Parasite

Parasite (Korean: 기생충; Hanja: 寄生蟲; RR: Gisaengchung) is a 2019 South Korean black comedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho, who co-wrote the screenplay with Han Jin-won and co-produced. The film, starring Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin, Park Myung-hoon and Lee Jung-eun, follows a poor family who scheme to become employed by a wealthy family, infiltrating their household by posing as unrelated, highly qualified people.

The script is based on Bong's source material from a play written in 2013. He later adapted it into a 15-page film draft, and Han split it into three different drafts. Bong said he was inspired by the 1960 Korean film The Housemaid and by the Christine and Léa Papin incident in the 1930s. Filming began in May 2018 and finished that September. The project included cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo, film editor Yang Jin-mo, and composer Jung Jae-il. Darcy Paquet, an American film critic and author, provided English translations for the film's international release.

Parasite premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2019, where it became the first Korean film to win its top prize, the Palme d'Or. It was released in South Korea by CJ Entertainment on 30 May, and was praised for Bong's direction and screenplay, and also for its editing and production design. It grossed over $263 million worldwide on a $15.5 million budget.

Among its numerous accolades, Parasite won a leading four Academy Awards at the 92nd Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film, becoming the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.^{[note 1]} It is the first South Korean film to receive any Academy Award recognition, and one of only three films overall to win both the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Picture, the first such achievement in over 60 years. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language, and became the first non-English-language film to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. It has since been cited as among the best films of the 2010s, the 21st century, and of all time.^[10][11] A television series based on it is in early development.

Plot

The Kim family lives in a semi-basement flat (banjiha) in Seoul, have low-income jobs, and struggle for money. Min-hyuk, a university student, gives the family a scholar's rock meant to promise wealth. Leaving to study abroad, he suggests that the Kims' son, Ki-woo, pose as a university student to take over his job as an English language tutor for Da-hye, the daughter of the rich Park family. After his sister Ki-jung helps create a false certificate for him in Photoshop, Ki-woo, posing as a Yonsei University student, is hired by the Parks.

The Kims scheme to get each of them a job with the Parks. Ki-woo recommends "Jessica", actually his sister Ki-jung, as an art therapist for the Parks' young son, Da-song, who has been traumatized after seeing a "ghost" in their kitchen. Ki-jung frames Yoon, Mr Park's chauffeur, by making it appear he had a sexual encounter in the car, then recommends her relatives' chauffeur, in actuality her father, Ki-taek, to take his place. The Kims exploit the peach allergy of the Parks' longtime housekeeper, Moon-gwang, to convince Mrs Park that she has tuberculosis, and the Kim matriarch, Chung-sook, is hired as her replacement. Ki-woo begins a secret romantic relationship with Da-hye.

When the Parks take a camping trip, the Kims revel in the luxuries of the house. Moon-gwang appears at the door, telling Chung-sook she left something in the basement. She goes through a hidden entrance to an underground bunker created by the architect and previous homeowner (who was too embarrassed to inform the Parks of its existence). There, Moon-gwang's husband, Geun-sae, is revealed to be living in the bunker while hiding from loan sharks; he is also revealed to be the "ghost" Da-song saw attempting to come out of the bunker to steal groceries from the Parks' refrigerator. Chung-sook refuses Moon-gwang's pleas to allow Geun-sae to remain in the bunker in exchange for regular payments, but the three other eavesdropping Kims accidentally reveal themselves to be related. Moon-gwang videotapes them on her phone, inadvertently revealing their deception, and threatens to expose them to the Parks.

The Parks call to say that they are returning early due to a severe rainstorm. The Kims subdue Moon-gwang and Geun-sae, tying them up and hiding them in the bunker. Ki-jung, Ki-taek, and Ki-woo hide under a table, and overhear Mr Park's comments about Ki-taek's odor, one he associates with lower-class people. The Kims eventually escape, but the torrential rain floods their flat with sewer water, forcing them to take shelter in a gymnasium with other, similarly displaced people.

The next day, Mrs Park hosts a house party for Da-song's birthday with the elder Kims' assistance; the younger Kims are invited as guests. Ki-woo enters the bunker with his scholar's rock to kill Geun-sae and Moon-gwang. Moon-gwang is already dead from a concussion she received during the previous day's brawl, but Ki-woo is attacked by Geun-sae, who uses the rock to knock Ki-woo out, leaving him lying in a pool of blood in the basement. Geun-sae then stabs Ki-jung with a kitchen knife in front of the horrified guests. Da-song suffers another seizure upon seeing Geun-sae again. Geun-sae and Chung-sook grapple with each other; she fatally impales him with a barbecue skewer. While Ki-taek tends to Ki-jung, Mr Park orders him to drive Da-song to the hospital. In the chaos, Ki-taek, upon seeing Mr Park's disgusted reaction to Geun-sae's odor, angrily kills him with the knife, then flees.

