The 2019 foreign language film Parasite is a striking critique of the class divide in South Korea. The Seoul streets stay quiet and opportunities are scarce. The lower-class citizens — and there are many of them — live in bug-infested homes without running electricity or water. Homes serve as a shelter rather than a safe space. Families may grow close, but under harsh conditions that include little-to-no money. Though times are tough, the poor men and women of South Korea have an unbroken dignity that pushes them forward to provide for their families, even if that means death.
Those that do have opportunities in South Korea benefit from them by inheriting them from their ancestors. If your grandparents were rich, you’re likely to also have riches as well. And when you had money, it was evident from your large home, cars, fashion, and assembly of people working on your behalf.
Winning four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film, Parasite became the first Korean film to win an Oscar for its outstanding embodiment of a seemingly normal lower-class family who slowly invades the lives and home of a kind upper-class family. The Kims, who have all mischievously faked their way into a world of money and comfort, first fool the wealthy Park family into thinking they are honest and hard workers. The Kims spite the Parks for their wealth, and instead of working for them as they initially had schemed, the Kims take over the entire world of the Parks in an evil plan that unravels as it worsens.
The Kims Use Lies to Infiltrate the Parks’ Lives
First, the son Ki-woo infiltrates the wealthy family by Photoshopping a fake degree from Yonsei University in order to tutor the daughter of the rich Park family, Da-hye. Knowing of his high intelligence, Ki-woo’s university friend (and Da-hye’s former tutor) recommends him for the job as he prepares to study abroad. Though Ki-woo was not qualified because he couldn’t actually afford to further his education, he had his sister meticulously make the false certificate stating that he graduated from Yonsei. When Ki-woo showed up for his interview with the rich mother, Mrs. Park, who needed to hire someone to replace her daughter’s previous tutor, he effortlessly lies his way through the questions and landed the role of Da-hye’s new tutor. Soon the two would fall in love, but not until after the demise of both families.
Once Ki-woo has an in, he soon realizes the Park family he works for could use better help, but only if it was his own family members. The family had a peculiar young boy who needed more stability and so Ki-woo’s sister Ki-jung faked her art degree in order to become an in-house therapist for the creative boy and make money for her family, too. But that’s not where the lies stop.
One late night when Ki-jung was kindly being driven home by Mr. Park, she left her panties in the car to frame his real driver, Yoon, making it look like he had an affair in the backseat of his client’s vehicle. The thought of this disgusted Mrs. Park and she and her husband immediately fired Yoon after years of no apparent problem. This then opened a chance for Ki-woo’s father Mr. Kim of the poor family to make his way into the Park’s world of security and wealth. Not only because Mr. Kim would be making money as the family’s new driver, but because he really tried to embody the wealthy class by hiding his identity in the depths of Yoon, a man he didn’t even know.
Ki-woo’s mother, Chung-sook, is next to double-cross the Park family and its longstanding workers — who, had it not been for the Kims’ boredom and spiteful feelings towards the Parks’ influx of wealth, would have been safe. Because just like the Kims, those working for the rich Park family were in the worn-out shoes of the Kims once before, and even still were (until the Kims’ cruel antics catch up with them).
To bring their mother into the mix, the Kims cook up a plot to exploit the Parks’ housekeeper, Moon-gwang, for her peach allergy. They place a rather large peach in the fridge so when Moon-gwang makes a snack for the Park kids, she’ll break out into feverish coughs. Ki-jung immediately turns to the Park family when this occurs, but only as leverage for her family, as she convinces Mrs. Park that their housekeeper is sick with tuberculosis. Fearing for her family’s health, Mrs. Park fires Moon-gwang, leaving her desolate on the poor South Korean streets.
Though Mrs. Park may not have been aware that Moon-gwang was still in need after all those years working for her, she desperately wanted to protect her children from sickness and did what she had to do, at least what she thought she had to do.
The Kims Think They’ll Never Get Caught
After weeks of working for the rich family, the Parks embark on a camping trip, so the Kims descend upon the modern home and soak in its luxuriousness — because if the Parks get to enjoy a vacation, why shouldn’t the Kims, too? After all, they worked for them day and night; they felt that using the Parks’ home was in their poor man’s right. However, when the Parks call to alert Chung-sook that they will be returning home early, still unaware of the complicated web of lies woven by their new staff, the Kims have to quickly clean up the mess they made. But that’s not the only one.
