here, but it has not been able to sustain itself in the poverty surrounding it. They have stink bugs in the place. When an exterminator comes by outside, they leave the window open to kill the insects, but it is they who may be the target in this society.

They make money by folding pizza boxes to get by. The son, Ki-Woo (Choi Woo-Shik) has a friend, Min-Hyuk (Park Seo-Joon), who brings them what is known as a Scholar’s Rock that presages good fortune. The mother, Choong Sook (Jang Hye-Jin) says he should have brought food, which is what this deprived family really needs, not a lucky charm.

Ki-Woo is to take over tutoring English from the leaving Min-Hyuk of the daughter, Da-Hye (Jung Ji-So), of the rich Park family. Min-Hyuk doesn’t want some college student putting the moves on Da-Hye, who he likes and sees his friend as a faithful protector. Ki-Woo excelled in school in English, but the family couldn’t afford an education for him, or his sister, Ki-Jeong (Park So-Dam), who is an excellent artist. The only way the lower-class family can attain employment is through fraud (Are they parasites? The title of the film works on different levels). So, Ki-Woo pretends to be a college student, named Kevin, and his sister creates fake documents for him. As the father humorously says if there was a major at Oxford University for forgery, his daughter would excel there. Ki-Woo says he will go to the university and the document is just a bit premature because he will get the diploma, which shows his inner drive, but is it impossible for his dreams to come true?

In contrast, the Park house is luxurious. The first shot of Mrs. Park has her snoozing with her head down on a table. It’s a picture of the idle rich. Min-Hyuk called her “simple,” and her Ki-Wook’s family exploit this lack of shrewdness. (Is Mrs. Park in her own way a parasite living off society as a noncontributing member?) Ki-Woo tells Da-Hye that she needs “vigor” to do well on her tests, slashing through her studies as if clearing a jungle. His advice contrasts with the example of the sleeping mother, and the lax attitude of the entitled wealthy. The Park’s young son, Da-Song (Jung Hyeon Jun), likes to draw, so Ki-Woo sees this fact as an opportunity to insert his sister as an art teacher named Jessica.

Da-Hye already knows that her brother is a phony who pretends to be inspired to paint. Ki-Woo, being insightful, already knows this fact. So, it is not just Ki-Woo’s family that are pretenders. It is interesting that Ki-Woo and his sister are ambitious people, while the children of the rich are dependent on their parents, like parasites. Da Hye is attracted to Ki-Woo and they kiss, which subverts Min-Hyuk’s plan, and entwines Ki-Woo even more with the Park family.

Ki-Jeong is a better parent for Da-Song than is Mrs. Park. She is strong-willed and gets the boy to act properly quickly. She says that Da-Song needs “art therapy” because he exhibits a psychological pathology in his paintings (she just looked the term up to initiate the scam). She says it was due to a previous trauma, which apparently did happen to the boy. Of course, she must charge Mrs. Park exorbitant fees for such in-depth treatment.

While getting a ride home in the Park family limo, Ji-Jeong gets the idea of leaving her underwear in the car to entrap the driver so that her father can become the new Park’s chauffeur. Mr. Park says that his driver dared to “cross the line,” to have sex in the back seat of the limo, where he sits. The idea of line crossing is a metaphor for the divider between the classes.

Kim, who has tried several businesses in the past but could not become successful, satisfies Mr. Park with his driving. His family then plans on getting rid of the housekeeper, Moon-Kwang (Lee Jung-Eun), who is not as easily duped. She was the housekeeper of the architect who built the house that now is owned by the Parks (It is an interesting fact that becomes important later). Ki-Woo discovers from Da-Hye that the housekeeper is very allergic to peaches and the fruit can’t be in the house. Ki-Jeong sprinkles peach fuzz onto the housekeeper’s neck. Kim then makes a video of the housekeeper going to the hospital. He says he was there for a physical and saw the woman coughing. He tells Mrs. Park he overheard that she may have TB. When Kim shakes Mrs. Kim’s hand, she asks if he washed his hands. It shows a repulsion toward the lower classes, and Mrs. Kim may see the handshake as another crossing of the line. The family rehearses Kim’s performance to recruit the mother, and it may be that director Ho is commenting on the filmmaking process, even adding ketchup to the kitchen trashcan to make it appear as if blood was on the housekeeper’s tissues as sort of a special effect. Mrs. Park fires the housekeeper and now Kim’s wife, Choong Sook, is hired to replace her. Mr. Park notes that his wife can’t do anything around the house, stressing her parasitic nature.

While talking about the Kim family’s good fortune, Kim sees a man again urinating outside their basement apartment. Ki-Woo throws water on the man to chase him away. This act and the fact that the chauffeur and the housekeeper lost their jobs implies that when some members move up in the class system it may be at the expense of others since society does not provide for the welfare of all its citizens.

The Parks go away on a camping trip and the Kims indulge themselves by taking over the mansion, eating, bathing, and drinking. It is there moment where they can pretend to be rich, “pretend” being the operative word. Ki-Woo says he wants to be able to ask Da-Hye out, maybe marry her, and the house will become their home for real. His family laugh at this daydream knowing that they will never be able to rise into the upper class. Ki-Jeong has been hired to act like a guest at some weddings to catch the bouquet, and her acting has become quite good, as she has already shown. Performance is necessary to acquire some benefits given their lower-class status, since that is the closest they will get to being among the rich. Kim says even though Mrs. Park is rich she is nice, but Choong Sook says she is “nice because she is rich,” which means she can afford to be nice, not worrying about scraping by each day to get ahead. All the worries of the rich are “ironed out,” they are “smoothed out by money.” It reminds one of The Great Gatsby, where F. Scott Fitzgerald says that the rich can be careless because they can fall back into the comfort of their money.

