Thanks for all the feedback and love. Definitely an awesome film and glad many enjoyed it like I did. Certainly didn't include many great points brought up in the comments due to time, nature of my video, or cuz I didn't catch it myself! Great comments by all. You're all so smart. Couple points that have been brought up many times that I would like to help clarify! 1. Noodles: Many of you are correct that it's a simple way of displaying how crazy wealthy Park family is and nothing more! :) They are able to have such luxurious snack and it is a very normal thing for them that doesn't need to be questioned: it's not significant. And this extends to the idea that Kim's family think they are very naive and being conned; just like how Kim's family couldn't really become 'upper class' via their conning, Park's family doesn't really become poorer because of Kim's. They are not naive; it's just that the financial cost is way too insignificant to even start questioning Kim family's actions. Just like how the noodles are a simple snack and nothing more to them. That was the real idea behind my point about the noodles :) and also cuz it's fun to see such contrasts in things presented in the movie about two contrasting families; then again, already stated that nothing is a definite answer! 2. Looking down: Park only looks down in the car because he drops something of his own: the papers, not because he just casually wished to look down. 3. Why did Kim ask, 'You still love her right?': I'll copy paste this one from a reply I made "I take it as his way of making a bond with Park :) Kitaek wishes to be part of this 'high' society & at the same time idolizes Park's family- his way of communicating and making a more personal bond (to confirm his upper status and just because he idolizes Park) is to ask such questions but to a 'truly upper class' Park, that question exactly is what crosses the line. Obviously Kitaek, who isn't in the same class, doesn't get that. You can find a similar approach & denial when Kitaek hold's Yeon-Kyo's hand to comfort her, to which she simply asks back 'did you wash your hands' ." Also, don't forget to like, subscribe and turn that notification on to know when new videos are up each week! Love.
After your analysis, I'm surprised by how much I've missed while I was watching the movie. What a thorough and deep analysis of the amazing movie! Also, I was pleasantly surprised by your perfect pronunciation of Korean names! Thank you and please, keep the great work!
I found really interesting that scene when the old maid (I'm really sorry I don't know the names) is running up the stairs (literally trying to go up) trying to get help from the rich just to be kick down till the bottom by another poor people, so the last one can keep her position. All of this without the rich realizing or caring
The scene when all the Kim are on the stairs listening to what's happening down in the basement with the old maid and then they slip and they all fall down is to signal that both families are actually in the same position, the Kim thought they were above them but that was only an illusion.
One more thing to add, when Ms Park is getting ready for the party and she is choosing through all her expensive clothes, it cuts to all the poor citizens choosing through the plain white t shirts.
The little boy’s fascination with Native American culture is a metaphor about how the poor can never really integrate themselves with the rich. Native Americans were cast out of contemporary American society and were segregated into reservations. This is highlighted again when the little boy spends the night in the tent. The rich little boy sleeps outside and thinks it’s a luxury. Poor people sleep outside because they have to. Also the mother’s insistence on hiring people who attended American schools and buying American made products (teepee) is a nod to how the rest of the world views America: a capitalist success story.
Well technically native Americans were conquered after the Indian wars and were treated at as such. Just wanted to clarify that. I am Native American and I like how you mentioned that. People tend to forget that we got off pretty good from that, we were allowed to be sovereign nations and some reservations got out of the poor living conditions and managed to integrate. I like this movie because it uses that symbolism and it’s easily understood with history knowledge
I think it also shows how they are so detached from the plight of the Native Americans that they treat it as a plaything. To them, dressing up and cosplaying as American Indians shows how little they think of them--not at all except as a toy.
it is korean movie.... they all like that... but you can tell that they all fuck from the beginning of the movie that if their life cross..it will not end well...
@Lindy T - well, if so, the poor family was the villians for carrying out such a lie/ deceiving the rich family. Both sides are the villians and the heros. #periodt
@David Williams it symbolizes Ki Jung's mental and emotional state I think. A one push she could go mental breakdown I think? that's what I interpreted
@@cas9007 yes she was in denial about her living conditions and effects of their actions. This can also be seen when her father was showing concern over the former driver, and she told him to just think about themselves.
I like how it cut from the maid throwing up into the toilet in the basement to Jessica sitting on a toilet shooting out nasty shit. There was a ton of symbolism in that one scene.
"You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan. No plan at all." "You can't go wrong with no plans. We don't need to make a plan for anything. It doesn't matter what will happen next. Even if the country gets destroyed or sold out, nobody cares." My favouite line
it not the nice... i do see nice people who not rich... it just all about they fucking fool... i would notice they up to something long ago... since my family may be asian but good connection don't mean much... i won't let kid sleep in toy tent in heavy rain...
The most interesting aspect in the entire film to me is that the Kim family isn't unqualified for the jobs they steal. Had they been born in different financial circumstances, they wouldn't be struggling. Meanwhile the Park family is obviously naive and seems to rely entirely on paid help.
Angel Flores everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. In a capitalist society, you are paid for what you can demonstrate that you are worth. Are there good restaurants or good tv shows that just don’t get enough viewers or buyers? Yes, it’s marketing and selling yourself and economics of supply and demand. The rich family’s dad was like a ceo of a tech company so he had a lot of skills to bring to the table that isn’t house cleaning,etc. different skills for different folks. It’s great that we all have the freedom to cultivate skills. I believe that even in a society like in South Korea if you are able to demonstrate your ability despite how much they emphasize prestige if you went to top universities,etc you can go far. A lot of good companies don’t care about where you went to school. At the end of the day employers care about getting results. If you can convince them you can, you’re hired, all things considered. I can appreciate the director of the movie in how he framed such a great story and with engaging characters. The rich and the poor do have certain elements to what the movie shows but that shouldn’t discourage anyone or have them believe they can’t make it on their own. Most of the recent top earners became top earners from the poor. Top 1% people change all the time.
Yeah so true -- my friend caught a subtle scene where when the dad is driving and the rich guy says don't worry this isn't a test, the camera focuses on the coffee he's holding. It is a test and he's watching the coffee to see if it splashes when he turns and drives.
@@augburto Yes exactly! Chung-sook being able to prepare a dish she had never even heard of for Yeon-kyo shows a lot of resourcefulness and capability. Ki-woo and Ki-sung are also at least decent teachers, since Ki-woo teaching English is never shown to be a problem, and Ki-sung googles psychology of painting to at least fake like she's helping a developing child.
@@assuming9735 If they didn't get greedy and try to get the housekeeper fired they could've built up their net worth, get out of poverty with 3 out of the 4 working good jobs. They had an opportunity to get out of poverty, blaming the situation when they could've done better is not taking responsibility, so no they weren't stuck in their situation like you make it seem. They were the problem with their greed.
One detail that people missed in this film is the fact that Mr. Kim (father) at one point was an employee of Mr. Geun-sae (man living in the bunker). In the first half of the film, there is a scene where the Kim family is having lunch at a driver's cafe and Jessica (daughter) asks her father if he ever got to drive Mercedes-Benz vehicles during his occupation as a driver. Mr. Kim then revealed that he never did get to drive Mercedes-Benz cars until he began his job as a valet driver. He also revealed that he found his valet job after working at a Taiwan cake shop that went bust. In the second half of the film when it was revealed that Gook-moon gwang (former housekeeper) was harboring her husband in the hidden bunker, her husband reveals that his Taiwan cake shop went bust and he had to turn to loan sharks to try to save his business which led to him being indebted and hiding from those debt collectors.
@@MCee97 Most business owners don't actually work in their stores or work alongside their employees or even meet their employess. They hire store managers to do that. The owners just reap the profits. That's one theory.
I think you forgot one small yet important symbolism that is even used in its stylish Title. The Plant that is shown growing on the Rich Families house The plant is known as the "Creeper plant" The first time we see the plant or vine is when Ki woo goes to The rich family for the first time and the shot is framed in a way that it makes Ki woo Look like the plant that Creeps in the Rich Families home. its the first thing i've noticed since in my country This Creeper plant is also called "Parasite". Edit: oh another thing I forgot to mention, in the ending of movie when we are shown kiwoos fantasy where he has already bought the house, the plant is already grown and reached it as well, the thing about these vines is that they grow fairly quickly, which perfectly visualizes how long Kiwoo thinks he is gonna accomplish his plan.
I love that you didn't do the whole retelling of the plot thing. I hate it when reviewers do that. Like if I'm watching a review then I probably already watched the film and know the plot.
Another thing I noticed. The concept of not crossing the line. In the trailer there is a scene where the maid wakes up the rich lady by clapping. There is a line created from the two glass meeting. Maid cross the line to clap then return back. I looked for other visual representation of this concept. The house is full of lines. Stairway, hallway... The rich and poor seems to always stay on opposite sides of the line.
ah yes this is a type of cinematography diving the characters by lines , Separating them, notice how the 'old maid' and 'kevin' were on one side - lower class and the lady on the another
Accented Cinema made a video that talks about the line. It’s prevalent throughout the film. At one point the son looks out the window wondering if he fits in. You can see him and his reflection seperated by a line
Just to add on to the contrast in physical levels of the two families’ homes, the park family is even further risen from being at the top of the hill by having their entrance to their main area of living involve walking up a case of stairs while, in contrast, the Kim’s family, as already mentioned, goes even lower than the bottom as the hill as they live in a semi basement. Higher than high and lower than low.
Something I found really interesting was the flickering lights (not about Morse code). despite it always occurring, the parks just assume it's controlled by AI/sensors. It doesn't bother Mr.Park specifically because it lights up his path up the stairs. Interesting because he is the main provider in the household. The audience, however, knows it is Geun Sae. This could potentially highlight the ways workers are at the core of capitalism. The lights flickering almost resemble an idea. Without the working class, those in power would not be wealthy. It is through the effort of workers (e.g Geun Sae learning morse code, making sure to always get up and pay his 'respect' for Mr.Park) that their ideas are able to then be turned to wealth/ or in this case comfort. whereas for the workers, it is an effort that is often gone unnoticed, seen as a cog in the system, doing their job as they should not be shown any appraisals or recognition. idk if this makes sense and is probably a reach lmao.
This just blew my mind. Maybe it IS a reach, but honestly something I love about films like this is that we can find so much meaning in everything, even beyond what the creators had intended. :)
One thing I noticed on rewatching the film is what happens at the very beginning in contrast to how the movie ends. At the beginning, the poor father flicks a "stink bug" off the table, who is merely trying to get some crumbs left behind. When the fumigator comes around, he tells the family to leave the window open so they get free fumigation. Later, when the rains come, the poor family's home has been destroyed, while the rich wife is celebrating how clean the air is now that the rain has washed away the filth. That, compounded by how the rich family discusses the poor family's smell, puts the poor family in the position of being the stink bug fumigated from the rich people's table.
Also, the first shot is the camera panning down to the Kim son (sorry don't know names), but there are noticeable rays of sunlight shining through the window. However, the last shot pans down and there's no sunlight (although there's a tiny bit of light from the streetlights coming through) and its in the dead of winter (usually symbolic of things like death, harshness, etc. Really kills any thought of Kim son being ever able to afford that house.
@@fionaaron3854 instead of folding the pizza boxes properly like his family, he follows the girl in the video to fold it as fast as possible and not caring whether he did a good job, which explains why out of the 4 of them he is the one to be stuck in the basement
Actually when I think about this movie, I can't help but wonder about who Min-hyuk (the friend who gave Ki-woo the stone) really is. I mean the stone itself is supposed to be a mysterious, magical object to begin with, so maybe Min-hyuk himself came from a family of impostors who managed to cheat their way up into wealth. Because it's so suspicious that he just shows up without much explanation, gives Ki-woo the idea of faking his identity to get the tutoring job, and leaves. And what's the real reason why he gave Ki-woo the stone? Is it genuinely out of kindness, or maybe, was he trying to rid himself off its curse? As we see in the end, Ki-woo could only get rid of the stone until he puts it at the highest point in the neighborhood, on top of a hill. Also the fact that both Min-hyuk and Ki-woo say the same exact thing about the rich people's daughter, I guess it could indicate that Ki-woo was trying to copy Min-hyuk, but I thought it could also be because they both aspire to marry rich.
@@yupitsme7574 Unlikely. Though Park Seo-joon (the guy who played Min-hyuk) is a very famous actor in Korea, I was surprised that he only played a cameo/extra here.
I think Min-hyuk just didn't consider Ki-woo seriously. To him, Ki-woo is not even a contender for Da-hye(the daughter of Park). We can see Min-hyuk saying that his classmates from prestigious university are not trustworthy. Min-hyuk trusts Ki-woo because Ki-woo got nothing to threaten him. It can be an analogy of Rich people who don't even think poor people seriously deep inside of their minds. It seems Min-hyuk is helping Ki-woo but if he really cares Kim's family, he would never give them a gift like the stone.
