Moon-Gwangs return to the house and eventual reveal of the secret basement keeps us on the edges of our seats as viewers and seamlessly blends from the drama/comedy centered first half into the thriller/tragedy centered latter half. Mr. Park is the head of the Park household. In a trance-like state as his daughter is bleeding out on the ground, Mr Kim is triggered by Mr Parks balking at the stench and fatally stabs him in the chest before running out the house. Kim's familywill be reminded of that chasm and the cruelty of inequity in ways you couldnt possibly predict. This secret basement reveals an even lower level of status below what we had thought was the floor with the Kim family. Dong-Ik purchased the beautiful home from its architect some time ago. Its here we can clearly see how money and richness have made the Parks blind and naive. Parasites ending features a sequence of Ki-woos plan to work hard, buy the house under which his own father now hides, and reunite the family but this plan is nothing but a fantasy. I left the cinema with my heart racing thats just how impactful this movie was. An American DIY Film Movement, When is Golden Hour? Moon-Gwang has been living in the mansion as the architect's housekeeper since it was first built. Ki-woo is what really gets the Kim family through the Park family's door. Parasite exploded this past weekend on Oscar night when it became the first international film to win four Academy Awards, including the coup de grace, Best Picture. What ensues is a sneaky ploy on the Kim familys part to slowly insert themselves into the lives (and house) of the Park family as they attempt to build a better life for themselves. Ki-woo pens a letter to his father, fantasizing about his plan to go to college, secure a well-paying job and buy the Parks'. Watching the poor family leave their cramped semi-basement home to overtake the. Create robust and customizable shot lists. As with every film, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so my interpretation here may be different from yours. For a moment, it seems as though the jig is up for the Kims as Mr Park is suspicious about the entire situation, but he foolishly chalks up the forgotten panties as a result of the chauffeur taking illegal drugs. Parasite Character List Ki-woo Ki-woo is the son of the Kim family, a smart and ambitious young man who feels held back by poverty. There are plenty of examples of subtle foreshadowing all throughout this opening act that circle back around by the end of the film. Ki-woo visits the Parks in their gigantic home, where he is introduced to the spacey and out-of-touch Mrs. Park. Ki-woo Kim (Choi Woo-Shik) is a young man living in poverty in the slums of a nameless South Korean city with his family - father Ki-taek Kim (Song Kang-ho), mother Chung-sook Kim (Jang Hye-jin), and sister Ki-jung (Park So-dam). Mr Kim is the most nonchalant about their misfortunes, even as their house is flooded, leaving the Kims homeless. NEXT: Parasite: D&D Alignments Of The Main Characters. Acting on impulse, Ki-woo heads to a mountain near the house the Parks have since vacated, and which now belongs to a rich German family. It seemed intentional that the director lingered on this frame for a moment, hinting at a more sinister development to come. Wealth has rendered her completely helpless, and she often spends her days napping on the couch or purchasing items for the house. The Analysis of the Oscar-Winning Movie: Parasite Parasite is a 2019 South Korean black comedy thriller movie directed by Bong Joon-ho and is the first film with a non-English script to win Best Picture at the Oscars in 2020. As their house party goes on and the rain pours down relentlessly, the doorbell suddenly rings its the old housekeeper that Mrs Kim had displaced. to infiltrate rooms in . This review was filed from the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7th. Parasite is clear-eyed about the illusions that inequality needs in order to perpetuate itself, and about the many systems that shield one-percenters like the Parks from having to get their own hands dirty while engaged in the project of oppression. GradeSaver "Parasite Summary". Ex-housekeeper Moon-kwang claims that she had left something important behind in the basement and was there to collect it. Thats all I can say without giving away major spoilers! Brian Tallerico is the Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. Has also tied the record with Walt Disney for most Oscars awarded to an individual at a single ceremony. Official synopsis: Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan. She calls Chung-sook sister, at which the Kims scoff. Working with the incredible cinematographer Kyung-pyo Hong (Burning, Snowpiercer) and an A-list design team, Bong's film is captivating with every single composition. However, things went downhill from there. Da-song was so shocked at seeing a strange man creep up the stairs with his bug-eyes wide open that he suffered a seizure, and this trauma also explains for the many creepy portraits that Da-song draws. The Kim family lives in a semi-basement and struggles to keep food on the table. Parasite is directed by the South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho, who also directed the sci-fi action film Snowpiercer (which was among the highest-grossing films of all time in South Korea) and Okja (which has won multiple film awards and was also nominated for Palme dOr in 2017). Each has their own distinct backstory, personality, world view, and voice. He is obsessed with keeping his employees controlled and hates nothing more than when one of his charges "crosses the line." I just felt that frankness was right for the film, even though it's sad." Parasite essays are academic essays for citation. I tried to avoid it. The films social commentary on class is at its strongest in this depiction of the lower classes fighting against each other rather than against the 1% who truly hold more accountability. The music was truly masterful as it even manages to foreshadow later plot points that would unfold in the settings that conveyed tension or dread through its music. Perhaps Ki-jeong being killed off was due to her death having the most significant impact on the family and on the viewer. Couldnt she have chosen to do so in broad daylight? Parasite essays are academic essays for citation. Writing Exercise: Think about each character. Geun-sae is Moon-gwang's husband, who is living in the bunker underneath the Parks' house, hiding out from the loan sharks who want to kill him. In this scene, Ki-jeong cuts her finger on a piece off glass as shes sweeping them under the couch. He is traumatised not once, but twice at the