Throughout the film, Ki-taek keeps harping on the point that Mrs. Park is a nice lady even though she is rich. To this, his wife replies that it is because she is rich that she is nice. Money is like an iron that removes all the creases. If she had that much money, she would be 'nice,' too. Parasite shows that the two families are similar if money is removed from the equation. Both the families in the film are composed identically—a couple with two kids (a boy and a girl each). The film portrays other similarities between the two. In a particular scene, when the Parks leave for the camp, the Kim couple sleeps on the couch. Hours later, when the Parks return, they lie down similarly. The awards won by Mr. Park are displayed on the walls of their house. Likewise, the medals that Chung-sook won in shot-put are put up in their house. Their kids share similar interests. The two boys have been Boy Scouts who know Morse Code. In many other places, there are similar shots of the kids in similar positions. In one particular shot, the two sons are seen looking outside the window. At other points, the two daughters are eavesdropping while standing near the stairs. In a poster of the film, the two families are, in fact, shown as inverted mirror images of each other.
However, when money is considered, the contrasts between the two families get magnified. The Kims live in a semi-basement house, and the view that they see every day is a man pissing outside. On the other end, the Parks live in one of the poshest areas of the city where people have to climb up an inclined road to reach their houses, and the view that they see from their houses is that of a lush green and serene garden full of trees, secluded from any human contact. Later, after a period of torrential rains, the Kims lose all their prized possessions as the water floods their home and brings with it destruction. At the same time, Mrs. Park calls the rains a blessing as they clear the sky. (It is again a reminder that climate change impacts the poor more than the rich.) After the rains, the Kims move to an open gym where they have to fight for a pair of clothes while the Parks arrange an impromptu party, and Mrs. Park walks into a closet full of expensive clothes, all of them for her. The Kims desire the luxurious living lifestyle of the Parks. In contrast, the Parks, when they have sex, fetishize the 'cheap panties' that their driver left behind. One fantasizes about what they do not have, which is why it is a fantasy.
The three families in Parasite are different not just in terms of their class, but there is also a political element to them. The Parks are fascinated by America. Their son dresses up as a Native American. Mrs. Park gets more interested in hiring Jessica after she learns that she graduated from Illinois. Their affinity for America is such that when asked about the leaks in the tent in which Da-Song sleeps, Mrs. Park says it will not have any as they ordered it from America. On the other end is the ex-housekeeper Moon-gwang. She has hidden her husband Geun-sae in an underground bunker, cut off from everyone. At some other stage, when they entrap the Kims, Geun-sae comments that her wife's phone is like a North Korean missile. And then, Moon-gwang enacts North Korean journalists praising Kim Jong-un. It must also be mentioned that when she meets her husband, she feeds him milk in a baby bottle. In this way, they behave like the North Korean dictator who has cut off his country from everyone and feeds propaganda to his people. Geun-sae is also happy living his life in the bunker. At one point, condoms are also shown in his bunker. They are completely secluded. In the original screenplay, Moon-gwang is actually compared to North Korea. In this sense, the film is, perhaps, commenting that the Park family is America, the Moon-gwang's family is North Korea, and the Kim family is South Korea.
Parasite takes a completely new turn in the latter part of the film, which turns into a dystopian drama. The change in pace when the Parks come back earlier than their planned time brings tension to the film. There is an Andhadhun-type musical quality to the scene where the Kims try to sort out the mess they have made while ram-don is simultaneously being prepared. In another fleeting moment later in the film, an injured Moon-gwang pukes in the toilet, and in the next scene, it feels like the same is coming out of the toilet at the house of the Kims. Despite all the stuff the Kims do, the film still makes us want to root for them. They are not bad people. It is their circumstances that make them do bad things. And many things in the film start making sense while repeat-watching.
Ki-woo receives a scholarly rock from his friend Min (Park Seo-joon) and keeps the rock near him. After the torrential rains, his father asks him the reason for clinging to it. Ki-woo believes it is the rock that does not let him go. Towards the end, the rock is put back in the stream from where it was picked. It almost fits there with the adjacent rocks like the perfect fit in the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The Kims go back to where they were before. They were never able to fit in where they did not belong. In an earlier scene, Ki-woo felt that out of all of them, his sister fits the most in the house of the Parks. At some later point, Ki-woo philosophically gazes at the rich people who had come to the party and contemplates if he fits there. His image is on the glass, where he starts realizing all this was an illusion. Ki-jung is left dead by the end of it all. And clinging to the rock also almost leads to Ki-woo's death. Like the other metaphors in the film, the scholarly rock that was a symbol of material wealth and provides commentary on the fate of the people who are trying to be what they are not.
