CAPITALIST METAPHORS IN PARASITE

Chapter 2

Literature Review

Food

Food in Parasite acts as a basic indicator of wealth and explores not only the families’

socio-economic statuses but also the sheer divide between the two, which is why the

film ends on the bleak note that it does. "Food can tell us about characters’ abject

poverty or egregious consumption, about their health or dissipation" (Bower, 2004). A

study conducted by Hubkins, Knibbe and Drop (2000) found that lower-class families

consume more mass-produced, packaged goods since that's all they can afford. The

Kims are seen subsisting on cheap chips and Fi-Lite (Parasite, 5.56), which is the

cheapest malt beer on the market (Modern Seoul, 2017). During one of the opening

scenes, the screenplay notes that Ki-tek takes a piece of white bread from the 'sad,

empty fridge', picks off the moldy parts and eats the rest. White bread is a symbol of the

working class (Gill, 2021), and hence the social status of the family is established from

the beginning. The Kims' main source of income comes from folding pizza boxes for a

restaurant that they can't even afford to eat at.

The Kims chicken joint and Taiwanese cake shop that went bust (Parasite, 30.45-

31.06), was a result of the financial crisis in 1997, where many middle-class workers
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were laid-off, and to compensate, became self-employed and opened up chicken joints.

The interest rate was very low and more and more people took out loans. This number

of chicken shops tripled from 2003 to 2013 and then doubled again till 2019. However,

due to the saturated nature of the market, many went bankrupt (Park, 2020). The King

Castella, another snack fad involving Taiwanese cake that was popular in 2016, had an

even shorter life than fried chicken joints. It barely lasted a year, after a popular show,

Food X-Files, exposed the unhealthy way these cakes were made (Jackson, 2017). The

trend died down, and many families were yet again left bankrupt, and the Kims were no

exception.

At minute 50.05, Ki-tek and Chung-sook are shown eating rice with banchan, traditional

Korean side dishes. Andrea Sung (2016) writes, “Banchan is an important part of

Korean cuisine ... it is absolutely indispensable and always — always — accompanies

any and every meal.”

As the story progresses, they're even able to afford beef (Parasite, 52.29), that they grill

in a LA Galbi style: barbecued beef short ribs, cut thinly across the bones (Maangchi,

2021). Three of the family members have also switched to drinking Sapporo beer, a

much more expensive brand, at two times the price of Fi-Lite (Inside Beer, 2020).

When the Parks’ camping trip gets cancelled due to rain, Mrs. Park instructs Chung-

sook to make jjapaguri, a combination of two types of instant noodles: Chapagetti, and

Neoguri. Darcy Pacquet, the subtitle translator, invented the term 'ramdon', a mixture of
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“ramen” and “udon,” for this dish as he thought foreign audiences would be more

familiar with it. Mrs. Park asks for it to be topped with Hanu, a type of premium beef that

costs twice as much as meat imported from Australia (Coughlin, 2020).

The Scholar’s Rock

The scholar's rock is first seen at minute 7.34 when Ki-woo's friend Min brings it to the

family, saying, "This one is supposed to bring luck. And money." The Korean name for

these shaped rocks is Suseok, also called viewing or scholar’s stones. They are natural

rocks, usually brought from a mountain stream to decorate a noble elite’s room. In

Parasite, the stone denotes commodified property (Oh, 2021).

Soon after, the Kims infiltrate the Parks’ home and move up in terms of material wealth.

However, this is short-lived, and the rock is seen for the second time in the entire film at

minute 1.37.31 when it's seen floating on top of the water that flooded the Kims' home.

As the Kims lay on the ground of the gym, Ki-woo is seen clutching the rock tightly, and

when Ki-tek asks why, he simply responds with, "It wants to be with me" (Parasite,

1.41.14). As Ki-tek's actor Song Kang-ho (2019) puts it, “Essentially, I think it represents

this desire in the heart of Ki-woo not to give up on the idea that he can become the kind

of guy who can find a way to give his family a better life. All it ends up doing for Ki-woo

is bashing his skull in."