sight of Moon-kwangs husband, and is also the youngest and most innocent character. Bong Joon-ho displays a mastery over genres and tones with this mid-point shift. Ki-jeong is not only the brains in the family who sets the entire scam operation in motion, she is also pegged by Ki-woo the most likely to succeed in her family as he mentions that Ki-jeong fits in the best at the Parks residence, hinting at her potential for success, but perhaps also foreshadowing her death on the residence grounds. In our Parasite movie analysis video, this mid-point scene was the focus. Characters are the players in our stories. He soon discovers, however, that Mr. Park does not like his smell, and feels deflated by this insult. Here are our rankings of the most intelligent and least intelligent characters. Cho Yeo-jeong So how do critics convey when a film truly is unexpectedly, brilliantly unpredictable in ways that feel revelatory? This simple, comedic entry sets up the level of poverty that the Kim family faces. The smell won't go away unless we leave this place.". RELATED: 5 Reasons Why HBO's Parasite Is A Good Idea (& 5 Why The Movie Should Be Left Alone). Just as he called Snowpiercer his film about class revolution set in a dystopia his "hallway movie," he has called Parasite his "stairway movie." It is an upstairs-downstairs film that. Upload images to make storyboards and slideshows. Presented with the opportunity to tutor the Parks teenage daughter at the beginning of the film, he recruits his sister, Ki-jung (Park So Dam), father, Ki-taek (Song Kang Ho), and mother, Chung-sook (Chang Hyae Jin), to masquerade as unrelated workers so they can oust the Parks current help, infiltrate the household and take advantage of the familys surplus wealth. For additional insights into director Bong Joon-hos creative process, listen to him discuss his decisions and directorial style with the other 2019 DGA nominees for best director including Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Taika Waititi, and Sam Mendes: Power shifts from Moon-gwang and her incognito husband to the Kim family as both lower-class families fight for leverage over each other. The record-setting trend continued for the Parasite film. The argument between the two families becomes violent, with the Kims temporarily coming out on top. For Part 3, to read the Character discussion, go here. He is a violent and desperate man, and ends up going on a killing spree after the Kims kill his wife, Moon-gwang. Personality driven and flexible. When Ki-woo goes into the basement, Geun-sae attacks him and bludgeons him in the head with the rock. Parasite Genre Shift Subscribe on YouTube He has good intentions, even if he is dishonest about how he achieves success, and just wants to create a better life for his family. A third leads to the upper floor of the Parks stylish home. Moon-kwangs husband escapes up the basement and into the house. His decision to kill Mr. Park at the end is a shocking and perhaps poor one, but not entirely unjustified. Chung-sook, the Kim family matriarch, not only knows how to be a good housekeeper but also knows when to call her family members out when they're full of it. If not for the homicidal tendencies of the Kim family, she may well have lasted longer. Characters from Parasite (2019). BEWARE OF SPOILERS. Ki-woo wakes up in the hospital and learns about what happens. When the architect sold the mansion to the Park family, Moon-Gwang survived a change of ownership. One of the main reasons why Parasite was such a massive success around the whole world in 2019 is because of its themes and messages of classism and the wealth divide, which are truly universal. Guen-sae may not be the brightest of the bunch, but he's not entirely an idiot either. For more Parasite movie analysis, check out our article on how Bong Joon-ho creates meaning through set dressing. Parasite Character Analysis (Avoiding Spoilers) Living in a state-of-art mansion. And by the time she's left the Park family home, she is already making her next play by taking off her underwear and hiding them discreetly, but not so discreet that they can't be found by Dong-ik. open/close all folders General The Kim family The Kim family as a whole Kim Ki-taek Kim Chung-sook Kim Ki-woo Kim Ki-jeong The Park family The Park family as a whole Park Dong-ik Park Yeon-kyo Park Da-song Park Da-hye Other characters Min Moon-gwang Geun-sae Yoon Previous Index Next Chung-sook takes over as the housekeeper. There is more to Da-song than meets the eye. The young man changes his name to Kevin and begins tutoring Park Da-hye (Jung Ziso), who immediately falls for him, of course. It is a rather short-sighted one on his part because not only does Ki-woo end up pursuing Da-hye, but he ruins any possible opportunity to tutor for the Park family again. The film begins with the Kim family at home in their tiny, cramped basement apartment. This causes Da-song to faint, and Mr. Park (Lee Sun Kyun) immediately demands that Ki-taek drive them to the hospital instead of tending to Ki-jung. as Ki-woo ( Ki-taek's son ), Park So-dam More importantly, his failure to dispose of Geun-sae with the rock eventually proves to be not only his undoing but both the Park and Kim families alike. She leaves her panties behind in the Parks car as shes being driven home by their original chauffeur, causing Mr and Mrs Park to fire him on the assumption that he had been doing the deed in their car. Im sure we all notice that the people around us have their own unique smells, but our minds and senses are bogged down with so much information as adults that we tend to dismiss tiny details like this. He quickly convinces the mother Yeon-kyo, the excellent Jo Yeo-jeong, that the son of the house needs an art tutor, which allows Kevins sister Jessica (Park So-dam) to enter the picture. On to the in-depth analysis! Mr Kim, already an accepting and adaptable character, was unknowingly triggered by Mr Parks reaction to Moon-kwangs husband as his pent-up resentment comes crashing through. Leaving behind an earring or a strand of hair is common, but an entire article of clothing seems unlikely. Were in a golden age of TV writing and development. Lee Jeong-eun, who plays Moon-Gwang the housekeeper, also provided the vocalization for Okja the super pig in Bong Joon-hos previous film. Thats all for my in-depth analysis! Moon-kwang reveals that a large cabinet in the basement is actually hiding the entrance to a secret underground bunker, where her husband (Park Myung-hoon) had been living in secret the past few years. He translates the code and realizes that it is a message from his father, who is living in the bunker. 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