Ki-jeong manages to gain the trust of the young Da-song, and was even the last person to show compassion towards Moon-kwang and her husband, offering to bring them food when theyre trapped in the basement. Review: Class warfare is on full display in director Bong Joon-hos provocative Parasite. Moon-gwang is the Parks' first housekeeper, a holdover from the house's first owner, the architect who built it. describe ki-woo. Parasite study guide contains a biography of Bong Joon-ho, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. For a full deep-dive analysis into how the themes of Parasite were previously tackled in Bong Joon-hos other films, check out this video essay on the subject: The Kim family may be below the Parks in status, but even they can look down on Moon-gwang and her husband. To access over 70 analyses of previous movie scripts we have read and discussed at Go Into The Story, go here. The Kim family is destroyed; Ki-jung is killed, Ki-woo is left brain-damaged, and Ki-taek is forced into hiding after he snaps and acts out a classism-driven murder in the chaos of the birthday party. Though Parasite cannot be confined to a single genre, it centers its focus on class struggle, a sort of precursor to the warfare of Bongs 2013 thriller Snowpiercer. The staircases represent divisions of class and power the Kims wonder upon wandering upstairs whether, in a just world, they would also belong among the rich, so far above ground; upon descending to their flooded apartment in a storm that merely throws off the Parks camping trip, the Kims are reminded of the disparities between the two families. How to Capture the Perfect Light. Our daily schedule: Monday: Scene-By-Scene BreakdownTuesday: PlotWednesday: CharactersThursday: ThemesFriday: DialogueSaturday: Takeaways. The metaphorical themes are presented in as literal a way as possible with the act of this stabbing. At the party, Ki-woo decides to head back down into the basement with the fortune rock, likely intending to end Moon-kwang and her husbands lives. This is especially impressive given how ethnocentric the Academy Awards often unfold, prioritizing English-language films over foreign-language films much of the time. So how do critics convey when a film truly is unexpectedly, brilliantly unpredictable in ways that feel revelatory? Her charismatic personality makes her excellent at fooling the Parks. During the hazing scene as the Kim family enjoy free fumigation services, Mr Kim is the only one visibly not affected by the toxic fumes. After he gets the job, Ki-Woo proceeds to fetch employment for the rest of his family members--sister Ki-Jung as an art tutor, father Ki-Teak as a chauffeur, and lastly mom Chung-Sook as a housekeeper. Moon-kwangs constant wails of Husband! The two teenage children, Ki-jeong (Park So-Dam) and Ki-woo, are scrambling around the house trying to get a WiFi signal as the neighbour that they usually leech WiFi off had wised up and made it password-protected. It is his success in passing as a competent English tutor that allows him to invite Ki-jeong into the home and so on. Mr Kim is the most nonchalant about their misfortunes, even as their house is flooded, leaving the Kims homeless. They didn't fold the Pizza boxes correctly. The Kims get trapped in the house, hiding under the coffee table when the Parks arrive home. as Ki-jung ( Ki-taek's daughter ), Chang Hyae-jin as Yeon-kyo ( Mr. Park's wife ), Choi Woo-shik As we enter the house, we see that the same design sensibilities are used the house has plenty of wide, open spaces and minimalistic furniture. As with great stories, every seeming-antagonist has their own reasons for doing what they do, making it nearly impossible to clearly identify an antagonist as we sympathise with their actions. Not affiliated with Harvard College. Yeon-Kyo enjoys a calm and relaxing life in the mansion. Were told that the house was built by a renowned architect, and that the housekeeper, Moon-kwang (Lee Jung Eun), also worked for the architect before the house was sold to the Parks. His decision to kill Mr. Park at the end is a shocking and perhaps poor one, but not entirely unjustified. Outside of the sub-basement, violence erupts, and the prophetic scholars stone becomes an instrument of violence. More books than SparkNotes. When a writer does their best, digging deep into their characters, tapping into their souls, the players in our stories magically lift up off the printed page and come to life in a readers imagination. Ki-jeong is not only the brains in the family who sets the entire scam operation in motion, she is also pegged by Ki-woo the most likely to succeed in her family as he mentions that Ki-jeong fits in the best at the Parks residence, hinting at her potential for success, but perhaps also foreshadowing her death on the residence grounds. Now that he is both her tutor and her boyfriend, he dreams of an affluent future as her husband. For some Parasite movie analysis straight from the auteur himself, check out this scene breakdown from Bong Joon-ho. Dong-Ik has a housekeeper to keep his mansion comfortable and a chauffeur to drive him from the busy workplace to his peaceful home. What an astute observation for a young child, and this was such a key detail to throw in. However, to qualify for the job, Ki-Woo must forge his identity from a man in his mid-20s with no formal education to a student studying business at an elite university. It also makes perfect sense to me that a family would have the same smell as they live in the same house and use the same soaps and detergents. 