Recently, I was able to rewatch The Parasite again over the holiday. The story follows the impoverished Kim family, who infiltrate the wealthy Park family’s household by securing jobs as their servants under false pretenses. As the two families’ lives become intertwined, hidden secrets and escalating tensions that lead to unexpected and tragic consequences are shown to viewers. I am not really the person who usually watch the same film twice or possibly even more, but as someone who never learned about the academics and technicality of films, I really think I was able to get another layer of interpretation of the meaning behind this film after taking this class. Somethings I grasped after the second watch is that the parasites in the film are both Kim (poor) and Park (rich) family. Kim family is depended on Park family for living, which is the only way for them to get money and to survive. They are fed with Park’s fortune. I do believe that the Park family can also be considered as parasites even though they are rich. They depend on human labors to survive, housekeepers, drivers, and tutors takes care of everything in the house. Their lives are depended on human labors. US supremacy is also an ideology that was demonstrated in the movie as well. “US” was mentioned several times in the movie and often related to high quality. Mrs. Park mentioned the bow was bought from the US and the tent was also bought from the US and implied their high quality. Those scenes in the sense implied Park’s families desire of western-style life.
The obvious theme was social inequality. In terms of mise-en-scene and cinematography, Bong Joon-ho always used wide angle long shots to show Park’s house, demonstrating their wealth and greatness. Compared to the Kim family, four family members are constrained in a small space. In the two pictures below, there are a clear choice of framing. Ki-teak, who is facing the sunlight outside, but is trapped behind the iron fence like a prison and the general feeling is that his house is wet and dark. Park’s family often comes with warm colors and Kim’s family often comes with cold ones.
Like the picture above, low angle shots are used to show the Park family. Audiences are usually in Da-song’s perspective in Park’s house, which makes Mr. and Mrs. Park look tall and powerful. High angle shots are used in Kim’s house, which make everyone in the house small and weak, emphasizing their inferior social standing. Also, with specific choice of editing techniques, the movie used a lot of frequent cuts from Kim’s family to Park’s family to emphasize the rich and poor disparities for more drastic comparisons.
At the end, I would really recommend people to watch this film if not already. It is an Oscar winning film that is both interesting in its plot and also the techniques with the meaning behind. Lens choices, camera angles, lighting, and coloring choices made in the film all served as tools to demonstrate the main theme of the movie.