I recall that rock was insisted to be given to Kiwoo's family by Minhyuk's grandfather (or so he says). He even mentions that his grandfather had been collecting those types of rocks since he was young that their whole house is filled with them. He even mentions many rooms of the house, which is also an indicator that his family is indeed wealthy (because of the big house). When they got the rock, Kiwoo's dad even examined it and seemed to be knowledgable about those things too, and Minhyuk went "Wow you know about these things". We don't know their relationship with minhyuk's grandfather, but maybe he knew Kiwoo's dad would appreciate the rock. Kiwoo's mom on the other hand, said "food would've been better." I think Minhyuk and Kiwoo are parallels, same as with how maybe Minhyuk's grandfather and Kiwoo's dad are parallels. When Minwoo mentions that the house is filled with those rocks, whose value seems high to those who know about them, you could see the contrast to how the Kim's house was filled with just clutter. They seem to be opposites in that sense and seem to be parallel to each other, but overlap with that rock. I would even go as far as to assume that Minhyuk's grandfather and Kiwoo's dad met each other when they served in the military, since minhyuk's grandfather started collecting those rocks during his cadet days, and it is also something Kiwoo's dad would probably enjoy to do if he could afford to collect them. Also we don't know if the rich daughter even liked Minhyuk back, we just know that he liked her. Since she very quickly fell for Kiwoo, we can't say if she really did like Minhyuk. I think it is also significant to note that Minhyuk comes all the way to the Kims' place and comes inside their home, first sight we see of him is from the POV of the Parks', Minhyuk outside on elevated ground. Opposite to Kiwoo who goes to the Parks' home climbing up and up. So in the sense that they are opposite parallels, i don't think Minhyuk was the similar type of "parasite" as Kiwoo was. I do think he was genuinely a friend that just really trusted him, since his wealthy grandfather also adores them enough to send them gifts (without occasion). Or maybe he was even just someone who trusted Kiwoo, not as a friend, but just someone to trust because they're not on the same level and he isn't a threat or competition to him.
I think you missed something, he took the exams 4 times but considering their status they cannot afford to send their son to college, so i assume he took the exam in the stead of other rich kids and got paid.
@@anar.3281 College works different in Korea. Everything is paid, even with scholarships and such, it's so hard to went up to college since the way of living there is too expensive. If you can live four to five years with noodles as food 3x a day, borrowing books from others, then maybe just "maybe" it's possible.
@@anar.3281 if you are that poor even taking the train to college, getting books is an expense. Not to mention that if you attend classes you have no time to work. And they clearly need all the children to be working
Ana R. You have to pay for college, along with high school, middle school, and elementary. In the beginning they mention how the daughter stopped attending school because they couldn’t afford for her to continue. I’m which I find ironic, the daughter is the most intelligent in the family both educationally and streetwise and she couldn’t finish high school but she basically connected with the rich family the most and help them with forging the paper work.
@@ayathasan9090 No - elementary and middle school is free for all. High school, you need to pay, but not that much. The College tuitions are a problem, though, yeah.
Something I had not yet seen brought up as an in depth analysis of the scene where the Kim's home is flooding. In that moment, we can see what is important to each character highlighted. One of the first things the father grabs is the medal, which is symbolic of his pride. Often throughout the movie we see his pride show when others perceive him to smell bad, and we see his pride and rage when his wife insults him and calls him a cockroach. The daughter goes to grab her secret stash of cash and to enjoy a cigarette, almost complacent and indifferent to the filth and squalor that is her life. She is often times shown as brazen or reckless, like being rude to the Park family during her sessions, lavishly enjoying a bath and tv, or when she is drinking straight from the bottle in the scene of all the Kims in the rich house's living room. She is a selfish character who seems to be mostly worried about herself. The mother is concerned about closing the window, which I believe is representative of her motherly homemaking tendencies, and preserve her dwelling as a mother ought. She is not concerned about the possessions, but rather the dwelling itself. Lastly, the son, is enamored with the stone, which represents passion, ambition, and hope. He is often shown to have hope to be fully assimilated into the lifestyle of the Park family, and a sense of belonging. Part of him views his relationship with the Park's daughter as genuine, and he has hopes of entering University legitimately both in the beginning and the end of the film. He always tries to have a plan for success. Even in the very last scene, we see him writing letters to his father, whom he has no legitimate way of ever contacting, fantasizing that he will purchase the house. Ultimately, his hope is squandered as reality sets in, shown by the very last words in his letter; so long
When Jessica does the 'finger-quote' mnemonic jingle to remember her fake identity, she's using the melody from a classic Korean song "Dokdo is our Land." While the characters in the film are engaging in a struggle between classes and taking from each other like parasites, "Dokdo is our Land" represented the political struggle between Korea and Japan over the relatively meaningless Dokdo islands (it is uninhabited, except by one person at the moment). It's a symbol of their petty competition for status, money, and personal gain. EDIT: From a Korean perspective, there is another element to Dokdo. Historically, Japan occupied Korea and enslaved the nation to their will. So in that sense, Japan was the Park family and Korea was the Ki family at that point of the film which is why we subconsciously empathize with the Ki family at first. Furthermore, the rock that Kevin carries around physically represents the Dokdo Islands (also called Liancourt Rocks). That's probably another layer for why it keeps being connected to water (floating in the basement, returned to the stream).
anothername99 Its probably harder to remember because we are not exposed to it as much. I’m Brazilian, but I watch American, Canadian and other western shows and movies all the time, so names like “Kevin” are easy to remember since it’s associated to a lot of characters in shows I like (Ed Edd and Eddy is the first one that comes to mind and I watched as a child) Jessica is a common name in my country so is also easier to remember. Even the not that few eastern shows that I watch (mostly anime) have their characters’s names being very different that what I’m used to. Even so, it ends up being easier to remember because in an episodic series I’m reminded of those names a number of times. While in “Parasite” ‘s case is a movie I’ve seen only once.
I don’t know if anyone else noticed but Mr. Park says the old housekeeper always ate enough for 2 people. This foreshadows her husband being in the basement and how she probably took 2 servings for herself and her husband!
Ikinararangal kong ako ay Iglesia ni Cristo clearly not since it has over 50 likes, and it’s just an insight idk why you mad. Just appreciate this cinematic masterpiece and shut up if you don’t have anything insightful to say.
Ikinararangal kong ako ay Iglesia ni Cristo I never said you were mad at the film? You’re mad at my comment for no reason. And I don’t know where your reading comprehension is at but like I said in my last comment, It’s clearly not obvious if 69 (nice) people liked it. So again, shut up and save yourself the embarrassment.
Also! In the scenes where Mrs. park in Mr. Kim are running errands for the party it is evident that Mrs. Park does not want presents to be brought to the part (in fact she mentions it multiple times throughout their run of Errands). I think this ties into the beginning when Min brought them the stone as the present as well, showing how the Lower class perceives gifts as almost a blessing to where in the upper they are looked at as an inconvenience or at least over looked since they necessarily have everything they want already
Someone in the comments mentioned that when Kevin went down to the basement with the stone, he did not go there with the intention to attack, but to give them the stone as a gift wishing them too prosperity like they got. But the thought of gifting actually got him injured and all hell broke loose. Maybe this could be connected with your point that, that gift should have been avoided by him.
I interpreted that very differently. She says multiple times to not worry about gifts and just come as you are, but I think we're supposed to know that she doesn't mean it. Just as the guests know she doesn't mean it so they all dress to the nines and bring a gift so Mrs Park can do the whole "oh, you shouldn't have" thing. It's all a social performance they do.
He didn't bring the stone to kill the basement family, he brought it to them as a gift. That's why he's calling out to them, asking if they're okay, rather than storming in with it held high.
Yeah I said that, too. He wanted to gift it to them because he thought It truly brought prosperity. He wasn’t trying to kill them. I think the reviewer is pretty clueless on a lot of the deep meanings
Thing I noticed was when the previous house keeper was throwing up in the toilets after fought against Kim's family ,the toilet water of Kim family's splashed. I think it described a karma.
I wasn't the only one who was thinking about karma. I was like the toilet that's the karma for thinking that they were higher than the first housekeeper. (Sorry if I made mistakes I'm french)
A couple of details that I don't think many people have noticed: -Unlike KiTaek, ChoongSook didn't even bother to look impressed by the stone gift. She said she'd rather have KiWoo's friend bring them something to eat. In the scene where KiWoo leaves his house for an interview at the Parks' house, you can see how ChoongSook uses the stone as a tool to sharpen her knife. LOL I just think this describes many Korean mothers (or 'ahjummahs') who disregard etiquette or trends and prefer practicality over all. -Also, when KiWoo lands his job as a tutor at the Parks' house, the first thing the family does is celebrate by drinking the "Flight" beer, which is the cheapest (and in my opinion, the crappiest tasting) beer in Korea. When KiJung also gets hired by the Parks, all of the members of the family, with the exception of ChoongSook, move on to drinking "Sapporo," which is a Japanese brand and is one of the best quality beers that you can find in regular Korean supermarkets (it's about twice as expensive as "Flight"). ChoongSook continues to drink "Flight," which I think is meant to represent a mother's love and constant willingness to make sacrifice for the sake of her children. Unlike GeunSae and KiTaek who commit murder out of hate toward the members of a different class, ChoongSook commits murder as a revenge for her daughter's death (which is also the reason why she doesn't get sentenced to jail but remains living freely with her son in their old house).
But the thing is... it’s kind of choongsook s fault all this happened. Choongsook had no pity when the maid (I forgot name ) revealed her husband and try to pay her to keep the secret . Instead choongsook decides to call the police instead of having pity
@@vmulti2078 I think she does the right thing for her family, giving their current situation. It's way too risky letting the man continue living there. The real reason things fucked up is that the rest of her family tripped and acidentally revealed themselves.
Kirsten Casado It’s not about compassion unfortunately. It’s about survival. As many people have already mentioned, the poor will fight to reach the top of the ladder. It’s sad but true. I mean think about it. If an apocalypse took place, the poor would have to scavenge for resources while the rich would be perfectly ignorant and fine in those circumstances. Anyone would choose their own family over someone’s else’s. It’s a dark truth.
There's a belief in some countries, if you take a stone from a river, it'll bring a curse home in disguise as a curse. And to break the curse you have to bring the rock back to it's water. Maybe it's a Metaphor? I don't know if Koreans have such beliefs.
MD V i don’t know if it’s a korean belief but i wouldn’t be surprised if they implemented this superstition as a symbol even if it wasn’t a korean belief- after all they used the expansion into native american territory by european settlers as an analogy
God! As a 19 year old, once I collected many colored stones from Rangeet river in Himalayas. But before leaving the river, a sudden realization occurred that we all amass what we like, we carry them and keep those till we live, and when we die, we leave everything that we have amassed all through life. I threw all the stones back to Rangeet.. Saved me from several curses I think..
Have you noticed the painting of Da-song, the one hanging on the wall, it looks like geun-sae, the husband of the housekeeper moon -gwang and behind him is the indian tent of the boy on a sunny morning. and there's a yellow upward arrow on the top of the tent that indicates that geun-sae will go up and show up at the boy's party and will do a hideous crime which is the black abstract part of the painting at the lower right corner. or maybe the yellow arrow, for them, indicates that da song's dad will die and go to heaven because there's a black man shape object beside the arrow that seems ascending to heaven. Da-song's second painting, the one given to Jessica, shows geun-sae with a bloody forehead holding a knife which is actually what he looks like at the climax of the movie. 😎😎 What a brilliant movie!!!
"Jessica" said that thing about how everyone needed to only worry about themselves when she was drunk, but she still jumped in front of the knife to protect Da-song. Deep down she knew none of this was his fault. Dang I worry about that kid.
Best analysis of this movie I've seen. Every element of this story was so perfectly considered for maximum effect and meaning. It's this endless dissectability that makes me want to watch a movie over and over. Just subscribed to your channel.
whoa, eye-opening analysis! i also noticed that when they’re running down the stairs in the rain, you see them through all of the criss-crossing lines and wires. seems like a representation of all of the connections and lies they made up to get to the top, and then they had to escape all the way back to the bottom of it all.
Ohhhh, that's a good way of interpreting it. I saw it as spiderweb-like to reinforce their social class and the fact that they are parasites of the Parks with insect reminescent symbols. That in that particular scene, when they're returning to their home and having the stark reminder of who they really are, they are stuck metaphorically in the slums and underneath these webs.
8:30 I disagree with this, considering she's not the only one to die, Mr. Park died as well. Considering what her brother said about her looking like she fits in the best with that lifestyle and given how smart, talented, and ruthless she's shown to be (Ki-woo had the initial idea of integrating their family into the Park's, but it seemed like most of the planning came from Ki-jeong, and given her rebuttal to her father when he wondered if the previous driver found a new job), I think her and Mr. Park's death are parallels with each other. She died because was probably the only member in the Kim family with the actual potential to "cross the line" and make something of herself if she was born into a wealthier family, and Mr. Park died because he forgot his (original) place and also "crossed the line" (it's inferred that he's new money as opposed to old money since he laments his days taking the subway when he describes Mr. Kim's smell).