The most visible aspect of Parasite's universe is its use of stairs as a representation of class hierarchies. The film has many staircase scenes, which are intended as, in an interview, Bong Joon-Ho revealed that before using the title Parasite, they called it the staircase movie. In the house of the Parks, one has to ascend stairs at the gate outside, again while entering, and then another time while going up to their bedroom. While being trapped in the house, the Kims hide below the table. After they manage to escape, the Kims descend the endless stairs of the city, providing another indication that stairs represent wealth, prosperity, and privilege. The husband of the ex-housekeeper lies hidden in a bunker where one has to descend the stairs further down. Moments before Gook Moon-gwang dies, she asks her husband to remember that Chung-sook pushed her down the stairs, again providing a reading where the stairs represent something deeper.
The acclaimed series Downtown Abbey, based on the trials and tribulations of an English family in the early 1920s, had two classes of people—the rich aristocrats and the poor workers. The show tried to portray that the differences in wealth and privilege mask the inherent similarity of the lives of the two classes. Parasite could well be a modern-day Downton Abbey. As it is shown in Parasite, the upper class always stays upstairs, while the lower class works downstairs in Downton Abbey. Robert Crawley and his wife Cora were the heads of their estate upstairs, while Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes ran the show downstairs. The upper class did not even understand the concept of a weekend (as every day was a weekend for them), and the working class had to toil every single day for a wage. The class barriers in Downton Abbey, set in a time known for its rigidity and conservatism, can still be witnessed in the contemporary setting of Parasite, while it was believed that economic prosperity would have brought them down.
Apart from staircases, the other discernible theme in Parasite is its tendency to repeat events and phrases. Ki-woo frequently uses the word 'metaphorical' in different situations. Mr. Park talks about crossing the lines a lot of times. He likes people who do not 'cross the line' and remain within their limits, but he is disgusted by the smell of the poor as it does not need heed to these boundaries. Ki-taek keeps questioning Mr. Park if he loves his wife, which leads to him being offended eventually towards the end. Like Da-song saw a ghost on his birthday a few years earlier, the ghost comes out again on his birthday, repeating the same events. The 'trauma recovery cake' brings with it even more devastating trauma. The film also starts and ends in the same way with a pair of socks shown hanging in the Kim house.
On multiple occasions in Parasite, the members of the Kim family keep mentioning 'the plan.' When Ki-woo goes for an interview at the Parks with a forged degree, his father is proud as he has a plan for his future. After the mess at the Park household, Ki-taek assures his children to not worry as he has the plan to take care of everything. After the rains, Ki-woo reminds his father of his plan. Ki-taek replies that he never had a plan. If you make a plan, life never works out that way. Having no plan saves one from the ensuing disappointment. Later, during the party, Mr. Park also makes an elaborate plan for the proceedings of his son's birthday. Even that plan ended up being a total disaster. Towards the end, Ki-woo writes a letter to his father saying that he, too, has made a plan. He will become rich and buy the same house where his father is trapped and help him get back his freedom. It may be recency bias, but I could not help but think of the conversation between Murad and his father, Aftab, in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy. Murad's uncle told him that a driver's son can only be a driver. Murad's father tells him that it is the truth, but Murad says, "Koi dusra batayega mereko main kaun hai?" Aftab then counsels Murad to change his dreams and accept his reality. Murad disagrees and says he will change his reality to match his dreams. Murad makes it big in life. Parasite's bleak outlook toward plans made me feel that Ki-woo will have broken dreams like Murad's friend Moeen. But strange are the ways life works. Sometimes, it can also change for the better. Till then, Ki-woo needs to not lose hope, keep working on his plan, and listen to Murad's rousing Apna Time Aayega. Perhaps, his time will also come one day.
Trivia:
Alfred Hitchcock and other famous directors behind.
Other Reading:
1. Food as a violent weapon of class struggle in Parasite—Link
2. The screenplay of Parasite—Link
Dialogue of the Day:
"You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan at all. You know why? If you make a plan, life never works out that way."
—Ki-taek, Parasite
Alfred Hitchcock and other famous directors behind.
1. Food as a violent weapon of class struggle in Parasite—Link
2. The screenplay of Parasite—Link
Dialogue of the Day:
"You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan at all. You know why? If you make a plan, life never works out that way."
—Ki-taek, Parasite
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