The family is drunk now, and Ki-Woo says that his sister seems to fit in well in the extravagant house. Choong Sook says that her husband could never fit in, and would scurry like the cockroaches in their apartment if Mr. Park came in now. Kim seems angry at the insect comparison and he grabs his wife by her shirt. He and his wife then laugh, and Kim says to his son that they were acting. Was he? They have become so used to conning others that they can’t tell if they are acting or not, being genuine or pretending.

The old housekeeper, Moon-Kwang, shows up and says she left something in the basement. She is there to rescue her husband, Geun-Sae (Park Myung-Hoon) who has been living underground for over four years trying to escape debtors. He is staying behind a secret wall, which became jammed and he could not escape. It is a place where the rich can hide if things go bad for them. The Parks did not know of this secret place. The wealthy can afford an escape plan, like a golden parachute. We again have the film’s metaphor that the poor must live below the privileged.

Choong Sook is ready to call the police, not feeling sympathy for one of her fellow impoverished. But Moon-Kwang discovers that the whole Kim family has conned their way into the house and threatens to expose them with a phone video. She and her husband also begin to enjoy the richness of the house, their only chance at the good life together.

The two families fight over the phone. Their struggle shows how the poor are forced to battle each other for what the wealthy have left them. The Parks were washed out of their camping trip by a storm, so the Kims must clean things up so as not to get caught. The Kims now become the captors of their own class in the subterranean compartment. Choong Sook causes Moon-Kwang to fall down the basement stairs and she sustains a severe head injury, and dies after freeing her husband of his bonds.

Mrs. Park tells Choong Sook of the traumatic experience that her son, Da-Song, experienced. He woke up when he was younger in the middle of the night to have more birthday cake and saw Geun-Sae come out of the basement. The child thought he was a ghost. Symbolically, this event may mean that the uncaring wealthy are haunted by the memories of their class victims.

The rich being superior is again displayed metaphorically. The Parks sleep on a couch in the living area to be on call if their son, who decides to have his own camping experience, stays in a tent in the grounds in the back of the house. The Kims are hiding under the furniture, showing that they are beneath the wealthy family. Mr. Park says that he can still smell Mr. Kim, as if the poor are somehow contaminated by their place in society. Mr. Park says that Kim “always seems about to cross the line,” but doesn’t, again using the analogy to show the need for the lower classes to stay in their place. But his smell “crosses the line.” He says, people who ride subways have that smell, as if derived from associating with others of what he would consider to be the working-class subculture.

Choong Sook resides at the house, being the housekeeper, but the other Kims escape (walking through a tunnel, the underground being their place in life).. When they return to their apartment, their home below the surface is flooded, showing how their plans have washed away. Kim comes to believe that plans are meaningless, and he falls into despair. They attempt to save some possessions, and Ki-Woo gets the Scholar’s Rock, which was supposed to represent good fortune. Ironically, it causes just the opposite, and his clinging to it is misplaced hope in this story.

The next day the Parks are preparing for another birthday for their son, and they can afford to host an opulent party. The scene of Mrs. Park going into her spacious walk-in closet contrasts with the impoverished multitudes in the gymnasium who sought shelter from the storm as they rummage through donated clothing. Mr. and Mrs. Park must act as servants. Da-Hye invited Ki-Woo and his sister. Da-Hye and Ki-Woo are kissing in her bedroom. It is above the grounds, looking down at the rich guests. From that height he is temporarily elevated in his status and wonders if he fits in there.

The child Da-Song likes to pretend he is a Native American, and for the party Mr. Kim must pretend to be one also. In this context he is an oppressed person playing the role of a member of another oppressed race. Ki-Woo takes the Scholar’s Stone and descends to kill Geun-Sae so he can’t expose the Kim family. But the man gets the drop on the young man and smashes his head with the stone. At this point Geun-Sae is in a deranged state following the death of his wife, and he seeks revenge on Choong Sook for her death. He wields a knife, killing Ki-Woo’s sister. On seeing a return of the “ghost,” the boy Da-Song faints. Mr. Park demands that Mr. Kim give him the car keys to transport his son for medical care, not showing any concern for the dying Ji-Jeong. Geun-Sae attacks Choong Sook who is able to use a food skewer to kill the man. It is ironic that something used to feed this posh group is now a homicide weapon used against the rich host. So far, the lower-class uprising has only resulted in deaths of those in their own class. But when Mr. Kim sees Park’s disgust of the smell of his family, Mr. Kim loses it and stabs Mr. Park to death.

What happens next is a narration by Ki-Woo which relates that he recovered following brain surgery. He and his mother were put on probation for acting fraudulently, but she is acquitted of Geun-Sae ‘s death for acting in self-defense. Ki-Woo views the Park house from a hill, the only way he can come close to rising to the height to be able to purchase the home. He realizes his father now lives in hiding in the room below the now vacant house because Geun-Sae used the light controls in the room to send out a Morse Code signal, and now so does Ki-Woo’s father. Mr. Kim has moved from one subterranean place to another, replacing another lower-class person in the seemingly never-ending oppression of the poor.

Ki-Woo writes a letter, that the film visualizes, to his father about working hard and becoming wealthy enough to buy the Park mansion so his father will join them. But he composes the letter from the dingy basement apartment in which the story started, suggesting that his hopes will remain only a dream.