MixNMatchName another thing to point out but not really related to your comment is that there is also a comment above mentioning the number 4. The chinese word for number 4 sounds like the word for death, and in Korea the word for four(th) is a prefix in the word for death and Deceased. The daughter and the son of the parks are both the 4th member of the family and both die. (Well we do not know what happened to the little boy, but I believe he dies because they did not reach the ER for his siezure )
also that guy in the basement praised mr park like no other calling him perfect and such i think it's similar to ppl who defend billionaires irl because "they worked hard" or that they owe them for wtvr technology or wtvr they made when in reality they are just pushing them down even more
but without such inventions we wouldn't have advance phones, laptops, etc... so you kind of do have to thank the ones who invented them... Like really without things like wifi or the internet we wouldn't even have the luxury to post comments on youtube. heck there wouldn't even be a youtube or Netflix or anything related to the world wide web...
@@linda33528 Inventing new technology isn't something just millionaires do. Something millionaires tend to do is exploit people and the environment, even entire economies and industries, all to hoard more wealth than they'll ever need in a hundred lifetimes.
@@linda33528 also most of those apps you use are developed by their employees and not directly by them, while they also contribute heavily and have great responsibly for it and stuff they still underpay and overwork those people and of course take all the credit
@@SpikimaMovies I haven't, but I just saw your review (I know I shouldn't have before watching the movie but I couldn't help myself 😅) and I'll definitely add it to my list of movies to watch! Thanks for the recommendation. :)
when yeon kyo (mrs. park) is party planning on the phone in the car with her bare feet up on the headrest of front seat and then rolls down the window after she catches a whiff of the ‘smell’ was a clever touch of juxtaposition. seemingly aware but in fact totally oblivious...on many levels.
Thank you for pointing out that the Kims have a Ki which sounds like the "gi" in "gisaengchung". It also never occurred to me that it took forever for the Kims to reach home when it rains simply shows the reality of gap between the rich and the poor.
This is probably the first ever movie I have looked at so critically just because of all the symbolism that I realised! Usually I haaate movies with sad endings or plot twists that aren’t happy etc but this movie left me hella impressed at the concept, the themes and the representation of classes through symbolism- it was a fricken piece of art! Man, amazing for someone to think that and direct it💯Oscar well deserved!!
This movie really left an impact in me. I can't stop watching videos about it and of course i can't stop thinking about it. Parasite is one of a type. Masterpiece
about the poor, poorer and rich: I think the semi-basement is to show that that family is above the completely underground one. I think it's also interesting that the poorest live directly under the rich.
Did anyone notice the pill containers to the left of the cupboard in the scene where the original housekeeper woman (Moon Gwang) is preparing a drink for the rich wife (Mrs Park)? I wonder if Moon Gwang used to sedate Mrs Park so that she could tend to her husband in the bunker?
So that is why that scene was important. I wondered why they made such a deal out of us seeing her make the plum extract drink. She probably usually adds the sedative.
@@SLIGHTMARE i thought the scene shows her drug abuse. In the sex scene she says something like "bring me drugs, than you can to anything with me" which is a pretty "addict"-thing to say.
Maybe it’s been commented on, but one thing that stood out to me was that when the poor family had gone home to find their home and neighborhood flooded and then staying in a shelter, they drop everything to go help with last minute party. Their lives are falling apart, but they quietly come and work to help the rich family have fun.
Glad I came across this video. I’ve watched a ton of analysis videos and director/actor Q&A’s on this movie and I have also seen the movie twice in theaters, so I thought I had peeled back most of the layers to this film. But being non-Korean I knew that I didn’t catch a lot of things and your video helped with that: the ramen/cube-steak symbolism, and @8:29 Korean word for “parasite”, amongst a lot of other things. Dope video. Keep it up!
Hmm honestly as a Korean, the ramen thing is really not something to delve into that deeply. It's the same about people putting gold leaf on pizza, or truffle fries, etc. It's simply that they can do it, so they do it. The kid wanted the cheap meal, but clearly the mom wanted to offer more than that, so she asks Mrs. Kim to add Hanwoo beef (which is basically like the Korean version of Kobe beef).
The best movie of 2019 has everything: great acting, fabulous screenplay, with funny, tense and plot-twist moments, excelent directing, social critics and acid jokes. A monumental (but easy-to-consume) piece of art that satisfies all audience's tastes. Highly recommended.
i also thought there was also maybe a recurring theme of communication perhaps: kiwoo becomes dahye's english tutor, dasong and mr park use their walkie talkies, dasong is communicating something through his art, geunsae and gitaek both communicate through morse from beneath the staircase, the wifi signal from the first scene of the film, kiwoo almost getting caught under the table bc of his phone notifications, and maybe even the script they used to get rid of the old housemaid? idk if these are really all related or if i'm just reaching, but the walkie talkies definitely seem somewhat out of place in the movie, and the morse code felt very prevalent so i thought that maybe i was onto something
Also, the way that the Kims family came into the Parks house was through connections. Through people recommending others, that is also a big social critic. Even though all four of them were qualified for the jobs they got if it weren't for connections they would never have the jobs in the first place.
you could take a step further and say that the levels of communication have their own level of class to them. From moorse code, being a useless and outdated method of communication, or free wifi and 'WhatsApp' as a semi-lowly form of communication. Also, English is regarded as a more prestige language, and it kind of highlights Ki-Woo as almost fitting in.
@@ericfromthat70sshow27 Mr Park and his wife never payed any attention to the morse code but when the dad used it to talk to his son he understood it :OOO holy shit
The Native American tent from USA signifies a sacred location where a curse will unfold. We’ve all heard of Native American burial grounds and cursed locations. It’s an allegory to the inevitable fate
Also, Native American elements were used to show that even though they have a deep, complex history and culture, they've been reduced to just a child's hobby, something so surface-level. It's like how the rich view the poor as some kind of monolithic mass.
I view the Stone as being symbolic of where you come from, every single night the family (except the mother) returns home, they each individually bask in the indulgences of the rich but it they never pretend that that is their lives. However the one night they leave the stone behind and pretend to be a rich family everything goes wrong. When confronted by a even poorer family, much below themselves (by literally and class wise) they choose not to show any compassion, they lie and treat them like lesser. As a result everything goes wrong. Maybe i'm wrong but i feel like themes of class solidarity are pretty present throughout the film are this kinda fits.
3:40 not really it’s more like putting lobster or truffles in Mac and cheese as a afternoon snack, korean hanwoo (the meat used) is like Japanese wagyu/Kobe it’s just an in your face way to display their wealth.
@@ghhhhhhhhhh Same, but reading some of these analysis comments made me like the Kim mother a bit more, because she was just looking out for her family the whole time above all. The sister was always only looking out for herself but I can't blame her, she didn't want to accept her life.
@@ketzexi6276 Every character in the movie puts themselves first. Even the Park daughter (who is mostly just a normal teenager) clearly feels ignored and like she gets less attention than her younger brother and she resents him and her parents for it. And there's nothing wrong with protecting your family first, except for when they tried to turn away the old housekeeper asking for help instead of teaming up and working together. Throwing others under the bus got them this far, but ultimately that selfish mindset held them back from bringing about any real change to thier situation.
Also notice how our first intro of Mr. Park as he stepped into the house everyone was rushing to greet him and even the lights that we later know was done by Moon Gwang was basically worshipping Mr. Park like a king.
This is a great analysis video. In my opinion, I think the views of looking up and down is reverse. I believe looking up is a sign that you acknowledge someone has more power than you. We have had moments where the Parks have looked down: Da hye looking down at the birthday party with Ki Woo, Mr. Park looking down at the panties in his car, Mr. Park looking down at the dying Geun sae. However, I don't think the Parks have ever looked up because they have never acknowledged anyone who is above them. The Park house was built at the highest peak is so that the only thing they can do is look down at everyone else living beneath them. The Kims live in a semi basement with a window is so that they would have to look up on a daily basis. Notice during the conversation between Chung sook and the ex housemaid, Chung sook was looking down at the maid because she views her status of power to be higher. While the ex housemaid was basically a beggar at that point. The only reason why Da Hye never bothered to look under the bed or how Ki Taek was never caught escaping is because the rich don't bother wasting their time with the trivial things the poor do. At those scenes, Ki Woo isn't Kevin and Ki Taek isn't Mr. Kim. They are seen as people lesser than an English tutor and car driver. Just like how in reality, most people recognize the rich and famous but most wealthy people won't bother acknowledging the existence of one random beggar. That's my interpretation of the up and down thing.
I partially agree, I feel like this movie can be left to your own interpretations like weather you think they were looking up or down or how there is no specific parasite, they all are feeding off each other that way they are neither looking up or down. I don’t know if this makes sense😅
And we can also see that the poor family is a more open one ... they tell each other everything and spend much more time together while the rich family always seems to be apart... Idk I felt that
Thank you so much for making this video!!! The water breaking the illusion and literally guiding them back to reality was something I completely missed. I've tried watching other videos on this movie and this one is so good!!!
In the final massacre, Ki-taek is wearing the EXACT shirt Ki-woo was wearing in the first scene. They are back to square one. Even possibly worse than square one, he is trapped hiding in a basement for murder charges wearing the exact shirt Ki-woo was wearing when this all started.
I love the comparison that you made to no exit! I totally see that! All the characters essentially “torment eachother” and feed off each others weaknesses or desires! Its perfect
The stone's value, much like money, is determined by how people choose to see it. The son saw it as a metaphorical gift, but when he dropped it, the basement guy saw it as a weapon. It's money, a material object with no value in itself. This is like how poor people can view charity money as wicked self-promotion OR actual good will. They can react violently out of distrust.
@@carlac6914 I dont know exactly what you are talking about but I know for a fact that the korean public don't think she is ugly at all. Most Koreans think she is charming.
The kims daughter was indeed more fitted to escape the poverty sphere. She already had the Rich attitude. When having fun in the living room of the parks and the father regrets the destitution of the previous driver. She streamed to let those kind of thoughts go and think for just themselves... So in a sense, we are all the same, the system is the parasite.
What a great video, I didn’t catch on some of the Korean references due to me not being Korean. It’s a really good breakdown of themes and cinematography of the film. One foreshadowing you didn’t mention is the kid’s painting that foreshadowed the guy living in the basement, I like how there are so many things you can see in each shot.
Nice! Yes I didn't find place to mention thar but now that you bring it up, it totally would've fit with foreshadowing. I'll check out what you wrote too
I don’t know much to asian history, but one more thing to consider is that Miss Park asks for the tables to be organized in the same figure as the Korean ships in a battle against Japan (which colonized Korea for many years). I guess this has the same idea as the Indian concept through out the movie.
This type of analysis is just what i was yearning for last night! Thank u! What a fantastic film, it left so many abstract ideas in my head and you helped answer that call!
The part where the house is flooded ,you can see that the rock of hope is floating which means it’s fake. It represents the quote: “You don’t need hope ,you just need an opportunity”
I'm just relying on the subs but basing on the dialogue and for me, there was something off with Min (Kiwoo's friend who handed him the rock) The guy imo was feeding his own ego from the fact that there was a family far below his own. In that particular scene, here's the exact lines as translated: Kiwoo: *"Why ask a loser like me?"* Min: *"Why do you think?"* (Normally at this point a healthy friend would spew motivational words but then instead Min's answer was) *"Just the thought makes me sick"* *"Those disgusting frat boys slavering over Da-hye? It's revolting"* Min didn't argue against Kiwoo's self-deprecation, calling himself a *Loser* instead he just continued on with his story. For him, Kiwoo is no contender for Dahye's interest. He appears to be genial, and good-natured but was that all there is to him? Think about the stone he brought, if he really mean well and was sincerely thinking then why not food, indeed? Why stone. Food = Warm Stone = Cold This is just my interpretation of the dialogue shared. But for me, it's either he's a genuine friend or another guy befriending someone supposedly 'beneath' him to feel good about himself. He could be as fake as his stone.
I think the movie illustrates Hegel’s Master Slave dialectic which was the idea that inspired Marx’s class struggle and class consciousness. The Master Slave dialectic has equally ambiguous identities. The rich family surrender their executive decision to the poor family and the poor family in many ways seem to be mastering the masters until the old house keeper re-emerges. Hegel Said this leads to a struggle onto death. And then preceded to show different possible outcomes and themes from that story. 1. Demand for recognition illustrated by the basement man demanding respect. 2. The struggle onto death at the end. 3. The rich man acting out of fear asking for the keys and thereby surrendering his master status. But one theme which is overlooked is the father son theme also has the master slave dialectic in it too. The son provides the family this opportunity and yet the son surrenders to the father for advise. And the father husband, when the father pretends he will beat his wife, and then reveals it is a joke. And the wife says „I would kill you if you did.“ Perhaps in the very end the son remains locked in some other Version of the dialectic. The son then dreams of rescuing the father. I am not an expert on Hegel but it seems to be similar.
