[FIELD WORK] PARASITE, SEOUL

PARASITE, DIR. BONG JOON HO (2019)

Seoul, South Korea

Parasite, directed by Bong Joon Ho, was released in May 2019. Parasite shows the greed of human beings and social status disparity in the form of wicked and brutal human behavior, focusing on two families living in extremes. Since the characteristic of the Parasite itself has a symbiotic relationship with the human, the movie parasite depicts this parasite relationship between the affluent Park family and the destitute Kim family. Poor Kim family infiltrates the lives of a wealthy Park family as their new employers such as tutor, driver, and helper by illegally manipulating their educational and carrier backgrounds. Income inequality between two families is efficiently drawn through their houses’ distinct architectural space. Unfortunately, both are sets made based on the typical houses in Seoul where poor and rich classes have coincided.

The move starts with the ground level seen from Kim’s semi-basement house window and goes down, showing Kim’s family’s living space. The first scene indicates that the ground level is set as the standard, and Kim’s family is located under that standard. Another scene in which one drunk pedestrian pees on the street towards Kim’s house emphasizes that the Kim family’s space is lower than where people pee. The highlight of the extreme difference in the height of the two families’ houses is when raining so hard, the Kim family descends the hill from the top of the Park family’s house, through the tunnel, goes down the stairs with the rainwater, and finds Kim’s house submerged. This scene symbolically shows the difference in height synchronizing with water behavior following down and is directed by comparing the economic position of the two families to the location of their houses. What is essential in architecture is how to set the reference point. In Parasite, the reference point is set as the ground level, and Director Bong Joon Ho effectively utilized the aspect of a physically visible standard, ground level, using contradictory architectures to convey the message.

Furthermore, another reference point is how much of one’s own space, like autonomous space, is secured. Everyone needs an independent personal space. People must have time to stop thinking and recharge themselves by looking at something that changes. The something that changes can be nature or media. Parasites indicate the wealth gap between the two families based on whether the family possesses adequate changing nature or ample space. Park’s house has a large yard, and the place is designed based on the direction of looking at the yard; there are scenes where the child runs around in the yard, and the couple drinks coffee, enjoying the view of the yard. On the contrary, the only permitted nature for the Kim family under the semi-basement is the asphalt seen through the window and people’s feet passing by. Therefore, unlike Park’s children, the children of the Kim family are obsessed with Wi-Fi, lifting their phones, and crouching in the bathroom for an internet connection. They struggle to enter the online virtual space due to the lack of offline spatial experiences. However, as the online area is not even smoothly secured, the difference between the quality and size of the space allowed for the Kim family and the Park family was significantly depicted.

These days, the world is debating “income inequality,” which has worsened. The Parasite is far more pessimistic, arguing that economic immobility is the new normal and that those who are born poor will die poor, and those who are rich will die rich. The fantasy of upward economic mobility is the Kim family being a parasite fulling themselves as they are fit into the Park family. Parasites leave as a parasite never can be independent.

– Subin Hwang, 3035856381