21st Century Haves, Haves-not: Bong Joon-Ho's Commentary on Contemporary Class Divide in Parasite Wikipedia Entries for Parasite Introduction Plot Cast Production Themes and interpretations Parasite tells a story about disparate families, but also about disparate social classes, who are scrambling in a society that doesn't set them up to be protagonists and by default, pushes . Same thing with script and movie analysis: Look at each character and think about why they exist and what their function is. On that fateful day, he ran from the backyard with blood on his hands not Mr. Parks, as one might assume, but his own daughters. But rather than simply getting out of the Park house and trying to make it in the outside world, he goes on a rampage at the party for Da-song. The crimes of the Kim family are evident they are scammers, inserting themselves into the lives of the Parks to take advantage of their wealth. 31 Parasite Character Analysis (Avoiding Spoilers) Grew up. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss thenovel. Today we discuss the characters in the script for Parasite. Parasite Character Analysis (Avoiding Spoilers) Grew up. He may be the youngest of the Park family, but he is by no means the dumbest. The focus of this bi-weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Through the analysis of the audio-visual language of the movie, this article starts with the storytelling of Parasite, enumerates and analyses the elements that appear in the movie to reflect the gap between the rich and poor. He has always been fascinated by pop culture and film. As the end credits began to roll, the tension in the cinema was palpable. Scott Myers 41K Followers Follow More from Medium Scott Myers in Go Into The Story The thought that the panties were placed their intentionally to sabotage the chauffeur did not even cross Mr Parks mind. The films score here perfectly uses the technique of moving up musical keys in non-linear, minor and discordant chords to instill fear and anxiety in the viewer as Moon-kwang and Mrs Kim descend down endless flights of concrete stairs, turning left and right at every corner to finally reach the bunker below. After getting referred for a tutoring gig, he orchestrates a plan in which his whole family begins working for the same wealthy family. At the start of the film, we are introduced to the Kims, a family struggling to live under impoverished conditions. Ki-woo makes some rather poor choices, too, though. Hes skewered classicism in all of his films to some degree. To download a PDF of the breakdown for Parasite, go here. For a moment, it seems as though the jig is up for the Kims as Mr Park is suspicious about the entire situation, but he foolishly chalks up the forgotten panties as a result of the chauffeur taking illegal drugs. The Park daughter is not entirely faultless; she seduces Ki-woo and her previous English tutor as well (Ki-woos friend), with Ki-woo even proclaiming the same pledge made by his friend that he would officially date her once she enters university. Ki-Woo's high school friend persuaded Ki-Woo to take his place as an English tutor for the Parks family's young girl. Get entertainment recommendations for your unique personality and find out which of 5,500+ After struggling to make ends meet folding pizza boxes for a local pizza restaurant, the Kims are visited by one of Ki-woo's wealthier friends, Min-hyuk, who offers to refer him to a job tutoring for a wealthy family, the Parks. GradeSaver "Parasite Characters". As Moon-kwangs husband and Mrs Kim struggle, Mrs Kim manages to stab Moon-kwangs husband through the abdomen with a skewer. Geun-se, driven mad by his own situation, smashes Ki-woo over the head with the rock and runs upstairs to the backyard, where he then stabs Ki-jung. Suddenly, the Kims fall down the stairs of the bunker in a pile, after listening in on the conversation. The Question and Answer section for Parasite is a great son of kim family, smart and ambitious, feels held back by poverty, has good intentions even if he has to be dishonest, wants to create a better life for his family. The script for "Parasite" will get a ton of attention as it's one of those clever twisting and turning tales for which the screenwriter gets the most credit (Bong and Han Jin-won, in this case), but this is very much an exercise in visual language that reaffirms Bong as a master.Working