‘PARASITE’ TRAILER

AN ANALYSIS THROUGH THE LENS OF IDENTITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS

SARAH NATHANI
Background
• The text I have chosen to work on is the trailer of the movie ‘Parasite’.
• ‘Parasite’ is a South Korean movie from 2019, and has been well known for its
universal acclaim.

• Directed by Bong Joon-ho, the film is an amalgamation of mystery, thriller, comedy

and drama.

• It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Palme d’Or, on unanimous
vote.

• ‘Parasite’ won 4 awards at the Academy Awards (Oscars), including ‘Best Picture’.
This is historic as it became the first film in a non-English language to win this
prestigious award.

Themes and concepts explored

• The two main themes that were observed from the trailer of ‘Parasite’ were class
disparity and deceit.

• Class disparity is brought out through the different characters of the film: primarily,
the Kim family and the Park family, which are on opposite ends of the spectrum of
wealth.

• The theme of deceit is seen very explicitly throughout the trailer as the different
members of the Kim family secure jobs in the Park family household by feigning
qualifications.

• These two themes are reinforced through the cinematography, which has helped
bring the director’s creative vision to life.

Global Context
• The global context ‘Identities and Relationships’ suits this text well.
• The trailer follows how the Kim family take on different identities to work at the
Parks’ house and earn money for a living.

• We are given some insight into the symbiotic relationship between these two
families, but the trailer leaves the audience wondering about who the parasite in
the relationship is.

• The sub-strand ‘personal efficacy and agency; attitudes, motivations, independence;

happiness and the good life’ is one that is pertinent to this text. I shall explore my
text through this lens but expand beyond it to look at ‘Identities and Relationships’
as a whole as well.

Forging identities
• Kim Ki-woo begins to form an alternative
identity to tutor the daughter of the Park family.
In the first example, we see dialogues that show
how he forges a degree with the help of his
sister and on the recommendation of his friend.

• He also brings in his sister as an tutor to an

unsuspecting Park family.

• In the scene where Kim Ki-jung practices her

role as Jessica, she puts her identity in the form
of a catchy jingle. The slow zooming helps
create salience and makes the scene compelling
and effective.

• The two siblings aren’t hesitant to put on a

persona in the face of opportunity, as seen by
the plan they make and their unfazed facial
expressions while rehearsing a fake identity.

Actions, motivations and attitudes

• Examining this from my chosen sub-
strand from ‘identities and relationships’,
we can recognise the characters’ attitude,
motivations, and pursuit of a good life.

• Ki-woo’s confident body language and

poise, determined facial expression and
the dialogue in this scene tell us about his
attitude about deceiving the Park family.

• His motive behind the deception is to earn

money to make ends meet. He fakes his
identity in pursuit of a better life - since
we are aware from the first scene of the
trailer itself that the Kims are a poor
family. The morality of the characters are
quite grey, since their intentions are
based on survival, but their actions are
fraudulent.

Relationships between the rich and poor

• This scene features a drunk dialogue between
Kim Ki-taek and Chung-sook: Ki-taek
describes the rich as nice despite their
elevated class status and Chung-seok says that
they are nice because of their status.

• The dialogue can also be linked to how the Kim

family had to be dishonest to work their way
into earning from the Park household - they
had no choice but to deceive, otherwise, they
wouldn’t have been able to survive. Poverty
doesn’t give them the luxury of generosity.

• The relationship between the rich and the poor

can be examined here. Clearly, the Kims are
content with their relationship with the rich.
Usually, the rich and poor are boxed into black
and white, but this scene doesn’t do that, and
rather paints their identities are more complex.

Divide in class identities

• Class disparity is an important theme of the trailer,
and it is shown, not only through acting, but also
visually.

• In the first example, the line highlighted is from

the window of the house, and it notably separates
Ki-woo and the housekeeper Moon-gwang from
Choi Yeon-gyo, the mother of the upper class Park
family.

• The hesitance of the housekeeper to wake Yeon-

gyo up by crossing the “line” and touching her
shows us that no matter how intertwined the lives
of these people are, there are class distinctions
that still keep them separate.

• In the scene below, Ki-woo walks uphill to enter

the house of the upper class. This shot in the
trailer uses the structure of the setting to show
how the rich quite literally live on top of the poor.

Divide in class identities

• The trailer also depicts the divide in class identities
through the visual contrast.

• In the scene where Ki-woo climbs the stairs in the rich

sector to reach the house, the sunlight is very bright,
almost blinding.

• In contrast, another scene of the trailer has very dim

lighting, and this makes it clear that this is the poor
sector of the city.

• There is also contrast present between the weather:

the sun in the first scene and the rain-flooded area in
the second.

• The cinematography highlights the disparity between

the identities of the two families and their different
ways of living through contrast and visual structure.
Despite the symbiotic relationship of the Parks and the
Kims, there is still divergence in their class that truly
affects their identities.

The ‘Parasite’ trailer and connections to real life

• Parasite is an allegory of class. It is visible from the trailer that it is a terrifying
story, but it is one that is very much based in the realties of today’s late-capitalistic
world.

• Bong Joon-ho provides a critique on today’s world by looking at it through the story
of these characters. By looking at the effects of inequality on the different classes,
he tells a sharp and complex tale about class distinction.

• The scene where Ki-woo is given the suggestion to fake his degree, and the
following scene where he asks Ki-jung why she can’t get into art school both draw
reference to the high prices of education, which the poor cannot afford.

• It is also interesting to look at the relationship between these characters and what
they denote about the relationships between the rich and the poor. This leads us
back to the title of the film, ‘Parasite’.

 Who are the parasites?

Would the parasites be the Kim family, who deceive the Park family to earn from the
rich family?
Would it be a separate parasitic intruder mentioned in the description of the trailer?
Or would the parasites be the Park family, being unable to sustain themselves without
the help of the poor, leeching off the benefits of being rich in a late-capitalistic society?