3:57 and following - Notice how Yeon-Kyos feet are up against the edge of the front seat - practically right next to Ki-taek's head. Her feet are dirty on the bottom and probably smell, but she never once thinks about whether *he* can smell them. But only a minute later, she starts to notice *his* smell and rolls down her window.
The water metaphor and not looking down reminds me of the “trickle down” economics of the late 89s, Regan era. The idea was helping the poor by giving to the rich, who would then employ more of them. In reality, they bought stocks.
Excellent review and analysis! Great observation of the mansion being the highest point of the neighborhood whilw the Kim's live at the lowest point. My favorite movie this year!
1:55 dahyu would have looked under the but she got distracted and I feel as if that scene is trying to tell that dahyu doesn't care about differences but her environment doesn't let her cross the line. she manages to barely cross it but she gets pulled back instantly. Just a hunch
Our philosophy teacher (the one that showed us the movie) used to tell us after that "Be careful with what you plan, because you never know when there's going to be someone hiding on the basement" and it really stuck
as a Korean, I am so proud of Bong Joon Ho the film director and " jjapaguri " which is for a working-class dish in Korea but in this film rich family’s matriarch insists that it’s served with a strip of sirloin. This expertly bridges a working-class dish of instant noodles with an expensive slice of beef only the wealthy would have in the fridge. I hope this film wins the academy awards for 2020 it will be difficult but you never know^^
Just a general question: how does one get to this level of film analysis? In other words, how can one improve and develop on their study of film, scenes, motifs, etc., where it becomes as fluid as this one? I have a background in English literature, so critical thinking isn't beyond me, but this analysis in particular is just very informative. I want to be able to write analysis of this depth for my own personal enrichment. Although I could search resources online, peer reviewed journals and what have you, I'm looking to the RUclips film community for any suggestions or answers you may have? Thank you in advance!
Christian Landa watch some film analysis channels on here like 1. Nerdwriter1 (this channel does insightful intellectual analysis of art and cinema) 2. Every Frame A Painting (this channel analyzes the craft of film making and points out cinematic techniques that filmmakers use to enhance themes) 3. StudioBinder (this channel has a wide range of content on cinema, ranging from analysis of films, analysis of directors etc) 4. The Take (this channel has some of the best and most rigorous and thorough analysis of film and tv shows) The only way to become more fluid and fluent in film analysis is to watch more films and to read and watch RUclips content that analyzes films for you!! I hope this helps :)
@@marteenahsanchez1238 Thank you for putting me on!!! Really appreciate you taking your time to lead me in the right direction. RUclips film community is beyond helpful.
The word 'uptown people' in korean is 상류층. 상 means up, and 류 menas water, flow, or stream.. in the same way downtown is 하류층, and 하 means down. So the water in the movie also means up and down. (Sorry im not good at english)
Cocamila Am i poor？，me have to live with my brother and his wife because my family don’t have money to get house but shit it’s better dan nothing and better dan living in dat stank ass car 🚙 we have
one more thing of significance (and this goes with your up and down theory): stairs representing economic mobility. to get to their main living space, the rich family takes a flight of stairs up. the poor family has to take a flight of stairs down. for the basement family, they are many many flights of stairs down. when the son starts to enter the rich family, he dreams of being rich like them. the whole family dreams of it. so they take the stairs up, from their house to the rich's main living space. but it's fake, and they're eventually forced back to their original state when there's a risk of their fakery being exposed. they have to take the long flight of stairs downwards, back to their dwelling. also ties in with the son's final letter to his dad, when he promises to one day buy the house and all his dad has to do is walk up the stairs; but we all know its basically impossible for the poor to simply climb up the economic ladder just like that, so it's false hope.
Another two things that I noticed: -all of the seven deadly sins had been committed at least once throughout the film with different characters. - a theory I also had was that, if In fact the Kim family, had accepted the great fortune of at least Ki-Woo getting a job, without hurting someone else to do so(his friend offered him his position while he was away) and he hadn’t started the affair with the young girl(adultery, betraying his friend for his own pleasure) the situation of the Kim family and if we were to assume that the “good fortune” was brought to them by the stone, then the fate of the whole Kim family would have been much better off and the lowering of their social class even more wouldn’t have occurred. After that the sister( Ki-Jung) got both the driver and the maid fired, in order to get her parents in the job, which is then what made the whole situation unfold. Because logically thinking if it was just Ki-Jung and Ki-Woo the ending would have been much different and they could have brought themselves and their family into a better social class and financial situation through honest (kind of) work. I believe that the reason of the Kim family downfall is their own greed and at a large point desperation that lead them to their own downfall. -Ki-Jung was the one to directly harm two people to get her parents the job, yet she is the only one who ends up dead in the end, that could also be seen as a connection of karma in this movie. Also the mother( Chung-Sook) who treated Moon-Gwang terribly by kicking her down the stairs, got probably the most awful punishment by watching her own daughter die right in front of her, and same goes for the father as well other than being pushed down to the basement (the lowest class). Overall, I watched it yesterday and I’ve been thinking about this masterpiece all day today and last night and I’m still truly amazed at how much more thought I need to put into it and consider.
f d kitaek is the fathers name, and kiwoo who is the son, is shown to have “bought the house etc” but actually it shows him just planning to do so without showing him actually achieving it giving the ending of the film two possibilities, the hopefully but difficult ending of Kiwoo actually being able to buy the house within a few years and the depressing unthinkable ending of kiwoo actually taking a farrrrr longer time to get to his father and it not even happening at all (ofc we all wish the first one is the ending)
@@isabellaHappyberry Isabella Stavrow I surely hope that he will actually be able to afford the house, even if it takes longer years - I think Ki-taek will be able to survive given the living arrangements in the house with the foreign owners. And Korea also has this seven year thing law (sorry, im not sure either) and he can be deemed a free man if he isn't seen for seven years (??? Pls enlighten me, anyone). After watching this movie, I was so overwhelmed and kept thinking about it. Especially the scene where Kitaek was about to escape outside the house, and saw the upper class visitors running away for their safety, and him turning back to the garage, looking for his own refuge in the basement - like a cockroach or something. He knew he would be helpless if he went outside, anywhere where light is. It was so overwhelming for me. For nights, I kept thinking about the ending of the movie and how it would actually turn out. I help myself by just thinking that after seven years, he could come out of that basement. I read somewhere that Bong Joonho already said Kiwoo will not be able to afford that house (since he could have ended it with Kiwoo's 'plans' coming to life, but didn't) - it is impossible. This is the ending that will emphasize the things we seem to miss, or we need to see. As for me, i know its impossible to buy that house so im gonna stick to the seven year thing and try to sleep at night knowing kitaek will be out of that basement soon. 😅
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks for all the feedback and love. Definitely an awesome film and glad many enjoyed it like I did. Certainly didn't include many great points brought up in the comments due to time, nature of my video, or cuz I didn't catch it myself! Great comments by all. You're all so smart.
Couple points that have been brought up many times that I would like to help clarify!
1. Noodles: Many of you are correct that it's a simple way of displaying how crazy wealthy Park family is and nothing more! :) They are able to have such luxurious snack and it is a very normal thing for them that doesn't need to be questioned: it's not significant. And this extends to the idea that Kim's family think they are very naive and being conned; just like how Kim's family couldn't really become 'upper class' via their conning, Park's family doesn't really become poorer because of Kim's. They are not naive; it's just that the financial cost is way too insignificant to even start questioning Kim family's actions. Just like how the noodles are a simple snack and nothing more to them. That was the real idea behind my point about the noodles :) and also cuz it's fun to see such contrasts in things presented in the movie about two contrasting families; then again, already stated that nothing is a definite answer!
2. Looking down: Park only looks down in the car because he drops something of his own: the papers, not because he just casually wished to look down.
3. Why did Kim ask, 'You still love her right?': I'll copy paste this one from a reply I made "I take it as his way of making a bond with Park :) Kitaek wishes to be part of this 'high' society & at the same time idolizes Park's family- his way of communicating and making a more personal bond (to confirm his upper status and just because he idolizes Park) is to ask such questions but to a 'truly upper class' Park, that question exactly is what crosses the line. Obviously Kitaek, who isn't in the same class, doesn't get that. You can find a similar approach & denial when Kitaek hold's Yeon-Kyo's hand to comfort her, to which she simply asks back 'did you wash your hands' ."
Also, don't forget to like, subscribe and turn that notification on to know when new videos are up each week! Love.
After your analysis, I'm surprised by how much I've missed while I was watching the movie. What a thorough and deep analysis of the amazing movie! Also, I was pleasantly surprised by your perfect pronunciation of Korean names! Thank you and please, keep the great work!
Can you please put Arabic subtitles??
@@ahmadyusuf9342 do you mean autogenerated or an actual translation?
does that look like a film you can enjoyed? it depressing at best...
Capitalism. It’s killing us.
The toilet being the highest point of the house. That hurts my heart to hear.
Yes, the Kims lived below the toilet
I loved how the went down the stairs, seemingly for miles and miles, to get home.
Yea, hearing that being said and pointed out really hit me, can’t believe I didn’t catch that.
It means that they live below the city’s sewage’s system since the toilet most likely had to drain downwards without any sump pump system.
A lot of people do. Usually the toilet's on the 2nd floor.
I found really interesting that scene when the old maid (I'm really sorry I don't know the names) is running up the stairs (literally trying to go up) trying to get help from the rich just to be kick down till the bottom by another poor people, so the last one can keep her position. All of this without the rich realizing or caring
Yo that is brilliant
I remember someone saying once “the real battle is poor fighting against the poorer while the rich are watching in bliss from afar”
@@commanderhedgehog590 Oh my god. I'm so glad I've ran into your comment. This is exactly the perspective I got from this film.
The scene when all the Kim are on the stairs listening to what's happening down in the basement with the old maid and then they slip and they all fall down is to signal that both families are actually in the same position, the Kim thought they were above them but that was only an illusion.
Woah
the self portrait the kid drew is basically the person living under the basement
Damn just noticed that, no wonder why he kept drawing him he was traumatized
Oh snap!!! :0 your right. Good eye
and the black thingy on the edge of the drawing meaning is that person came from the basement? cmiiw (black=dark=basement)
I'm glad someone else caught that
Yes. The “ghost” that scared him on his birthday.
One more thing to add, when Ms Park is getting ready for the party and she is choosing through all her expensive clothes, it cuts to all the poor citizens choosing through the plain white t shirts.
Yes from the evacuation area parallel
Dorritos fritos and cheetos
and Ms Park choose white t-shirt as well
yea i noticed in the final scene they were all wearing grey except for the sister
@@oshin_aykaz6889 doritos, cheetos or fritos indeed brother
“They never looked down” THATS SO INTERESTING HOLY F
While they were having pleasure in sofa,they still didn't look down.
Mr park did look down when he found the panties, no?
Luis Jasso lolll true
Luis Jasso only bc he dropped something
The rich guy looked down at the car when he saw the panties
How does Mr Park get rich? By selling “Virtual Reality” headsets... another great metaphor.
selling lies. Well not really lies they're the real deal but rather dreams hes selling dreams
By selling Bricks
ANOTHER BRICK
Oh wtf I didn’t catch that
I have a feeling that Mrs Park came from a rich family and Mr Park became rich through his business.
Gav J I agree. Her apparent uselessness makes me think she has been privileged her whole life.
The little boy’s fascination with Native American culture is a metaphor about how the poor can never really integrate themselves with the rich. Native Americans were cast out of contemporary American society and were segregated into reservations. This is highlighted again when the little boy spends the night in the tent. The rich little boy sleeps outside and thinks it’s a luxury. Poor people sleep outside because they have to. Also the mother’s insistence on hiring people who attended American schools and buying American made products (teepee) is a nod to how the rest of the world views America: a capitalist success story.
Christian Sandoval kdjdjsks THIS
great observation
Well technically native Americans were conquered after the Indian wars and were treated at as such. Just wanted to clarify that. I am Native American and I like how you mentioned that. People tend to forget that we got off pretty good from that, we were allowed to be sovereign nations and some reservations got out of the poor living conditions and managed to integrate. I like this movie because it uses that symbolism and it’s easily understood with history knowledge
Also, considering the boy was haunted by the memory of the guy on the stairwell, having a bow and arrow on him at all times makes sense.
I think it also shows how they are so detached from the plight of the Native Americans that they treat it as a plaything. To them, dressing up and cosplaying as American Indians shows how little they think of them--not at all except as a toy.
Great analysis - they were all parasites - no clear heroes or villains - just people. A true masterpiece of filmmaking.
No villians! The Parks must be villians just for not knowing anything!