with the incredible cinematographer Kyung-pyo Hong ("Burning," "Snowpiercer") and an A-list . He is obsessed with keeping his employees controlled and hates nothing more than when one of his charges "crosses the line." The only truly faultless character in the film is the young Park Da-song. Parasite has proven to be a groundbreaking achievement for South Korean movies. What is Mumblecore? Please enable Javascript and hit the button below! The Kims soon settle into their comfortable new life working for the Parks. Min-hyuk believes that Ki-woo poses no threat to his chances of eventually connecting with his student, Da-hye, and he knows that Ki-woo needs the money, so it is a kind gesture. Here are our rankings of the most intelligent and least intelligent characters. Ki-Jung's family was much better off in her childhood when her father owned a cake shop. The wide panning shots do great in conveying a sense of space in the large Park residence, and sequence shots make the viewer feel as though they are there with the characters, watching their lives unfold. He is a generally congenial but snobbish man. At the party, Da-song falls into another seizure upon the sight of Moon-kwangs husbands bloodied face (from when he tried to signal Help me through the light switches), and the Park family summon Mr Kim to drive Da-song to the hospital while Ki-jeong bleeds out on the lawn and Mr Kim attempts to stop the bleeding. After being added Hulus catalogue for exclusive streaming, it became the platforms most streamed film in both the independent and foreign film categories, reaching even more audience members and wowing them with its immaculate presentation and resonant themes. Parasite represents the most focused and refined approach to class as a subject that Bong Joon-ho has achieved, and thats certainly saying something given his impressive body of work. It is somehow, and Im still not even really sure how, both joyous and depressing at the same time. It seemed intentional that the director lingered on this frame for a moment, hinting at a more sinister development to come. If you are interested in reading through the rest of the script, you can find it below. She is easily deceived by Ki-jeong's framing of the Park family chauffeur as explained by Dong-ik. Moon-Gwangs return to the house and eventual reveal of the secret basement keeps us on the edges of our seats as viewers and seamlessly blends from the drama/comedy centered first half into the thriller/tragedy centered latter half. When the Kims move into the Parks' house, Ki-woo notes that Ki-jung seems to fit in well with the trappings of wealth, and can carry off a luxurious lifestyle naturally. He soon discovers, however, that Mr. Park does not like his smell, and feels deflated by this insult. As their house party goes on and the rain pours down relentlessly, the doorbell suddenly rings its the old housekeeper that Mrs Kim had displaced. They take the affluent home as their own while the Parks are away and thats when Moon-gwang shows back up and everything changes. After getting referred for a tutoring gig, he orchestrates a plan in which his whole family begins working for the same wealthy family. Small things, such as the Kim family opening their windows as their neighbourhood is fumigated in order to rid their own apartment of pests, or drunkards that liked to piss on their basement windows at night, were double-edged jokes that combined absurdist humour with sly details of the familys desperation and socio-economic plight. Objectively, I would say that this has to be the best film that Ive ever watched. Seeing an opportunity to get his artistically talented sister, Ki-jung, a job, Ki-woo says that he knows someone named "Jessica" who went to college in Illinois, who might be perfect for the job. It is one of the most effective satires in recent memory. But if you dig down deep enough, you can find each characters narrative function, and that can become a lens through which you develop the players in your stories. Were in a golden age of TV writing and development. When Ki-woo goes into the basement, Geun-sae attacks him and bludgeons him in the head with the rock. 5 Parasite Character Analysis (Avoiding Spoilers) Living in a smelly semi-basement located in the slums of Seoul, South Korea. No. Parasite essays are academic essays for citation. Ki-jeongs death was also foreshadowed when she was the only one who got injured in the process of hiding their house party from the Parks as they returned from their failed camping trip. director Bong Joon-hos insightful and engaging comedy/thriller became one of the most talked-about films of the year and set a new precedent for the mark a South Korean movie can leave on United States movie-going audiences. The emotionally-affecting resonance of the ending is the perfect cap to the wonderfully layered social commentary spread throughout the film. They take on odd jobs for cash like folding pizza boxes, and they rely on unprotected