Ok, so Parasite follows the Kim family who end up infiltrating a wealthy elite family under the guise of being something they’re not. They very much have a parasitic relationship with them and this is hinted at early on in the movie when we’re first introduced to them.
Living in a basement home we catch them in despair as they realise that the person whose wifi they’d been piggybacking off of had now put a password on it. However, they manage to pick up a signal in the bathroom which means they can use the free wifi from a copy shop down the road. They’re very much parasites of that wifi connection but the similarities to a lowly life form don’t stop there.
We catch them folding pizza boxes and they’re very much in a symbiotic relationship with a fast-food company that require lots of hands in order to do this but they don’t have the money to take on full-time members of staff. The Kims don’t do the job probably and a quarter of the boxes are unusable but the pizza company have no other option which the Kim’s somewhat play upon.
Not long after we watch workers spraying pesticides in the street and this is commonly used to kill bugs and parasites. It blows into their basement home and this basement home of course foreshadows some of the reveals that we get in the movie.
After realising their phones have been cut off Chung-Sook asks her husband Ki-taek what his plan is but we never really get an answer. Later on in the film, Ki-taek reveals that it’s better to not have a plan as plans always go wrong and if you don’t have one then nothing bad can happen.
This somewhat juxtaposes the end of the film in which the son Ki-Woo says that he’s making a plan to go to university, become successful and then buy the house so that his father can finally come out of the basement.
I’ve seen a lot of back and forth over the film, namely whether this ending is something that happens and we’ll discuss why it’s pretty bad news for the family later on in the video.
Now with the success of Squid Game, I thought I’d revisit some Korean classics that really show why the country is currently leading the way when it comes to TV shows and Movies. They just seem to be adept at creating outstanding original stories that are layered with social commentary and Parasite is no different.
Award-Winning Breakdowns
The oscar-winning film is layered with hidden details, things you missed and a lot of clues that hint towards the eventual reveals that I wanna break down in this video.
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Now the movie is Directed by Bong Joon Ho who actually got the idea for the film because the director worked as a tutor before he started making movies. Bong Joon Ho was actually recommended for this job by his girlfriend and he said that he used to imagine getting all of his friends jobs within the household.
Bong Joon Ho very much said that being staffed like this is the only way that people on the opposite side of the class system would ever actually meet and throughout the film there’s lip service paid to how people shouldn’t cross the line.
The idea of recommendations is fine within this household to a point but it asks the bigger question of what happens when this model is used in more high profile jobs. The director stated that say if a politician gets a family member or friend a job in a high position then they probably aren’t qualified for it and we end up with a society where our leaders aren’t able to do the jobs that they’re in.
This comes from the wealthy family’s father Nathan Park who constantly remarks throughout the movie that he likes people who don’t cross the line. Lines are actually used throughout the film and if you look at the window edges here you’ll notice that it creates a line in between the two characters that we see on screen. One is a housekeeper whilst the other is the wealthy wife of Nathan and the former crosses the line in order to clap and wake the other one up.
It’s very subtle and moments like this are placed throughout the movie in which a lines and camera movements are used to show when characters cross from one side to the other.
Nathan actually says that he doesn’t mind if the driver has sex in his car, what he’s angry about is him crossing the line into the back seat.
Now Park’s company is actually called another Brick and this is a nod to the song another brick in the wall by Pink Floyd. This shows how he views his staff as all being just another brick in the wall. Walls are designed to not fall down if one brick is removed and therefore he just views people as expendable.
When talking about his staff we never really see him saying anything positive and when discussing the first housekeeper he states that she always used to eat enough for two. This hints towards the reveal at the midpoint of the film in which we find out that her husband actually lived in the secret basement in the home’s bunker and she’d sneak him meals.
When Nathan is introduced we can see the lights turning on as he walks up the stairs and as he gets to the top they turn off. This is revealed as being carried out by Geun-Se who lives in the basement and operates them as a sign of respect.
Now Ki-Woo gets the job after his friend who works as a family for the Parks says that he’s going to be studying abroad. Again Ki-Woo is parasitic in nature as he only latches onto the family because he uses someone else who somewhat passes him onto them.
Ki-Woo’s friend presents the family with a mystical rock that is said to bring wealth to families and it’s clear that they believe it has somewhat power in it.
However, later on when the Kim’s home floods we find the rock floating which indicates that it’s hollow. Not only does this explain why Ki-Woo is able to survive the blow to the head later on but it also hints to us the hollow promises that the rock carries with it.
Upon making it into the house Ki-Woo slowly brings his family across as they oust the current staff so that they can take their place.
Upstairs, Downstairs
The movie is filled with staircase imagery and Bong Joon Ho stated that he put so many through the film as they represent people travelling upwards through the class system. Stairs are pretty much featured in almost every single scene in the film and it hammers home the idea that there is a divide between the upper class and lower class people.
One of the most heartbreaking moments comes at the midsection when the family have to return home to their flooded house and we watch as they wander down the stairs after living the high life whilst the parks were away.
Ki-Taek grabs his wife silver medal and Silver is, of course, second place and it gives a nod to how they are very much second class citizens.
Something that you might not have noticed is that the table within the Park’s home actually looks like a staircase itself and we watch as it ascends from the bottom to the top.
When Ki-Woo first goes to the house we can see that there are 8 chairs at the dining table. Later on, the housekeeper and her husband are discovered there are two added and this represents the 10 people making up the 3 families in the house.
The house is absolutely incredible and we learn that it was designed by a man named Namgoong. This is actually a nod to the character Namgoong from Snowpierecer, another of Bong Joon Ho’s works. Namgoong designed the train in the film and he was played by Song Kang-Ho who plays Ki-Taek in this movie.