The villain of the story was capitalism, typical Bong.
@@Elena-gj6ow - villans are usually people but I guess they can be things. If capitalism is the villan what/who is the hero?
it is korean movie.... they all like that... but you can tell that they all fuck from the beginning of the movie that if their life cross..it will not end well...
@Lindy T - well, if so, the poor family was the villians for carrying out such a lie/ deceiving the rich family. Both sides are the villians and the heros. #periodt
My favorite scene was when Jessica sat on the toilet to smoke. So powerful, so heart breaking.
David Williams what do you mean explain more he said it
@David Williams it symbolizes Ki Jung's mental and emotional state I think. A one push she could go mental breakdown I think? that's what I interpreted
@@cas9007 yes she was in denial about her living conditions and effects of their actions. This can also be seen when her father was showing concern over the former driver, and she told him to just think about themselves.
the strongest cinematic moment of the film for me too...
the depth i think
a very human! moment...
I like how it cut from the maid throwing up into the toilet in the basement to Jessica sitting on a toilet shooting out nasty shit. There was a ton of symbolism in that one scene.
"They're rich but still nice." "They're nice because they're rich."
Ji Hye Park perfect line 👌🏻
"You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan. No plan at all." "You can't go wrong with no plans. We don't need to make a plan for anything. It doesn't matter what will happen next. Even if the country gets destroyed or sold out, nobody cares." My favouite line
it not the nice... i do see nice people who not rich... it just all about they fucking fool... i would notice they up to something long ago... since my family may be asian but good connection don't mean much... i won't let kid sleep in toy tent in heavy rain...
@@bennytrinh7228 "We don' need no steenking plans!"
Ji Hye Park “if I was rich, I would be nice too”
The most interesting aspect in the entire film to me is that the Kim family isn't unqualified for the jobs they steal. Had they been born in different financial circumstances, they wouldn't be struggling. Meanwhile the Park family is obviously naive and seems to rely entirely on paid help.
Angel Flores everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. In a capitalist society, you are paid for what you can demonstrate that you are worth. Are there good restaurants or good tv shows that just don’t get enough viewers or buyers? Yes, it’s marketing and selling yourself and economics of supply and demand. The rich family’s dad was like a ceo of a tech company so he had a lot of skills to bring to the table that isn’t house cleaning,etc. different skills for different folks. It’s great that we all have the freedom to cultivate skills. I believe that even in a society like in South Korea if you are able to demonstrate your ability despite how much they emphasize prestige if you went to top universities,etc you can go far. A lot of good companies don’t care about where you went to school. At the end of the day employers care about getting results. If you can convince them you can, you’re hired, all things considered.
I can appreciate the director of the movie in how he framed such a great story and with engaging characters. The rich and the poor do have certain elements to what the movie shows but that shouldn’t discourage anyone or have them believe they can’t make it on their own. Most of the recent top earners became top earners from the poor. Top 1% people change all the time.
Yeah so true -- my friend caught a subtle scene where when the dad is driving and the rich guy says don't worry this isn't a test, the camera focuses on the coffee he's holding. It is a test and he's watching the coffee to see if it splashes when he turns and drives.
it not about qualified a maid and driver is not hard the job... but the problem is like would you had homeless people near your jordan shoe?
@@augburto Yes exactly! Chung-sook being able to prepare a dish she had never even heard of for Yeon-kyo shows a lot of resourcefulness and capability. Ki-woo and Ki-sung are also at least decent teachers, since Ki-woo teaching English is never shown to be a problem, and Ki-sung googles psychology of painting to at least fake like she's helping a developing child.
@@assuming9735 If they didn't get greedy and try to get the housekeeper fired they could've built up their net worth, get out of poverty with 3 out of the 4 working good jobs. They had an opportunity to get out of poverty, blaming the situation when they could've done better is not taking responsibility, so no they weren't stuck in their situation like you make it seem. They were the problem with their greed.
One detail that people missed in this film is the fact that Mr. Kim (father) at one point was an employee of Mr. Geun-sae (man living in the bunker). In the first half of the film, there is a scene where the Kim family is having lunch at a driver's cafe and Jessica (daughter) asks her father if he ever got to drive Mercedes-Benz vehicles during his occupation as a driver. Mr. Kim then revealed that he never did get to drive Mercedes-Benz cars until he began his job as a valet driver. He also revealed that he found his valet job after working at a Taiwan cake shop that went bust. In the second half of the film when it was revealed that Gook-moon gwang (former housekeeper) was harboring her husband in the hidden bunker, her husband reveals that his Taiwan cake shop went bust and he had to turn to loan sharks to try to save his business which led to him being indebted and hiding from those debt collectors.
Holy crap...
Literally so many meanings this film, you would have to watch it a million times to understand and catch every little sentence meaning and objects
This is reaching abit I think. If Mr. Kim was an employee of the bunker guy then why did he not recognise/acknowledge him when he saw him?
@@MCee97 Most business owners don't actually work in their stores or work alongside their employees or even meet their employess. They hire store managers to do that. The owners just reap the profits. That's one theory.
A super point noted by you. Excellent, You have summarized beautifully. Your English is superb
I think you forgot one small yet important symbolism that is even used in its stylish Title. The Plant that is shown growing on the Rich Families house
The plant is known as the "Creeper plant" The first time we see the plant or vine is when Ki woo goes to The rich family for the first time and the shot is framed in a way that it makes Ki woo Look like the plant that Creeps in the Rich Families home.
its the first thing i've noticed since in my country This Creeper plant is also called "Parasite".
Edit: oh another thing I forgot to mention, in the ending of movie when we are shown kiwoos fantasy where he has already bought the house, the plant is already grown and reached it as well, the thing about these vines is that they grow fairly quickly, which perfectly visualizes how long Kiwoo thinks he is gonna accomplish his plan.
Very intriguing info! Thanks for that!
@@SpikimaMovies you're welcome ♥
That's so interesting! what country are you from where they call it a parasite?
@@thugpoet1847 I'm from Georgia.
Wow
The stone floating during the flood is the central revelation because that means it's fake.
yeah took me 2 time watching it to understand ik i am idiot
Omg yes !
That's why he didn't die because the stone isn't that heavy?
@@HakeemRDaud ohhhhh now I understand
Holy shit 🤯
I love that you didn't do the whole retelling of the plot thing. I hate it when reviewers do that. Like if I'm watching a review then I probably already watched the film and know the plot.
Yehhhh I assumed itd be pretty useless especially for a 'detailed analysis'
You'd be surprised how many RUclipsrs ®©™ (try to) make a living doing just that, copy and pasting an entire plot for the air time
Most annoying thing ever
Another thing I noticed. The concept of not crossing the line. In the trailer there is a scene where the maid wakes up the rich lady by clapping. There is a line created from the two glass meeting. Maid cross the line to clap then return back. I looked for other visual representation of this concept. The house is full of lines. Stairway, hallway... The rich and poor seems to always stay on opposite sides of the line.
ah yes this is a type of cinematography diving the characters by lines , Separating them, notice how the 'old maid' and 'kevin' were on one side - lower class and the lady on the another
Accented Cinema made a video that talks about the line. It’s prevalent throughout the film. At one point the son looks out the window wondering if he fits in. You can see him and his reflection seperated by a line
That line is everywhere. You can notice it if you see it closely
designmc Also when the father of the Kim family (sorry, don't know names) goes to first pick up the Park father, there's a line in the window
10:43
Just to add on to the contrast in physical levels of the two families’ homes, the park family is even further risen from being at the top of the hill by having their entrance to their main area of living involve walking up a case of stairs while, in contrast, the Kim’s family, as already mentioned, goes even lower than the bottom as the hill as they live in a semi basement. Higher than high and lower than low.
Something I found really interesting was the flickering lights (not about Morse code). despite it always occurring, the parks just assume it's controlled by AI/sensors. It doesn't bother Mr.Park specifically because it lights up his path up the stairs. Interesting because he is the main provider in the household. The audience, however, knows it is Geun Sae. This could potentially highlight the ways workers are at the core of capitalism. The lights flickering almost resemble an idea. Without the working class, those in power would not be wealthy. It is through the effort of workers (e.g Geun Sae learning morse code, making sure to always get up and pay his 'respect' for Mr.Park) that their ideas are able to then be turned to wealth/ or in this case comfort. whereas for the workers, it is an effort that is often gone unnoticed, seen as a cog in the system, doing their job as they should not be shown any appraisals or recognition. idk if this makes sense and is probably a reach lmao.
This just blew my mind. Maybe it IS a reach, but honestly something I love about films like this is that we can find so much meaning in everything, even beyond what the creators had intended. :)
@@saras.1923 thank you so much, this message really made my week :) and yes! movies are pure art
Yes, the invisible workforce is what make the life of the wealthy so fluid and easy...
One thing I noticed on rewatching the film is what happens at the very beginning in contrast to how the movie ends.
At the beginning, the poor father flicks a "stink bug" off the table, who is merely trying to get some crumbs left behind. When the fumigator comes around, he tells the family to leave the window open so they get free fumigation.
Later, when the rains come, the poor family's home has been destroyed, while the rich wife is celebrating how clean the air is now that the rain has washed away the filth. That, compounded by how the rich family discusses the poor family's smell, puts the poor family in the position of being the stink bug fumigated from the rich people's table.
Also, the first shot is the camera panning down to the Kim son (sorry don't know names), but there are noticeable rays of sunlight shining through the window. However, the last shot pans down and there's no sunlight (although there's a tiny bit of light from the streetlights coming through) and its in the dead of winter (usually symbolic of things like death, harshness, etc. Really kills any thought of Kim son being ever able to afford that house.
This is amazing!!!!
And also the rich father complained about the poor father’s smell
Also did you notice that every fourth pizza box was unusable? Kim Ki-taek messed up his boxes after trying to fold them like the girl in the video.
That was also brought up when they were getting paid! She said every fourth box was messed up, so that they'd pay them less
I love the camera panning over to the dad and his daughter looking back at him when they say "every 1 out of 4 is a reject." This movie is SO WITTY
@@fionaaron3854 4 is seen as an unlucky number in Korea. Most buildings don't have a 4th floor on the elevator
@@fionaaron3854 instead of folding the pizza boxes properly like his family, he follows the girl in the video to fold it as fast as possible and not caring whether he did a good job, which explains why out of the 4 of them he is the one to be stuck in the basement
wow that is really interesting
Actually when I think about this movie, I can't help but wonder about who Min-hyuk (the friend who gave Ki-woo the stone) really is. I mean the stone itself is supposed to be a mysterious, magical object to begin with, so maybe Min-hyuk himself came from a family of impostors who managed to cheat their way up into wealth. Because it's so suspicious that he just shows up without much explanation, gives Ki-woo the idea of faking his identity to get the tutoring job, and leaves. And what's the real reason why he gave Ki-woo the stone? Is it genuinely out of kindness, or maybe, was he trying to rid himself off its curse? As we see in the end, Ki-woo could only get rid of the stone until he puts it at the highest point in the neighborhood, on top of a hill. Also the fact that both Min-hyuk and Ki-woo say the same exact thing about the rich people's daughter, I guess it could indicate that Ki-woo was trying to copy Min-hyuk, but I thought it could also be because they both aspire to marry rich.
Lala what if there’s a sequel to this movie and it’s about the background story of minhyuk?
@@yupitsme7574 Unlikely. Though Park Seo-joon (the guy who played Min-hyuk) is a very famous actor in Korea, I was surprised that he only played a cameo/extra here.
@@blackraven028I know right I was kinda disappointed he is amazing
I think Min-hyuk just didn't consider Ki-woo seriously. To him, Ki-woo is not even a contender for Da-hye(the daughter of Park). We can see Min-hyuk saying that his classmates from prestigious university are not trustworthy. Min-hyuk trusts Ki-woo because Ki-woo got nothing to threaten him. It can be an analogy of Rich people who don't even think poor people seriously deep inside of their minds. It seems Min-hyuk is helping Ki-woo but if he really cares Kim's family, he would never give them a gift like the stone.
I recall that rock was insisted to be given to Kiwoo's family by Minhyuk's grandfather (or so he says). He even mentions that his grandfather had been collecting those types of rocks since he was young that their whole house is filled with them. He even mentions many rooms of the house, which is also an indicator that his family is indeed wealthy (because of the big house). When they got the rock, Kiwoo's dad even examined it and seemed to be knowledgable about those things too, and Minhyuk went "Wow you know about these things". We don't know their relationship with minhyuk's grandfather, but maybe he knew Kiwoo's dad would appreciate the rock. Kiwoo's mom on the other hand, said "food would've been better."