wi-fi networks and street-cleaning pesticides to keep their home insect-free. Maybe you're the one who isn't a good judge of character, Min. Moon-kwang eventually succumbs to a concussion, leading to her husband desperately smashing his head into the light switches in the bunker to signal Help me in Morse code. This paper aims to study the gap between the rich and poor reflected in movie Parasite. Parasite essays are academic essays for citation. These themes cross all cultural-barriers and can speak to the 99% anywhere in the world. In our Parasite movie analysis video, this mid-point scene was the focus. Parasites ending features a sequence of Ki-woos plan to work hard, buy the house under which his own father now hides, and reunite the family but this plan is nothing but a fantasy. RELATED: The 10 Worst Family Movies Of All Time, Ranked. *SPOILER WARNING* Major, major spoilers ahead! Bong Joon-ho displays a mastery over genres and tones with this mid-point shift. He works as a list writer for Valnet, Inc. covering Screen Rant. We can also see small hints at each of the Kim family members background, such as Chung-Sook aka Mrs Kims medal for hammer-throw hung on the wall. An American DIY Film Movement, When is Golden Hour? Bong Joon Ho's Oscar-contending "Parasite" masterfully explores class divisions in Korea with voyeuristic delight. The family seems to be a tight-knit, supportive group. Once the entire Kim family is employed in the Park household, the lower-class con-artists begin to assume more and more of this fabricated identity of wealth. Despite their circumstances, you never get the sense that theres any animosity or resentment between them; only a shared discontentment for their living and financial situation. Official Screenwriting Blog of The Black List. The Park family is also blissfully unaware that the Kims are all related, but the observant young Park son, Da-song (Jung Hyun-joon) notices that all the new hires smell the same. describe ki-jung. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist,The New York Times, and Rolling Stone,and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association. "Parasite" is a marvelously entertaining film in terms of narrative, but theres also so much going on underneath about how the rich use the poor to survive in ways that I cant completely spoil here (the best writing about this movie will likely come after its released). It's unclear how the parasites would tie into the Dominion War, but perhaps the show could do a bit of retcon to make a connection like season 2 did by connecting the Travellers with Gary Seven. Relationship Status involved with his student Da-Hye. Very soon, the Kims also manage to displace the longstanding housekeeper to make room for Mrs Kim to join the operation. Master the art of visual storytelling with our FREE video series on directing and filmmaking techniques. Cho Yeo-jeong Mr Kim is eventually condemned to live and hide in the bunker, truly fulfilling the parasite-like behaviour of leeching of its host at someone elses expense. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. This was foreshadowed early in the film when Mr Kim flicks a stink bug off the table in his house he is the stink bug to Mr Park, a smelly, insignificant insect that is unwelcome, and it is ultimately his stink that triggers his aggression towards Mr Park. The Kim father and children quickly take cover as Mrs Kim decides to let Moon-kwang in. After waking up in the hospital, he and his mother are charged and put on probation. Character Analysis. Before long, mom and dad are in the Park house too, and it seems like everything is going perfectly for the Kim family. He is traumatised not once, but twice at the sight of Moon-kwangs husband, and is also the youngest and most innocent character. Its revealed that as Mr Kim escapes the house, he realises where he must go back into the house, into the bunker, to hide out for the remainder of his life. Its evident that the Kim family lives in squalor. He has held a bunch of different jobs, working as a valet and at a bakery, but struggles to provide for his family. To download a PDF of the breakdown for Parasite, go here. Ki-woo pens a letter to his father, fantasizing about his plan to go to college, secure a well-paying job and buy the Parks old house so that his father can live freely. This review was filed from the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7th. Spread throughout the film to download a PDF of the most intelligent and least intelligent characters cake... Works as a list writer for Valnet, Inc. covering Screen Rant the Story, go here 99 % in... And perhaps poor one, but twice at the start of the Park family chauffeur explained... Feel revelatory tension in the hospital, he orchestrates a plan in his... Scene-By-Scene BreakdownTuesday: PlotWednesday: CharactersThursday: ThemesFriday: DialogueSaturday: Takeaways video series directing! 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