Architecture
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For a story revolving around a hidden basement bunker, architecture, fittingly, plays a

big role in this film. Both the Parks' and the Kims' houses were designed by production

designer Lee Ha-jun. The film begins with a shot of the Kims' semi-basement. Banjihas,

or semi-basements, originally emerged in South Korea during the 1950s to protect the

citizens from North Korean attacks. Due to the bunker-style construction, banjihas are

roughly 5 to 7 steps below street level. “As time went by, South Korea eased

construction laws and permitted banjihas to act as actual homes after the 1980 housing

crisis. These converted bunkers only allow minimal light from a small window; due to the

underground nature and minimal airflow, there is often mold in these tiny spaces” (San

Nicolás Leyva, 2020).

Eventually, the audience sees the Parks' hilltop mansion, which is definitely not specific

to South Korea, but rather mimics the modernist style of real-life architects like Richard

Neutra’s Lovell House or Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House (Anderton, 2020). The critic

Kate Wagner has labelled these homes ‘McModerns’, large “mass-produced” homes

that have an assortment of architectural styles. “They often have big rooms, open-

concept floor plans, lots of garage space and luxury amenities like high-end kitchen

appliances, spacious master suites and "bonus" spaces, such as sunrooms and

offices.” The culmination of the modernist aesthetic was the “glass house,” and the

Parks’ home is nearly fish-bowl-like in how much it can reveal. A key element to

Parasite is the long, glass wall in Parks’ living room, overlooking their garden.

Production designer Lee Ha-jun designed the window to meet the proportions of the

ratio for shooting a widescreen picture, since there’s no TV. In an interview with
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Dezeen, Lee (2020) said, “We created the window wall in accordance with the 2.35:1

aspect ratio, and I wanted the large living room and garden to feel like a nice

photograph on screen” (Cogley, 2020).

Bong furthermore uses both houses to create the issue of space. Every inch of the

Kims’ house is filled and cluttered with things: underwear drying on the walls, boxes

piled to the ceiling, the hallway which doubles as a closet, even the opening shot of their

window is obscured by a hanging rack of socks. In contrast, the Park home is extremely

spacious and orderly and the ‘small touches of disorders’ are immediately fixed, for

example at minute 13.45, when Moon-gwang picks up Da-song’s toy arrows (Scherker,

2020).

Bong was also very meticulous about the specific blocking elements when having the

set designed. Bong stated in an interview with Indiewire, “If someone is in a certain

position, the other character had to spy on them; if someone’s coming in, another

person had to hide behind a corner. So these very basic spatial relationships between

the characters were already established.” The Parks are rarely seen in a room together,

juxtaposing the Kims, ‘as if the excess of space has compartmentalized each member’.

Another aspect that was focused on was elevation. While Ki-woo walks up a flight of

steps to access the front door Mr. Parks walks up multiple flights of stairs to access his

house. As Ki-woo makes his way to the Park home, the screenplay notes, ‘A quiet road
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snaking up the hill of a wealthy neighbourhood. High walls.’ All the roads lead up

towards the Parks house and slope downward away from them (Flight, 2020).

Bong used descent to emphasize the vertical distance between the two families.

Throughout the film, the audience doesn’t really see how far away the Kims live from

the Parks: when Ki-woo first walks up to the Park house, his journey is not shown, and

when Ki-jung is being driven back to her home, the elevation change isn’t seen. Bong

(2019) states, “For that sequence with Ki-tek’s family walking home in the rain, it

becomes a temporary road movie — a road movie from up in the hills to lower

underground, from rich neighbourhood to poor neighbourhood. I really wanted that

sequence to feel like it was connecting the rich neighbourhood to the poorer

neighbourhood in real-time. That’s one singular duration. Rain flows throughout that

entire sequence”. The camera pans outward, and we get a perfect wide-angle shot of

Kims making their way down multiple slopes and staircases (Parasite, 1.32.18-1.35.20).

Another thing worth pointing out is that for the Parks, the rain is enjoyable, as Mrs. Park

exclaims over the phone, “Did you see the sky today? Crystal clear. Zero air pollution.

Rain washed it all away. Of course, camping was a major fail because of the rain, but

we get to have a garden party instead, yay! It was actually a blessing in disguise”

(Parasite 1.44.38-1.45.00). But for the Kims, the rain destroys their home and

livelihoods. For the Parks, it’s a minor inconvenience that they soon get over, but for the

Kims, their life falls into pieces (Farahbakhsh, Ebrahimi, 2021).