I think Minhyuk and Kiwoo are parallels, same as with how maybe Minhyuk's grandfather and Kiwoo's dad are parallels. When Minwoo mentions that the house is filled with those rocks, whose value seems high to those who know about them, you could see the contrast to how the Kim's house was filled with just clutter. They seem to be opposites in that sense and seem to be parallel to each other, but overlap with that rock. I would even go as far as to assume that Minhyuk's grandfather and Kiwoo's dad met each other when they served in the military, since minhyuk's grandfather started collecting those rocks during his cadet days, and it is also something Kiwoo's dad would probably enjoy to do if he could afford to collect them.
Also we don't know if the rich daughter even liked Minhyuk back, we just know that he liked her. Since she very quickly fell for Kiwoo, we can't say if she really did like Minhyuk.
I think it is also significant to note that Minhyuk comes all the way to the Kims' place and comes inside their home, first sight we see of him is from the POV of the Parks', Minhyuk outside on elevated ground. Opposite to Kiwoo who goes to the Parks' home climbing up and up.
So in the sense that they are opposite parallels, i don't think Minhyuk was the similar type of "parasite" as Kiwoo was. I do think he was genuinely a friend that just really trusted him, since his wealthy grandfather also adores them enough to send them gifts (without occasion). Or maybe he was even just someone who trusted Kiwoo, not as a friend, but just someone to trust because they're not on the same level and he isn't a threat or competition to him.
“If there is poor there is poorer and for the poor the poorer is a roach not a team” brilliantly said
I think you missed something, he took the exams 4 times but considering their status they cannot afford to send their son to college, so i assume he took the exam in the stead of other rich kids and got paid.
In my country you don't need to pay anything to study in a public college, I don't know how college works in South Korea but that's an idea
@@anar.3281 College works different in Korea. Everything is paid, even with scholarships and such, it's so hard to went up to college since the way of living there is too expensive. If you can live four to five years with noodles as food 3x a day, borrowing books from others, then maybe just "maybe" it's possible.
@@anar.3281 if you are that poor even taking the train to college, getting books is an expense. Not to mention that if you attend classes you have no time to work. And they clearly need all the children to be working
Ana R. You have to pay for college, along with high school, middle school, and elementary. In the beginning they mention how the daughter stopped attending school because they couldn’t afford for her to continue. I’m which I find ironic, the daughter is the most intelligent in the family both educationally and streetwise and she couldn’t finish high school but she basically connected with the rich family the most and help them with forging the paper work.
@@ayathasan9090 No - elementary and middle school is free for all. High school, you need to pay, but not that much. The College tuitions are a problem, though, yeah.
Something I had not yet seen brought up as an in depth analysis of the scene where the Kim's home is flooding. In that moment, we can see what is important to each character highlighted. One of the first things the father grabs is the medal, which is symbolic of his pride. Often throughout the movie we see his pride show when others perceive him to smell bad, and we see his pride and rage when his wife insults him and calls him a cockroach. The daughter goes to grab her secret stash of cash and to enjoy a cigarette, almost complacent and indifferent to the filth and squalor that is her life. She is often times shown as brazen or reckless, like being rude to the Park family during her sessions, lavishly enjoying a bath and tv, or when she is drinking straight from the bottle in the scene of all the Kims in the rich house's living room. She is a selfish character who seems to be mostly worried about herself. The mother is concerned about closing the window, which I believe is representative of her motherly homemaking tendencies, and preserve her dwelling as a mother ought. She is not concerned about the possessions, but rather the dwelling itself. Lastly, the son, is enamored with the stone, which represents passion, ambition, and hope. He is often shown to have hope to be fully assimilated into the lifestyle of the Park family, and a sense of belonging. Part of him views his relationship with the Park's daughter as genuine, and he has hopes of entering University legitimately both in the beginning and the end of the film. He always tries to have a plan for success. Even in the very last scene, we see him writing letters to his father, whom he has no legitimate way of ever contacting, fantasizing that he will purchase the house. Ultimately, his hope is squandered as reality sets in, shown by the very last words in his letter; so long
When Jessica does the 'finger-quote' mnemonic jingle to remember her fake identity, she's using the melody from a classic Korean song "Dokdo is our Land." While the characters in the film are engaging in a struggle between classes and taking from each other like parasites, "Dokdo is our Land" represented the political struggle between Korea and Japan over the relatively meaningless Dokdo islands (it is uninhabited, except by one person at the moment). It's a symbol of their petty competition for status, money, and personal gain.
EDIT: From a Korean perspective, there is another element to Dokdo. Historically, Japan occupied Korea and enslaved the nation to their will. So in that sense, Japan was the Park family and Korea was the Ki family at that point of the film which is why we subconsciously empathize with the Ki family at first. Furthermore, the rock that Kevin carries around physically represents the Dokdo Islands (also called Liancourt Rocks). That's probably another layer for why it keeps being connected to water (floating in the basement, returned to the stream).
What it's a valid interpretation. Do you take everything directors say at face value
Dokdo is lived many koreans.
@@QWER-wv5kn No, Dokdo is an uninhabited island. Are you confusing it with Ulleungdo?
I feel pretty bad not knowing anyone's names in the film.
I know mr. park
I know right?
I remember mostly of their western aliases. And just some of them at that: “Kevin” and “Jessica”.
This shows how perceptually and even cognitively biased we are.
@@hahm99 no I dont think so. Its just that it's a different name culture than ours
anothername99 Its probably harder to remember because we are not exposed to it as much.
I’m Brazilian, but I watch American, Canadian and other western shows and movies all the time, so names like “Kevin” are easy to remember since it’s associated to a lot of characters in shows I like (Ed Edd and Eddy is the first one that comes to mind and I watched as a child)
Jessica is a common name in my country so is also easier to remember. Even the not that few eastern shows that I watch (mostly anime) have their characters’s names being very different that what I’m used to. Even so, it ends up being easier to remember because in an episodic series I’m reminded of those names a number of times. While in “Parasite” ‘s case is a movie I’ve seen only once.
I don’t know if anyone else noticed but Mr. Park says the old housekeeper always ate enough for 2 people. This foreshadows her husband being in the basement and how she probably took 2 servings for herself and her husband!
Ikinararangal kong ako ay Iglesia ni Cristo clearly not since it has over 50 likes, and it’s just an insight idk why you mad. Just appreciate this cinematic masterpiece and shut up if you don’t have anything insightful to say.
Ikinararangal kong ako ay Iglesia ni Cristo I never said you were mad at the film? You’re mad at my comment for no reason. And I don’t know where your reading comprehension is at but like I said in my last comment, It’s clearly not obvious if 69 (nice) people liked it. So again, shut up and save yourself the embarrassment.
And then she lies in the basement about it and says she food for him from her salary.
Carrey On woahh i didn’t even realize that, amazing.
@Ionut Ionut It literally isn't. Viewers have to make the correlation themselves.
Also!
In the scenes where Mrs. park in Mr. Kim are running errands for the party it is evident that Mrs. Park does not want presents to be brought to the part (in fact she mentions it multiple times throughout their run of Errands).
I think this ties into the beginning when Min brought them the stone as the present as well, showing how the Lower class perceives gifts as almost a blessing to where in the upper they are looked at as an inconvenience or at least over looked since they necessarily have everything they want already
Someone in the comments mentioned that when Kevin went down to the basement with the stone, he did not go there with the intention to attack, but to give them the stone as a gift wishing them too prosperity like they got. But the thought of gifting actually got him injured and all hell broke loose. Maybe this could be connected with your point that, that gift should have been avoided by him.
I interpreted that very differently. She says multiple times to not worry about gifts and just come as you are, but I think we're supposed to know that she doesn't mean it. Just as the guests know she doesn't mean it so they all dress to the nines and bring a gift so Mrs Park can do the whole "oh, you shouldn't have" thing. It's all a social performance they do.
He didn't bring the stone to kill the basement family, he brought it to them as a gift. That's why he's calling out to them, asking if they're okay, rather than storming in with it held high.
Omg i never thought of that 🤯 did you read that somewhere?
Yeah I said that, too. He wanted to gift it to them because he thought It truly brought prosperity. He wasn’t trying to kill them. I think the reviewer is pretty clueless on a lot of the deep meanings
That makes sense but i was confused as to why he wanted to be quiet while going inside the basement
@@officialholybible to not let other people know?
Astolfo But like if he wanted to give it to them as a gift why would he be sneaky sneaky tho
Thing I noticed was when the previous house keeper was throwing up in the toilets after fought against Kim's family ,the toilet water of Kim family's splashed. I think it described a karma.
L
Wow
Woooah
I wasn't the only one who was thinking about karma. I was like the toilet that's the karma for thinking that they were higher than the first housekeeper. (Sorry if I made mistakes I'm french)
A couple of details that I don't think many people have noticed:
-Unlike KiTaek, ChoongSook didn't even bother to look impressed by the stone gift. She said she'd rather have KiWoo's friend bring them something to eat. In the scene where KiWoo leaves his house for an interview at the Parks' house, you can see how ChoongSook uses the stone as a tool to sharpen her knife. LOL I just think this describes many Korean mothers (or 'ahjummahs') who disregard etiquette or trends and prefer practicality over all.
-Also, when KiWoo lands his job as a tutor at the Parks' house, the first thing the family does is celebrate by drinking the "Flight" beer, which is the cheapest (and in my opinion, the crappiest tasting) beer in Korea. When KiJung also gets hired by the Parks, all of the members of the family, with the exception of ChoongSook, move on to drinking "Sapporo," which is a Japanese brand and is one of the best quality beers that you can find in regular Korean supermarkets (it's about twice as expensive as "Flight"). ChoongSook continues to drink "Flight," which I think is meant to represent a mother's love and constant willingness to make sacrifice for the sake of her children. Unlike GeunSae and KiTaek who commit murder out of hate toward the members of a different class, ChoongSook commits murder as a revenge for her daughter's death (which is also the reason why she doesn't get sentenced to jail but remains living freely with her son in their old house).
안은주 Oh wow! I just rewatched it yesterday and even then didn’t really notice all those details. Thank for pointing it out ^^
But the thing is...
it’s kind of choongsook s fault all this happened.
Choongsook had no pity when the maid (I forgot name ) revealed her husband and try to pay her to keep the secret . Instead choongsook decides to call the police instead of having pity
amy 2337 I thought the same thing. Especially when the old housemaid was begging and calling them both needy, she had no compassion :(
@@vmulti2078 I think she does the right thing for her family, giving their current situation. It's way too risky letting the man continue living there. The real reason things fucked up is that the rest of her family tripped and acidentally revealed themselves.
Kirsten Casado It’s not about compassion unfortunately. It’s about survival. As many people have already mentioned, the poor will fight to reach the top of the ladder. It’s sad but true. I mean think about it. If an apocalypse took place, the poor would have to scavenge for resources while the rich would be perfectly ignorant and fine in those circumstances. Anyone would choose their own family over someone’s else’s. It’s a dark truth.
There's a belief in some countries, if you take a stone from a river, it'll bring a curse home in disguise as a curse. And to break the curse you have to bring the rock back to it's water. Maybe it's a Metaphor? I don't know if Koreans have such beliefs.
MD V i don’t know if it’s a korean belief but i wouldn’t be surprised if they implemented this superstition as a symbol even if it wasn’t a korean belief- after all they used the expansion into native american territory by european settlers as an analogy
We do believe that too. Our parents won't let us pick stones from riverside and keep it at home.
God! As a 19 year old, once I collected many colored stones from Rangeet river in Himalayas. But before leaving the river, a sudden realization occurred that we all amass what we like, we carry them and keep those till we live, and when we die, we leave everything that we have amassed all through life. I threw all the stones back to Rangeet..
Saved me from several curses I think..
@@AmitKumar-vx4hp wtf
@@anuvette yea, I was wandering there for 50 days on a solo trip, and thought several times of embracing Buddhism
Have you noticed the painting of Da-song, the one hanging on the wall, it looks like geun-sae, the husband of the housekeeper moon -gwang and behind him is the indian tent of the boy on a sunny morning. and there's a yellow upward arrow on the top of the tent that indicates that geun-sae will go up and show up at the boy's party and will do a hideous crime which is the black abstract part of the painting at the lower right corner.
or maybe the yellow arrow, for them, indicates that da song's dad will die and go to heaven because there's a black man shape object beside the arrow that seems ascending to heaven.
Da-song's second painting, the one given to Jessica, shows geun-sae with a bloody forehead holding a knife which is actually what he looks like at the climax of the movie. 😎😎
What a brilliant movie!!!
the husband of the housekeeper is named geun-se. moon-gwang is the housekeeper
"Jessica" said that thing about how everyone needed to only worry about themselves when she was drunk, but she still jumped in front of the knife to protect Da-song. Deep down she knew none of this was his fault. Dang I worry about that kid.
Best analysis of this movie I've seen. Every element of this story was so perfectly considered for maximum effect and meaning. It's this endless dissectability that makes me want to watch a movie over and over. Just subscribed to your channel.