Weeks later, Ki-woo is recovering from brain surgery. He and Chung-sook are convicted of fraud and put on probation. Ki-jung has died from her injury, and Ki-taek has disappeared. Geun-sae is assumed to have been a homeless man, and neither his nor Ki-taek's motive for the murders are known. Ki-woo spies on the Parks' former home, now owned by a German family, and sees a message in Morse code from a kitchen light. Ki-taek, hiding in the bunker, has buried Moon-gwang in the garden and sends the message every day, hoping Ki-woo will see it. Still living in their basement flat with his mother, Ki-woo writes a letter to Ki-taek, vowing to earn enough money to buy the house and free him.

Cast

• Song Kang-ho as Kim Ki-taek (Mr Kim; 김기택; Gim Gitaek), the Kim family father who is hired as Park Dong-ik's chauffeur
• Lee Sun-kyun as Park Dong-ik (Nathan; 박동익; Bak Dongik), the Park family father
• Cho Yeo-jeong as Choi Yeon-gyo (Madame; 최연교; Choe Yeongyo), the Park mother
• Choi Woo-shik as Kim Ki-woo (Kevin; 김기우; Gim Giu), the Kims' son who is hired as Da-hye's English tutor (Choi said the character is "intelligent but does not have the vigor needed to succeed in examinations")
• Park So-dam as Kim Ki-jung (Jessica; 김기정; Gim Gijeong), the Kims' daughter who is hired as Da-song's art therapist
• Jang Hye-jin as Chung-sook (박충숙; Bak Chungsuk), the Kim family mother who is hired as the Parks' housekeeper
• Lee Jung-eun as Gook Moon-gwang (국문광; Guk Mungwang), the Parks' housekeeper, who also worked for the house's architect and previous owner (Bong Joon-ho said her relationship with the architect and parts of her story "that happen in between the sequences in the film" will be explored in the spin-off TV series)
• Park Myung-hoon as Oh Geun-sae (오근세; O Geunse), Moon-gwang's husband
• Jung Ji-so as Park Da-hye (박다혜; Bak Dahye), the Parks' daughter
• Jung Hyeon-jun as Park Da-song (박다송; Bak Dasong), the Parks' son
• Park Keun-rok as Yoon (윤; Yun), Park Dong-ik's chauffeur
• Park Seo-joon as Min-hyuk (민혁; Minhyeok), Ki-woo's friend
• Jung Yi-seo as a pizza parlor owner

Production

Development

The idea for Parasite originated in 2013. While working on Snowpiercer, Bong was encouraged by a theater actor friend to write a play. He had been a tutor for the son of a wealthy family in Seoul in his early 20s and considered turning his experience into a stage production. The film's title, Parasite, was selected by Bong as it served a double meaning, and he had to convince the film's marketing group to use it. He said: "Because the story is about the poor family infiltrating and creeping into the rich house, it seems very obvious that Parasite refers to the poor family, and I think that's why the marketing team was a little hesitant. But if you look at it the other way, you can say that rich family, they're also parasites in terms of labor. They can't even wash dishes, they can't drive themselves, so they leech off the poor family's labor. So both are parasites."

Writing

After completing Snowpiercer, Bong wrote a 15-page film treatment for the first half of Parasite, which his production assistant on Snowpiercer, Han Jin-won, turned into three different drafts of the screenplay. After finishing Okja, Bong returned to the project and finished the script. Han is credited as a co-writer.

Bong said the film was influenced by the 1960 Korean "domestic Gothic" film The Housemaid, in which a middle-class family's stability is threatened by a disruptive interloper in the form of household help.The incident of Christine and Léa Papin—two live-in maids who murdered their employers in 1930s France—also inspired him. Bong had also tutored for a rich family himself. He said: "I got this feeling that I was infiltrating the private lives of complete strangers. Every week I would go into their house, and I thought how fun it would be if I could get all my friends to infiltrate the house one by one."Additionally, Moon-gwang's allergy to peaches was inspired by one of Bong's university friends having this allergy.

Darcy Paquet, an American residing in South Korea, translated the English subtitles, writing directly with Bong. Paquet rendered Jjapaguri or Chapaguri, a dish cooked by a character in the film, as ram-don, meaning ramen-udon. It is a mix of Chapagetti and Neoguri produced by Nongshim. The English version of the film shows packages labeled in English "ramyeon" and "udon" to highlight to English speakers how the name was created. Paquet believed the word ram-don did not previously exist as he found no results on Google. On one occasion, Paquet used Oxford University as a reference instead of Seoul National University, and in another, used WhatsApp as the messaging application instead of KakaoTalk. Paquet chose Oxford over Harvard because of Bong's affinity for the United Kingdom, and because Paquet believed using Harvard would be "too obvious". Paquet wrote, "In order for humor to work, people need to understand it immediately. With an unfamiliar word, the humor is lost."