Also apologies for the pronunciation in the video. I know these aren’t exactly how the names are said and I’m not exactly doing English speakers a favour right now by butchering them so badly, but I am trying.
Now at one point in the film the daughter of the Parks Da-hye talks about how her brother Da-song is faking the way he acts so that his mother views him in a positive light. This is brushed aside by Ki-Woo who is of course doing the exact same thing. He even instructs her to use the word pretend twice in her English exam and this happens at a point in which both he and his sister are pretending to be people they’re not.
As for his sister, it’s through her that we learn of his Da-Songs trauma, namely how he saw a ghost when he was younger. He was eating birthday cake when a strange man appeared in the house and this triggered a seizure. At the end of the film, we watch his birthday party once more in which the man returns and this earlier scene sets up why things happen the way that they do.
Hilariously her mother Chung Sook says that she’d be a great con artist if she wanted to be but she very much is in the movie.
Now the Parks are played as the innocents in the film but they have their own prejudices and snobbery that sort of shows how they view lower class people. Nathan can’t stand the smell of the poor and he remarks that Mr Kim has an odour like the underground. This has its own subtext to it as the underground is of course something that is beneath the surface and one must travel down to get there.
Mrs Park also isn’t that innocent either and though she says that she will pay Ki-Woo more after his first session you can actually catch her skimming off the top and taking away some of the cash that she was initially going to pay him.
I believe that this was actually the salary that she paid Ki-Woos friend and she realised that she could get away with paying him less so just decided to take it out.
After they return home from the camping trip, she asks for Ram-don to be made which is a combination of two meals typically loved by kids. The meal is popular amongst the poor and rich but Mrs Parks can’t have her son eating what she views as commoner food so she has sirloin steak added to it in order to ramp it up a bit.
Driving with Intent
Now Ki-Taek has some of my favourite scenes in the film and a lot of them are laced with subtext. He becomes the family driver and the relationship that he has with the parks is very symbolic. There is very much a barrier between the front and back seat of the car and he is pretty much driving and doing all the work whilst they relax in the back.
There’s even a point where Mrs Park is sat putting her feet up whilst Ki-Taek drives the car and she chats away to her friends whilst he has to sit in silence. It’s very much painting out the metaphor that the ones doing the work are silenced and they have to put all the effort into things whilst the wealthy elite can just relax.
They are very much living a completely different life from the poor and are not subject to the same issues that they are. Mrs Parks at one point says that the rain was a blessing as it meant that they could return home from camping. However, it completely devastates the Kim household and means that they have to sleep in the gym along with the rest of the poor.
There are some amazing accompanying shots such as the housekeeper vomiting in the basement toilet whilst the sewage vomits out of the toilet at the Kims.
Mrs Park also takes her time in choosing clothes from her vast and expansive wardrobe whilst the poor have to fight over them in the gym after their homes were devastated.
We can also catch Ki-Woo texting the next day and his hand has an imprint on it due to holding the Rock throughout the night.
Now, this reveal at the midpoint of the movie is pretty breakneck and the entire feeling of the movie shifts after the doorbell rings. This actually happens at the exact midpoint of the movie and it was also exactly in the middle of the script.
We see the cut security camera and this happens at the midpoint of the movie as well. However, it also sets up the ending as it explains how Ki-Taek is able to escape into the house without being caught.
He very much takes the position of Guen-Se who is one of my favourite characters for all the wrong reasons.
We learn that he’s hiding because he got in so much debt due to his company Taiwanese Castella. In the movie, there’s a line about how Ki-Taek was a driver for them and there is potential that he somewhat was instrumental in his downfall.
It’s such a creepy portrayal and we learn that he’s been sending messages through More Code which Ki-Taek also does at the end of the movie in order to send something to his son.
Now the tragedy is that the families could work together and live this life comfortably for a long time. However, the Kims are very much people that will climb to the top of the stairs and kick other people down and thus the entire thing is blown open when Guen Se escapes.
He has spent years in the basement and upon exiting it we can see that his pupils are massively dilated. He comes out, stabs Ki-Jung and then Chong Sook stabs him in retaliation. However, when it’s clear that Nathan doesn’t care about his daughter or her death, the wincing at his smell triggers him and Ki-Taek stabs him too. He then retreats into the basement and due to the morse code signals, we learn that he’s lying low there indefinitely.
His son is arrested and along with his mother, they’re found guilty of fraud. Ki-Woo goes to look at the house and this shot over is actually a reference to a painting by Peter Doig called The Architect’s Home in the Ravine.
Ki-Woo makes a plan to become rich so that he can buy the house and finally embrace his father. Just before this, he puts the rock in some water and it doesn’t float, showing that this is a fantasy. His plan is to simply work hard and get rich after going to Uni which if you’re over the age of 30 then you probably know that it isn’t as easy as that.
Now whilst people have gone back and forth over whether the scene will come true or not, unfortunately, if you stay for the credits then you’ll know that it doesn’t happen.
The song that plays over them is actually sung by Choi Woo-shik who plays Ki-Woo in the movie.
In it, he pretty much sings the song of what happens after the film namely how he gets a job doing back-breaking manual labour. He says that it would take over 500 years to earn enough money to buy the house but it is quite upbeat and he thinks he will do it.
Anyway, it ends this amazing film and obviously, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it in the comments below. If you enjoyed the video then don’t forget to subscribe and I hope you click the thumbs up too.
If you want something else to watch then make sure you check out our breakdown of all the hidden details in Squid Game which will be linked on screen right now.
It’s one of the best videos we’ve ever made so definitely go and watch it after this.
If not then thanks for checking this out, I hope you have a good week, take care, Peace.
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