Winner of four International Academy Awards in the year 2019, Parasite is a black comedy thriller movie directed by famous Korean director Bong Joon-Ho. Based on a script written by the director as early as 2013, the movie uses architecture as its core theme to depict the difference between classes and economic conditions in modern-day South Korea. The architecture of an individual’s house depends on their financial stability, and the language of this house subsequently influences its owner’s and inhabitants’ moods, their happiness as well as their general manner. ‘Parasite’ dwells on the imminent influence that a house can have over the subconscious of an individual, a family, or even a group of people.
The progress of the movie
Parasite focuses on two four-people families in the fast-moving city of Seoul. One of the families, introduced to the audience as the protagonists – the Kim Family – is entirely part of the working class, with both the teenage children and the parents being a part of the workforce that is scattered across the metropolitan. From folding pizza boxes to taking irregular tuitions, the four of them somehow manage to make ends meet and go by their daily routine. Their pay-check-by-pay check lifestyle is prominently imprinted in the audience’s mind through the depiction of their small, run-down house placed in the sub-basement of a popular restaurant in a busy and low-income locality, in a building that was possibly built in the 1970s. The home, which was likely designed as a bunker, is shown to be prone to frequent flooding, electricity failures, and random littering that flows in from the one window that opens up on the street level in the living room space. This inevitable living condition has started to slowly frustrate the two children of this family, who want to get out into the world and find a better home, and subsequently, a better lifestyle.
Ki-woo, the son of the Kim Family, is offered to take the place as the English Tutor of the daughter of the wealthy Park family, Da-hye when his friend who currently works the job is set to leave the country for further education. On this friend’s suggestion, Ki-woo, pretending to be a student of a prestigious Seoul University, is hired by the Park family. This transaction introduces us to the home of the Parks – a lavish, landscaped bungalow designed in a minimalist, modern style and skilfully hidden from the ‘poor streets’ by tall compound walls, and large canopied trees, and a confusing entryway.
This new, well-paying job gets Ki-woo scheming to get the rest of his family hired into the Park family’s home, and thus begins a plot conceived of lies and deceit. He gets his sister hired as an Art Therapist for the Park’s son, Da-song. After this, both brother and sister frame Yoon, Mr. Park’s driver, for dubious activities in Mr. Park’s car and get him fired. He is replaced, on the recommendation of both the tutors, by Mr. Kim. The final plug is pulled when the Parks’ long-time housekeeper is falsely accused of having tuberculosis and is fired, being replaced by Mrs. Kim. At this point, the entire Kim family depends on the Park family like a leech, or as the title of the movie rightly suggests a ‘parasite.’
The ‘House’ character
The house of the Park family plays a necessary role in the story. The generous, open floor plan on the lower floor, which houses the living room, the dining and the kitchen, with a minimalistic staircase leading to the upper rooms is where all the hiring scenes play out – where each member of the Kim family is unsuspectingly admitted into the house. This is the place where the Kim family enjoys its borrowed luxury when the Park family goes out to camp; this is where they hide when the owners return early. The individual rooms are backgrounds for individual interactions – the art therapist & teacher with the son of the house; the English tutor & boyfriend with the daughter of the house. The women, Mrs. Park and Mrs. Kim interact in the kitchen and the dining areas. The prominent contrast between the undesirable sub-basement that the Kims need to escape and the house that seems desirable but houses more discomfort than pleasure is visibly played out through the acute sense of discomfort, different for each character within the same house. The Kim family’s gradual take-over of the lifestyle of the Park family begins and ends with the utilization of the same space the rich people do – take baths in their baths, eat on their tables, watch their television sets and drink from their cellars.
The hidden bunker – the belly of the house – is where its darkest secret lies. The climax of the story emerges from this basement as the husband of the former housekeeper. The garden is laid out for the party of the son, where the entire plot unravels – the rich owners identify the plot of the parasites, and a battle is laid open, with chaos ensuing in the foreground of the luxurious resident that plays the main character of the movie.
‘Parasite’ is a movie that carefully and brilliantly uses architecture as a medium of sophistication & elegance on one hand and poverty & despair on another. The place each scene takes place in the movie is greatly enhanced by its setting – the availability of space, the furniture around, and the layout of the plan are all factors that lead up to and allow the scene to unfold. The palace is but a prison, the semi-basement house but a chained weight tied to the feet of its inhabitants.
References:
- Parasite (the film), Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasite_(2019_film))
- KCRW (https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/design-and-architecture/architecture-in-parasite-movie-villain-homes/parasite-tells-a-story-of-class-through-architecture)
- Dezeen (https://www.dezeen.com/2020/04/16/parasite-film-set-design-interview-lee-ha-jun-bong-joon-ho/#:~:text=In%20the%20movie%2C%20the%20home,of%20sets%20created%20by%20Lee.&text=%22Bong%20left%20it%20all%20to,sketched%20whilst%20writing%20the%20script.%22)
- Vogue (https://www.vogue.com/article/the-haunted-homes-of-parasite)
