This article contains spoilers for Parasite.
Summary
- Bong Joon-Ho's Parasite made history by becoming the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, along with several other awards.
- The film seamlessly blends genres like dark comedy, drama, thriller, and horror, delivering a thought-provoking storyline that is both entertaining and impossible to ignore.
- The ending of Parasite serves as a chilling reminder of the cyclical nature of social inequality, highlighting the themes of class differences and the exploitation of the working class by the wealthy bourgeoisie.
To say that Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite made history in the world of cinema would be far from an understatement. The 2019 film became the first feature in a foreign language to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and that in itself is a groundbreaking achievement. It also received the awards for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film. At the start, the film appears to be a clever comedy about a poor family outsmarting a wealthy one, but by the halfway mark, the plot and tone take a drastic turn that builds up the tension, leading to a powerful and haunting finale.
Besides successfully keeping viewers on their toes for the entirety of its two-hour run, and its seamless blend of genres such as dark comedy, drama, thriller, and even hints of horror, Parasite also manages to save its most brutal twist for last. The film is packed with foreshadowing and symbolism from the start, setting the stage for a story that is entertaining, thought-provoking, and impossible to ignore. Parasite ends with a hard reminder of the overall theme, and serves as a final gut punch that reinforces the cyclical nature of social inequality.
What Is Parasite About?
Parasite, the acclaimed South Korean dark comedy thriller, explores the lives of two families from opposite socioeconomic backgrounds, the Kims and the Parks. The Kims, a struggling family living in a basement apartment, get involved in the lives of the wealthy Park family through a cunning and elaborate plan. Each member of the Kim family manages to get a job in the Park household, while hiding their true identities and keeping their relationship as a family a secret. The son, Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik), becomes a tutor for the Park’s daughter; his sister Ki-jung (Park So-dam), becomes the Park’s young son’s art therapist. Their parents, Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin) and Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) become the Park’s housekeeper and driver respectively. The Kims begin to manipulate the Parks in order to gain their trust.
As the film reaches the halfway point, the Parks leave on a camping trip, and the Kims, unbeknownst to the Parks, stay in their home and enjoy all their luxuries. Moon-gwang, the original housekeeper for the Parks, returns to their former employer’s residence, insisting she left something in the basement. She reveals a sinister secret: she's been keeping her husband, Geun-sae, hidden in an underground bunker beneath the Park’s house. She simultaneously discovers the Kims’ true identities and their plan. Due to a severe storm, the Parks call to say that they are returning home early. A violent confrontation between the Kims and the couple unfolds, resulting in Moon-gwang’s death and her husband getting locked in the basement. The Kims manage to escape without the Parks noticing, but when they get home, they learn that their basement apartment has been flooded by the storm and have to spend the night in a shelter.
How Does Parasite End?
The morning after the storm, the Parks, unaware of what happened the previous night, throw a birthday party in their home and invite the Kims. Geun-sae manages to get out of the bunker and gravely injures Ki-woo by hitting him with a rock. The film reaches its climax as the birthday party begins and chaos unfolds. Geun-sae, who wants revenge for the death of his wife, runs into the party and stabs Ki-ju with a knife, killing her. After seeing Geun-sae, who he believed was a ghost, the young Park son has a seizure and collapses to the floor. Ki-taek attempts to save his daughter while Mr. Park watches, seemingly not caring about Ki-ju’s injuries, and instead ordering him to take his son to the hospital. Upon seeing Mr. Park cover his nose at the smell of Geun-sae, who had been living hidden in a bunker for years, Ki-taek takes the knife and kills Mr. Park in front of everyone, fleeing the scene quickly after.
After Ki-woo recovers from his injuries, he and his mom are convicted of fraud and put on probation, while his father is missing and cannot be found. Ki-woo spends most of his time hiding in the mountains and spying on the Park’s former house, now occupied by a German family. He notices that the lights are sending a message in Morse code, and learns that Ki-taek is hiding in the bunker, just like Geun-sae was, and is sending the same message every night in the hopes for Ki-woo to see it. The film ends with Ki-woo envisioning his future, vowing that he will go to school, get rich, and buy the Parks' house, in order to reunite with his father once more. In a final brief moment, Ki-woo is shown writing down his plan, back at his basement apartment. Director Bong Joon-Ho explained Parasite' s ending to Vulture, saying that he wanted the final shot to be a "surefire kill," something that tells the audience exactly what the reality of the ending is. He elaborated on this point, saying"
Maybe if the movie ended where they hug and fades out, the audience can imagine, ‘Oh, it’s impossible to buy that house,’ but the camera goes down to that half-basement. It’s quite cruel and sad, but I thought it was being real and honest with the audience. You know and I know — we all know that this kid isn’t going to be able to buy that house. I just felt that frankness was right for the film, even though it’s sad.
Parasite’s title references the class differences and how everyone tries to leech off everyone else. While it may seem at first glance that the title refers to the Kims infiltrating and trying to get as much of the Parks’ wealth as they can, the film makes it clear that there is more than one parasite in the story. Moon-gwang and Geun-sae have also been feeding off of the Parks for a long time. Particularly the latter, who has been living in their house and silently leeching off them like an actual parasite. The couple shows resentment towards the Kims, whom they have a lot in common with, rather than them seeing the real problem. The Parks are also parasites in an evident way, merely from the fact that their luxurious lifestyle is built on the labor of the working class. The Parks actively ignore the rest of society while they continue to live comfortably, profiting off other people’s work.
The film ends with Ki-woo’s imagined version of the future; it doesn’t reveal to the audience if he actually achieved his goal or not. However, the audience knows. And that’s where Parasite best succeeds. While it would be nice to see Ki-woo’s plan succeed and to see him reunite with his father, Parasite refuses to give the viewers an unrealistic resolution. Instead, the film makes it clear that Ki-woo will never be able to buy that house. Starting from the bottom, with a criminal record and a brain injury, is pretty much impossible. It shows the harsh and bleak reality of the socioeconomic system Bong Joon-Ho so accurately portrays.