While working on the film, Bong Joon-ho called Parasite a “staircase movie”. It is an upstairs-downstairs film that explores every available rung on the ladder of class aspirationalism. The movie starts in the half-basement apartment of the Kim family, with windows that barely peer above the ground. Half-basements are distinctively Korean spaces in urban centers like Seoul, and while the Kim house is firmly below ground, it still “wants to believe it’s above the ground.”
A story about two homes — the upstairs family and the downstairs — reveals yet another lurking underneath. The original housekeeper confesses that her husband has been stowed away in a secret bunker underneath the Park house for four years. The Kims are shocked by the state of his living conditions.
In the end of the film, the father becomes the new resident in the bunker, hiding from the police in the last place they’d look to find him. The Parks move out, only to be replaced by a German family. The particularities may have changed, but everyone’s station has remained the same. There would always be a wealthy person to live upstairs, just as there would be another poor person positioned beneath them. - by E. Alex Jung
Parasite|기생충|Gisaengchung(2019) dir. Bong Joon Ho, production design by LeeHaJun
You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan. No plan at all. You know why? Because life cannot be planned. Look around you. Did you think these people made a plan to sleep in the sports hall with you? But here we are now, sleeping together on the floor. So, there’s no need for a plan. 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. Got it?
Dad, today I made a plan - a fundamental plan. I’m going to earn money, a lot of it. University, a career, marriage, those are all fine, but first I’ll earn money. When I have money, I’ll buy the house. On the day we move in, Mom and I will be in the yard. Because the sunshine is so nice there. All you’ll need to do is walk up the stairs. Take care until then. So long.
You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan. No plan at all. You know why? Because life cannot be planned. (…) So, there’s no need for a plan. 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. Got it?