Or to symbolize the constant hate that poor has towards rich and vice versa
whoa, eye-opening analysis! i also noticed that when they’re running down the stairs in the rain, you see them through all of the criss-crossing lines and wires. seems like a representation of all of the connections and lies they made up to get to the top, and then they had to escape all the way back to the bottom of it all.
Ohhhh, that's a good way of interpreting it. I saw it as spiderweb-like to reinforce their social class and the fact that they are parasites of the Parks with insect reminescent symbols. That in that particular scene, when they're returning to their home and having the stark reminder of who they really are, they are stuck metaphorically in the slums and underneath these webs.
Whoa that’s true too!
8:30 I disagree with this, considering she's not the only one to die, Mr. Park died as well. Considering what her brother said about her looking like she fits in the best with that lifestyle and given how smart, talented, and ruthless she's shown to be (Ki-woo had the initial idea of integrating their family into the Park's, but it seemed like most of the planning came from Ki-jeong, and given her rebuttal to her father when he wondered if the previous driver found a new job), I think her and Mr. Park's death are parallels with each other. She died because was probably the only member in the Kim family with the actual potential to "cross the line" and make something of herself if she was born into a wealthier family, and Mr. Park died because he forgot his (original) place and also "crossed the line" (it's inferred that he's new money as opposed to old money since he laments his days taking the subway when he describes Mr. Kim's smell).
MixNMatchName another thing to point out but not really related to your comment is that there is also a comment above mentioning the number 4. The chinese word for number 4 sounds like the word for death, and in Korea the word for four(th) is a prefix in the word for death and Deceased. The daughter and the son of the parks are both the 4th member of the family and both die. (Well we do not know what happened to the little boy, but I believe he dies because they did not reach the ER for his siezure )
i just realized mr park and ki-jung are the only ones shown taking a bath. it was another foreshadowing about their link.
It was said that Mr. Park survived.
@SørenCast Z Yes.
@SørenCast Z he dead..
also that guy in the basement praised mr park like no other calling him perfect and such i think it's similar to ppl who defend billionaires irl because "they worked hard" or that they owe them for wtvr technology or wtvr they made when in reality they are just pushing them down even more
In the end, after the father starts living in the basement he does the same thing. He apologizes to park while staring at his photo.
Kind of like liberals who live in capitalist countries and praise communist countries.
but without such inventions we wouldn't have advance phones, laptops, etc... so you kind of do have to thank the ones who invented them... Like really without things like wifi or the internet we wouldn't even have the luxury to post comments on youtube. heck there wouldn't even be a youtube or Netflix or anything related to the world wide web...
@@linda33528 Inventing new technology isn't something just millionaires do. Something millionaires tend to do is exploit people and the environment, even entire economies and industries, all to hoard more wealth than they'll ever need in a hundred lifetimes.
@@linda33528 also most of those apps you use are developed by their employees and not directly by them, while they also contribute heavily and have great responsibly for it and stuff they still underpay and overwork those people and of course take all the credit
Great analysis! I watched this yesterday and have been thinking about it non-stop. So much to think about...
Nice! Did you like it? There are so many layers it's never-ending once you start analyzing!
@@SpikimaMovies Exactly! Which is why I loved it!
@@happyyy1445 Ikr! Have you watched the lighthouse? I recently reviewed it but there's SO much to peel back to that film as well. You might like it.
@@SpikimaMovies I haven't, but I just saw your review (I know I shouldn't have before watching the movie but I couldn't help myself 😅) and I'll definitely add it to my list of movies to watch! Thanks for the recommendation. :)
@@happyyy1445 that sounds like plan- thanks for watching! See you around the channel ;)
Another thing to note is that their is no shower in the dungeon so he will forever stink.
when yeon kyo (mrs. park) is party planning on the phone in the car with her bare feet up on the headrest of front seat and then rolls down the window after she catches a whiff of the ‘smell’ was a clever touch of juxtaposition. seemingly aware but in fact totally oblivious...on many levels.
Thank you for pointing out that the Kims have a Ki which sounds like the "gi" in "gisaengchung". It also never occurred to me that it took forever for the Kims to reach home when it rains simply shows the reality of gap between the rich and the poor.
The boy was just like "IT SMELLS LIKE BROKE IN HERE"
This is probably the first ever movie I have looked at so critically just because of all the symbolism that I realised! Usually I haaate movies with sad endings or plot twists that aren’t happy etc but this movie left me hella impressed at the concept, the themes and the representation of classes through symbolism- it was a fricken piece of art! Man, amazing for someone to think that and direct it💯Oscar well deserved!!
This movie really left an impact in me. I can't stop watching videos about it and of course i can't stop thinking about it. Parasite is one of a type. Masterpiece
about the poor, poorer and rich: I think the semi-basement is to show that that family is above the completely underground one. I think it's also interesting that the poorest live directly under the rich.
Did anyone notice the pill containers to the left of the cupboard in the scene where the original housekeeper woman (Moon Gwang) is preparing a drink for the rich wife (Mrs Park)?
I wonder if Moon Gwang used to sedate Mrs Park so that she could tend to her husband in the bunker?
That would explain the scene in the beginning when the maid was outside waking up the rich wife so that she could meet the new tutor!!!
HOLY FUCKIN SHIT
@Jason WoodsMr. Kim says that she is a "sinple woman." She doesn't notice anything.
So that is why that scene was important. I wondered why they made such a deal out of us seeing her make the plum extract drink. She probably usually adds the sedative.
@@SLIGHTMARE i thought the scene shows her drug abuse. In the sex scene she says something like "bring me drugs, than you can to anything with me" which is a pretty "addict"-thing to say.
Maybe it’s been commented on, but one thing that stood out to me was that when the poor family had gone home to find their home and neighborhood flooded and then staying in a shelter, they drop everything to go help with last minute party. Their lives are falling apart, but they quietly come and work to help the rich family have fun.
Glad I came across this video. I’ve watched a ton of analysis videos and director/actor Q&A’s on this movie and I have also seen the movie twice in theaters, so I thought I had peeled back most of the layers to this film. But being non-Korean I knew that I didn’t catch a lot of things and your video helped with that: the ramen/cube-steak symbolism, and @8:29 Korean word for “parasite”, amongst a lot of other things. Dope video. Keep it up!
Glsd to hear that :) there are a LOT I didn't have time to cover here but this movie has so much more (as you probably know), which is why it's great
Hmm honestly as a Korean, the ramen thing is really not something to delve into that deeply. It's the same about people putting gold leaf on pizza, or truffle fries, etc. It's simply that they can do it, so they do it. The kid wanted the cheap meal, but clearly the mom wanted to offer more than that, so she asks Mrs. Kim to add Hanwoo beef (which is basically like the Korean version of Kobe beef).
@@lilazngur1yes you are actually correct! Refer back to my updated comments for further clarification :)
The best movie of 2019 has everything: great acting, fabulous screenplay, with funny, tense and plot-twist moments, excelent directing, social critics and acid jokes. A monumental (but easy-to-consume) piece of art that satisfies all audience's tastes. Highly recommended.
i also thought there was also maybe a recurring theme of communication perhaps:
kiwoo becomes dahye's english tutor, dasong and mr park use their walkie talkies, dasong is communicating something through his art, geunsae and gitaek both communicate through morse from beneath the staircase, the wifi signal from the first scene of the film, kiwoo almost getting caught under the table bc of his phone notifications, and maybe even the script they used to get rid of the old housemaid?
idk if these are really all related or if i'm just reaching, but the walkie talkies definitely seem somewhat out of place in the movie, and the morse code felt very prevalent so i thought that maybe i was onto something
Sascha these are great points!
i c
Also, the way that the Kims family came into the Parks house was through connections. Through people recommending others, that is also a big social critic. Even though all four of them were qualified for the jobs they got if it weren't for connections they would never have the jobs in the first place.
you could take a step further and say that the levels of communication have their own level of class to them. From moorse code, being a useless and outdated method of communication, or free wifi and 'WhatsApp' as a semi-lowly form of communication. Also, English is regarded as a more prestige language, and it kind of highlights Ki-Woo as almost fitting in.
@@ericfromthat70sshow27 Mr Park and his wife never payed any attention to the morse code but when the dad used it to talk to his son he understood it :OOO
holy shit
The Native American tent from USA signifies a sacred location where a curse will unfold. We’ve all heard of Native American burial grounds and cursed locations. It’s an allegory to the inevitable fate
Oh! Also, traditionally, burial sites in Korea were mounds on top of mountains 🤔
Also, Native American elements were used to show that even though they have a deep, complex history and culture, they've been reduced to just a child's hobby, something so surface-level. It's like how the rich view the poor as some kind of monolithic mass.
Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.
That's the reason Parasite got best picture, not Joker.
I view the Stone as being symbolic of where you come from, every single night the family (except the mother) returns home, they each individually bask in the indulgences of the rich but it they never pretend that that is their lives. However the one night they leave the stone behind and pretend to be a rich family everything goes wrong. When confronted by a even poorer family, much below themselves (by literally and class wise) they choose not to show any compassion, they lie and treat them like lesser. As a result everything goes wrong. Maybe i'm wrong but i feel like themes of class solidarity are pretty present throughout the film are this kinda fits.
3:40 not really it’s more like putting lobster or truffles in Mac and cheese as a afternoon snack, korean hanwoo (the meat used) is like Japanese wagyu/Kobe it’s just an in your face way to display their wealth.
Another thing I 've realised is Da- Song has seen the guy in the basement only twice in his life and both times were on his birthday.
The beginning of the sequence of events, to the end of the real story (the letter and dreams of the poor son are fantasy)
I like how which characters you like and dislike kinda reveal things about yourself
AM lord, I hated the Kim mother. But I liked the protagonists sister and the Park couple, especially the mom.
@@ghhhhhhhhhh Same, but reading some of these analysis comments made me like the Kim mother a bit more, because she was just looking out for her family the whole time above all. The sister was always only looking out for herself but I can't blame her, she didn't want to accept her life.
@@ketzexi6276 Every character in the movie puts themselves first. Even the Park daughter (who is mostly just a normal teenager) clearly feels ignored and like she gets less attention than her younger brother and she resents him and her parents for it. And there's nothing wrong with protecting your family first, except for when they tried to turn away the old housekeeper asking for help instead of teaming up and working together. Throwing others under the bus got them this far, but ultimately that selfish mindset held them back from bringing about any real change to thier situation.
Also notice how our first intro of Mr. Park as he stepped into the house everyone was rushing to greet him and even the lights that we later know was done by Moon Gwang was basically worshipping Mr. Park like a king.
This is a great analysis video. In my opinion, I think the views of looking up and down is reverse. I believe looking up is a sign that you acknowledge someone has more power than you. We have had moments where the Parks have looked down: Da hye looking down at the birthday party with Ki Woo, Mr. Park looking down at the panties in his car, Mr. Park looking down at the dying Geun sae. However, I don't think the Parks have ever looked up because they have never acknowledged anyone who is above them.
The Park house was built at the highest peak is so that the only thing they can do is look down at everyone else living beneath them.
The Kims live in a semi basement with a window is so that they would have to look up on a daily basis.
Notice during the conversation between Chung sook and the ex housemaid, Chung sook was looking down at the maid because she views her status of power to be higher. While the ex housemaid was basically a beggar at that point.
The only reason why Da Hye never bothered to look under the bed or how Ki Taek was never caught escaping is because the rich don't bother wasting their time with the trivial things the poor do. At those scenes, Ki Woo isn't Kevin and Ki Taek isn't Mr. Kim. They are seen as people lesser than an English tutor and car driver. Just like how in reality, most people recognize the rich and famous but most wealthy people won't bother acknowledging the existence of one random beggar.
That's my interpretation of the up and down thing.
they dont have to look up is the point. you have 3 classes here and the parks are on the top
I think the rich folks look up when they climb the stairs
I partially agree, I feel like this movie can be left to your own interpretations like weather you think they were looking up or down or how there is no specific parasite, they all are feeding off each other that way they are neither looking up or down.
I don’t know if this makes sense😅
Da song ( the boy ) did look up twice to the sky. Once when da hye mentioned it with her tutor and once shown by the movie.
You are so underrated. Your analytical skills are incredible. Well done
And we can also see that the poor family is a more open one ... they tell each other everything and spend much more time together while the rich family always seems to be apart... Idk I felt that
@@menlolotololo4901 exactly! a real masterpiece!
Thank you so much for making this video!!! The water breaking the illusion and literally guiding them back to reality was something I completely missed. I've tried watching other videos on this movie and this one is so good!!!
In the final massacre, Ki-taek is wearing the EXACT shirt Ki-woo was wearing in the first scene. They are back to square one. Even possibly worse than square one, he is trapped hiding in a basement for murder charges wearing the exact shirt Ki-woo was wearing when this all started.