The previous housekeeper, Moon-gwang, approaches the home while the Parks are away and tells Chung-sook that she has left something in the basement. Though apprehensive, Chung-sook allows Moon-gwang entry, as she sees a little bit of her own pity in the woman. Chung-sook follows Moon-gwang into the basement where a hidden bunker is revealed. To Chung-sook’s surprise, Moon-gwang’s husband had secretly been living there to avoid loan sharks for four years while she worked for the Park family.
The Lies Begin to Unravel
With the Parks due to arrive any minute, the conniving Kims assemble in an upstairs room to talk about whether they will allow Moon-gwang’s husband, Geun-sae to reside there. Moon-gwang overhears the Kims, initially not knowing they were related or schemed their way into taking over all the Park family jobs, and films their conversation to blackmail them so she and her husband can work and have a home again.
When the Kims’ true identity is on the brink of being revealed, they trap the old housekeeper and her husband in the bunker before the Parks can find out. But with a child’s birthday party scheduled for the next day, the Kims have no choice but to take care of what they started.
Ki-woo then enters the bunker with a rock in anticipation to kill Geun-sae, as Moon-gwang had already passed due to a concussion from Chung-sook. Geun-sae gains control and bludgeons Ki-woo in the head. The fight ultimately continues to the lawn where the party is happening, where Geun-sae ruthlessly walks out of the basement for the first time in years to avenge his wife’s murder.
The Demise of the Kim Family
The Parks are still under the impression that all four of the Kim family members are different, unrelated individuals. While the party is going on, Mr. Kim consciously reflects on the audacity of Mr. Park, who previously remarked on his foul odor from not having running water to shower before work. Mr. Kim then viciously attacks Mr. Park with a knife and flees the scene. Ki-woo’s sister Ki-Jung is next to pay for her wrongdoings, as Geun-sae fatally stabs her in front of her family. Chung-sook then avenges her daughter’s death and brutally kills Geun-sae with a barbecue skewer.
Mrs. Park and her children survive, but move out of their home, still not knowing that there is death beneath the layers of their house where Moon-gwang and her husband are hidden, nor why Mr. Kim killed Mr. Park, as they are still unaware that the Kim’s were a family trying to take control of their family’s gains with the money and power that the Parks had. Ki-woo ultimately survives his injuries from Geun-sae and reunites with his mother Chung-sook. The two are placed on probation and convicted of fraud, but Mr. Kim is still nowhere to be found and nobody yet knows that he is Ki-woo’s father.
Years go by, and Mr. Kim is still separated from not only his family but the world, as he took refuge in the bunker of the Park home where Geun-sae had been before him. Though nobody knows of his existence or survival, he dedicates his time hidden to using a broken light bulb outdoors that he can control from the inside. He uses Morse code in hopes of one day catching the attention of his son, Ki-woo. Every day he sends words explaining his remorse, his sorrows, and how he walks to the kitchen on occasion to feed himself in the Park home.
When Ki-woo leaves the hospital, he sees the flashing light bulb upon checking on the home to find the Parks had sold it and left town. Ki-woo then teaches himself to encode the message being sent from what he thought was an abandoned basement. Learning that it was his father sending him a sign that he is there, alive, Ki-woo writes his father a letter saying to him that he will make enough money to buy the Park home and one day save him.
Mr. Kim Could Escape But Instead Hides in Fear
Re-imagining a world without his father just to imagine a way to have him back in it, Ki-woo dreams of his father walking up the basement stairs to reunite with him and his mother Chung-sook. Though his letter promises his vow to buy the home and save his father, it’s unknown if the family ever comes back together. What’s more, is that Mr. Kim could escape by himself, but chooses not to do so for fear of being caught and also fear of knowing he still would not be able to provide for his surviving son and wife. Mrs. Kim. Instead, he lives in pity for himself and the gruesome murders that he was a part of, saying so long to his son after the fight for his and his family’s lives left him without a will to live.