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Chapter 2

Literature Review

Prostitution is the result of a series of unfortunate circumstances in a woman's life. It's a

profession that no one wants to get into willingly due to the taboos attached to it and the hellish
circumstances women have to endure because of it. Despite the extreme negative stigma
attached to prostitution it accounts for up to 2-14 percent of the entire subcontinent's GDP so
there is a massive demand for it. If prostitution is so prominent in the subcontinent then wont it
be beneficial to legalize the profession? Won't it also protect the women in this profession?

History of the institution of prostitution:

Prostitution is the oldest profession known to man and to the surprise of many it wasn't frowned
upon before. In the century before us, very few women that were part of this profession before
would consider themselves of ill repute (Wald, E. (2009).

Defining prostitution and redefining women’s roles: The colonial state and society in early 19th
century India. History Compass, 7(6), 1470-1483.) The Prostitutes are a massive part of the
subcontinent's history. If you go back all the way to the Mughal empire it was considered
fashionable to pay visits to the Prostitutes. (Iftikhar, R. (2020). Labor Class of Women in Mughal
India. South Asian Studies, 27(1)). The Mughal empire further placed no restrictions on the
Muslim men or the Hindu men to maintain relationships with Prostitutes. If you go back even
further in time prostitutes were given a high status in society, they were a big part of the hindu
religion. They were known as priestesses and engaging in physical activity with them was
considered a holy and righteous act which improved the quality of life for the people so where
did the sudden shift come from? When British rule took over in the 18th century the stigma and
the laws around Prostitution started to change completely. A profession that was accepted
before and practiced was now considered a massive taboo and that taboo still exists to this day.
(Wald, E. (2009). Defining prostitution and redefining women’s roles: The colonial state and
society in early 19th century India. History Compass, 7(6), 1470-1483.)

Steps taken to legalize prostitution in the subcontinent:

When talking about the subcontinent as a whole little to no action has been taken to legalize
prostitution. Despite prostitution being really prevalent in Pakistan it is fully illegal. The sex trade
and any type of extra marital sexual activity is criminalized under zina laws. India however is a
different story, there have been steps taken in order to legalize the profession. In a
groundbreaking 2022 decision, the Supreme Court, represented by a panel of three judges,
acknowledged sex work or prostitution as a legitimate occupation, affirming the rights of sex
workers to integrity and equal protection under the law (Cunha, 2022). Within the legal
framework, the court specifically referenced the Indian Penal Code (IPC) of 1860 (No. 45),
emphasizing that voluntary engagement in sex, i.e., prostitution, is not illegal (Cunha, 2022).
This pivotal ruling not only reshapes societal perspectives but also aligns legal recognition with
the evolving dynamics of sex work.The Apex court's far-reaching guidelines underscored the
imperative for law enforcement to promptly respond to complaints from sex workers or
prostitutes. The emphasis was on providing protection without judgment, signaling a paradigm
shift in addressing the concerns of this marginalized community (Cunha, 2022). Additionally, the
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court acknowledged the legality of prostitution as a valid source of income, challenging the
erstwhile prohibition that prevailed in India until 2022.This transformative decision not only
grants legal legitimacy to sex work but also addresses long-standing issues related to the
dignity and freedom of those involved. By recognizing prostitution as a lawful occupation, the
Supreme Court affirms the right of individuals engaged in this profession to live their lives with
respect and autonomy (Cunha, 2022). The broader societal implications of this ruling extend
beyond the legal realm, fostering a more inclusive and progressive understanding of sex work in
the cultural fabric of India. Although India has some legal laws protecting the sex workers, in
Bangladesh it is a legalized profession. There are laws in place to ensure that there is no child
prostitution but a proper system is put into place so that the people working in the brothels can
do so safely. Many other countries in the sub continent can learn from this.

Why do women get into this profession?

In the study by Khan and colleagues (2013), they looked into why women, including young girls
and married individuals, end up in prostitution in Lahore, Pakistan. The research uncovered a
tough situation where things like not having many opportunities, money problems, just trying to
survive, not knowing much, and wanting more stuff all contribute to women getting into sex
work.

Shillah (2011) studied how prostitution affects young people in Rubaga Municipality. The
research showed that different people, like those who support it, help keep the prostitution
business going. They found that things like not having much money, easy access to condoms,
peer pressure, not being educated, families breaking up, and being neglected all play a role in
why prostitution happens.

Saggurti and team (2011) explored why women get into sex work in India. The study
highlighted how different things like wanting to get away from marriage, escaping violence,
needing money for themselves and their families, and not having much education or money
contribute to women choosing sex work.