I love the comparison that you made to no exit! I totally see that! All the characters essentially “torment eachother” and feed off each others weaknesses or desires! Its perfect
The stone's value, much like money, is determined by how people choose to see it. The son saw it as a metaphorical gift, but when he dropped it, the basement guy saw it as a weapon. It's money, a material object with no value in itself. This is like how poor people can view charity money as wicked self-promotion OR actual good will. They can react violently out of distrust.
I feel so stupid . . . I’ve watched this movie four times and I’m gobsmacked at how much went completely over my head (pun intended).
It's so amazing that even the noodles and beef that she cooked has meaning 😁
Man, the sister is incredibly attractive. Both her looks and her confidence 😍
ikr
yesplease
Watch ''The Priests''. That was the movie that made her popular and got accepted to the public as a good actress.
yesplease I KNOW RIGHT she kinda looks like seulgi from Red Velvet 🤪🤪👸🏻
She was bash out, last year was it i think, for being ugly in korea. Koreans have crazy beauty standars
@@carlac6914 I dont know exactly what you are talking about but I know for a fact that the korean public don't think she is ugly at all. Most Koreans think she is charming.
The kims daughter was indeed more fitted to escape the poverty sphere. She already had the Rich attitude. When having fun in the living room of the parks and the father regrets the destitution of the previous driver. She streamed to let those kind of thoughts go and think for just themselves...
So in a sense, we are all the same, the system is the parasite.
Yes, Capital is the parasite.
What a great video, I didn’t catch on some of the Korean references due to me not being Korean. It’s a really good breakdown of themes and cinematography of the film. One foreshadowing you didn’t mention is the kid’s painting that foreshadowed the guy living in the basement, I like how there are so many things you can see in each shot.
minhmoviereviews.weebly.com I wrote about some of the points you mentioned in my revew
Nice! Yes I didn't find place to mention thar but now that you bring it up, it totally would've fit with foreshadowing. I'll check out what you wrote too
Spikima Movies Thanks your analysis was very on point
I don’t know much to asian history, but one more thing to consider is that Miss Park asks for the tables to be organized in the same figure as the Korean ships in a battle against Japan (which colonized Korea for many years).
I guess this has the same idea as the Indian concept through out the movie.
This type of analysis is just what i was yearning for last night! Thank u! What a fantastic film, it left so many abstract ideas in my head and you helped answer that call!
The part where the house is flooded ,you can see that the rock of hope is floating which means it’s fake. It represents the quote:
“You don’t need hope ,you just need an opportunity”
I’m so glad you’re trying to save people’s time. Because most channels just explain the whole entire movie and it’s annoying
This was the best Parasite analysis video I have seen! Really well done! I look forward to more of your videos!
I'm just relying on the subs but basing on the dialogue and for me, there was something off with Min (Kiwoo's friend who handed him the rock)
The guy imo was feeding his own ego from the fact that there was a family far below his own.
In that particular scene, here's the exact lines as translated:
Kiwoo: *"Why ask a loser like me?"*
Min: *"Why do you think?"*
(Normally at this point a healthy friend would spew motivational words but then instead Min's answer was)
*"Just the thought makes me sick"*
*"Those disgusting frat boys slavering over Da-hye? It's revolting"*
Min didn't argue against Kiwoo's self-deprecation, calling himself a *Loser* instead he just continued on with his story. For him, Kiwoo is no contender for Dahye's interest.
He appears to be genial, and good-natured but was that all there is to him? Think about the stone he brought, if he really mean well and was sincerely thinking then why not food, indeed? Why stone.
Food = Warm
Stone = Cold
This is just my interpretation of the dialogue shared. But for me, it's either he's a genuine friend or another guy befriending someone supposedly 'beneath' him to feel good about himself. He could be as fake as his stone.
I always saw the stone as a parasite, itself.
Well, life came to earth with meteors which brings small life forms, something like a parasite.
Sammy Lee やら！
True. The stone is metaphorical of Illusion/Fake hope/Lack of reality and it is the parasite
Your detailed analysis has made me look into the film with even more perspectives even after watching multiple analysis videos, so amazed!
I think the movie illustrates Hegel’s Master Slave dialectic which was the idea that inspired Marx’s class struggle and class consciousness.
The Master Slave dialectic has equally ambiguous identities. The rich family surrender their executive decision to the poor family and the poor family in many ways seem to be mastering the masters until the old house keeper re-emerges.
Hegel Said this leads to a struggle onto death. And then preceded to show different possible outcomes and themes from that story.
1. Demand for recognition illustrated by the basement man demanding respect.
2. The struggle onto death at the end.
3. The rich man acting out of fear asking for the keys and thereby surrendering his master status.
But one theme which is overlooked is the father son theme also has the master slave dialectic in it too. The son provides the family this opportunity and yet the son surrenders to the father for advise.
And the father husband, when the father pretends he will beat his wife, and then reveals it is a joke. And the wife says „I would kill you if you did.“
Perhaps in the very end the son remains locked in some other Version of the dialectic. The son then dreams of rescuing the father.
I am not an expert on Hegel but it seems to be similar.
Best parasite video analysis that I've found on RUclips! Thank you, very enriching
Really awesome review man! Time to go watch your other videos! SO glad to find an awesome review of what is NOW one of my favorite movies!
I'm Korean guy learning English, and I'm bit impressed by that he knows about korean writing system.
By the way, good analysis.
Thanks! That's because I'm Korean tho lol
@@SpikimaMovies then I'm impressed by your English lol
@@gomku226 hahaha nice. Thanks!
Spikima Movies I figured that you must be Korean since you pronounced all the character's names so well!
@@Maki-00 not exactly easy names to pronounce either huh haha
3:57 and following - Notice how Yeon-Kyos feet are up against the edge of the front seat - practically right next to Ki-taek's head. Her feet are dirty on the bottom and probably smell, but she never once thinks about whether *he* can smell them. But only a minute later, she starts to notice *his* smell and rolls down her window.
The water metaphor and not looking down reminds me of the “trickle down” economics of the late 89s, Regan era. The idea was helping the poor by giving to the rich, who would then employ more of them. In reality, they bought stocks.
Excellent review and analysis! Great observation of the mansion being the highest point of the neighborhood whilw the Kim's live at the lowest point. My favorite movie this year!
The production value on this made me instantly subscribe, fantastic video
1:55 dahyu would have looked under the but she got distracted and I feel as if that scene is trying to tell that dahyu doesn't care about differences but her environment doesn't let her cross the line. she manages to barely cross it but she gets pulled back instantly.
Just a hunch
Our philosophy teacher (the one that showed us the movie) used to tell us after that "Be careful with what you plan, because you never know when there's going to be someone hiding on the basement" and it really stuck
Railings signify the subway in which the parks have mentioned they haven't taken it in while. Hence why the basement railings were ignored
every time i watch an analysis on parasite, they point out something i didn't notice and i love it
as a Korean, I am so proud of Bong Joon Ho
the film director and " jjapaguri " which is for a working-class dish in Korea
but in this film rich family’s matriarch insists that it’s served with a strip of sirloin. This expertly bridges a working-class dish of instant noodles with an expensive slice of beef only the wealthy would have in the fridge.
I hope this film wins the academy awards for 2020
it will be difficult but you never know^^
I watched this movie with some friends and we walked out absolutely blown away. It's a very special film for sure.
Just a general question: how does one get to this level of film analysis? In other words, how can one improve and develop on their study of film, scenes, motifs, etc., where it becomes as fluid as this one?
I have a background in English literature, so critical thinking isn't beyond me, but this analysis in particular is just very informative. I want to be able to write analysis of this depth for my own personal enrichment.
Although I could search resources online, peer reviewed journals and what have you, I'm looking to the RUclips film community for any suggestions or answers you may have?
Thank you in advance!
Christian Landa watch some film analysis channels on here like
1. Nerdwriter1 (this channel does insightful intellectual analysis of art and cinema)
2. Every Frame A Painting (this channel analyzes the craft of film making and points out cinematic techniques that filmmakers use to enhance themes)
3. StudioBinder (this channel has a wide range of content on cinema, ranging from analysis of films, analysis of directors etc)
4. The Take (this channel has some of the best and most rigorous and thorough analysis of film and tv shows)
The only way to become more fluid and fluent in film analysis is to watch more films and to read and watch RUclips content that analyzes films for you!!
I hope this helps :)
@@marteenahsanchez1238 Thank you for putting me on!!! Really appreciate you taking your time to lead me in the right direction. RUclips film community is beyond helpful.
@@TARRS1 You're welcome :) I hope you find the resources I mentioned helpful :)
this is the best feedback on a movie I've ever seen. Like Ph.D level skill
I found it really funny when Jessica ran to the fridge to grab peaches and throw them onto the old housekeeper😭💀
your voice is so soothing. i can hear your voice for hours!
The word 'uptown people' in korean is 상류층. 상 means up, and 류 menas water, flow, or stream.. in the same way downtown is 하류층, and 하 means down. So the water in the movie also means up and down.
(Sorry im not good at english)
The trash can the rich family use is designer one costing $2.5k
Cocamila Am i poor？，me have to live with my brother and his wife because my family don’t have money to get house but shit it’s better dan nothing and better dan living in dat stank ass car 🚙 we have
one more thing of significance (and this goes with your up and down theory): stairs representing economic mobility.
to get to their main living space, the rich family takes a flight of stairs up. the poor family has to take a flight of stairs down. for the basement family, they are many many flights of stairs down.
when the son starts to enter the rich family, he dreams of being rich like them. the whole family dreams of it. so they take the stairs up, from their house to the rich's main living space.
but it's fake, and they're eventually forced back to their original state when there's a risk of their fakery being exposed. they have to take the long flight of stairs downwards, back to their dwelling.
also ties in with the son's final letter to his dad, when he promises to one day buy the house and all his dad has to do is walk up the stairs; but we all know its basically impossible for the poor to simply climb up the economic ladder just like that, so it's false hope.
Another two things that I noticed:
-all of the seven deadly sins had been committed at least once throughout the film with different characters.
- a theory I also had was that, if In fact the Kim family, had accepted the great fortune of at least Ki-Woo getting a job, without hurting someone else to do so(his friend offered him his position while he was away) and he hadn’t started the affair with the young girl(adultery, betraying his friend for his own pleasure) the situation of the Kim family and if we were to assume that the “good fortune” was brought to them by the stone, then the fate of the whole Kim family would have been much better off and the lowering of their social class even more wouldn’t have occurred. After that the sister( Ki-Jung) got both the driver and the maid fired, in order to get her parents in the job, which is then what made the whole situation unfold. Because logically thinking if it was just Ki-Jung and Ki-Woo the ending would have been much different and they could have brought themselves and their family into a better social class and financial situation through honest (kind of) work. I believe that the reason of the Kim family downfall is their own greed and at a large point desperation that lead them to their own downfall.
-Ki-Jung was the one to directly harm two people to get her parents the job, yet she is the only one who ends up dead in the end, that could also be seen as a connection of karma in this movie. Also the mother( Chung-Sook) who treated Moon-Gwang terribly by kicking her down the stairs, got probably the most awful punishment by watching her own daughter die right in front of her, and same goes for the father as well other than being pushed down to the basement (the lowest class).
Overall, I watched it yesterday and I’ve been thinking about this masterpiece all day today and last night and I’m still truly amazed at how much more thought I need to put into it and consider.
dont forget that ki taek got his karma too. At the end he went to college & study hard (like his friend did) to buy the house and save his dad
f d kitaek is the fathers name, and kiwoo who is the son, is shown to have “bought the house etc” but actually it shows him just planning to do so without showing him actually achieving it giving the ending of the film two possibilities, the hopefully but difficult ending of Kiwoo actually being able to buy the house within a few years and the depressing unthinkable ending of kiwoo actually taking a farrrrr longer time to get to his father and it not even happening at all (ofc we all wish the first one is the ending)
@@isabellaHappyberry Isabella Stavrow I surely hope that he will actually be able to afford the house, even if it takes longer years - I think Ki-taek will be able to survive given the living arrangements in the house with the foreign owners. And Korea also has this seven year thing law (sorry, im not sure either) and he can be deemed a free man if he isn't seen for seven years (??? Pls enlighten me, anyone). After watching this movie, I was so overwhelmed and kept thinking about it. Especially the scene where Kitaek was about to escape outside the house, and saw the upper class visitors running away for their safety, and him turning back to the garage, looking for his own refuge in the basement - like a cockroach or something. He knew he would be helpless if he went outside, anywhere where light is. It was so overwhelming for me.
For nights, I kept thinking about the ending of the movie and how it would actually turn out. I help myself by just thinking that after seven years, he could come out of that basement. I read somewhere that Bong Joonho already said Kiwoo will not be able to afford that house (since he could have ended it with Kiwoo's 'plans' coming to life, but didn't) - it is impossible. This is the ending that will emphasize the things we seem to miss, or we need to see.
As for me, i know its impossible to buy that house so im gonna stick to the seven year thing and try to sleep at night knowing kitaek will be out of that basement soon. 😅