Good filmmakers consider of their characters; nice filmmakers consider of their characters and their setting. Now, earlier than you struggle me, I would like you to look at Parasite–the Korean characteristic movie directed by Bong Joon-ho that not solely gained the Oscar for Finest Image in 2020 but additionally introduced Korean cinema below the worldwide highlight.
Edgar Allan Poe believed that tone and temper are the very best guides to storytelling. Bong Joon-ho proves it with Parasite. In your first viewing, you won’t discover how the filmmaker focuses all his directorial power on materializing the singular temper of the narrative: ascent and descent. Nonetheless, then you definitely discover simply what number of instances the movie’s characters go up and down stairs.
Whether or not emotional, monetary, or social, the staircase, part of structure that at its core signifies ranges, turns into the first visible motif of discrimination and sophistication disparity in Bong’s Parasite— a movie centered on inequality.
On this article, we discover how Parasite is principally a “staircase” film.
(SPOILERS AHEAD!)
Bong Joon-ho’s Play With Elevation
Parasite (2019)Credit score: Neon
Parasite facilities on three Korean households whose fates are intertwined by the evils of the social construction. What we see in Parasite is the story of each nation, everywhere in the world. The society is split into ranges, discriminating between individuals based mostly on their wealth, with capitalism feeding on the disparity between the wealthy and the poor. Consequently, one strata turns into parasitic on one other to outlive.
The movie opens with the destitute Kim household, a household of 4, dwelling in a cramped, basement house, in some underground a part of the town, dwelling on menial jobs.
When the son, Ki-woo (Choi Woo Shik), will get falsely really useful as a extremely certified English tutor for the rich Park household’s daughter (Jung Ji-so), he will get an opportunity to see how the opposite a part of the world lives for the primary time.
Parasite (2019)Credit score: Neon
Fuelled by ambition, the Kim household hatches a plan, which is seemingly innocent at first, however in the long run results in a bloodbath.
With the assistance of his sister, Ki-jung, Ki-woo manipulates the naive Mrs. Park (Cho Yeo-jeong), making approach for his relations to infiltrate the Park household by taking on menial jobs of their home, equivalent to housekeeper, artwork therapist, and driver with faux credentials. Issues work seamlessly till the Kims uncover the earlier housekeeper and her husband bunked up within the Park’s underground basement.
The Use of Set Design to Set up Social Hierarchy By way of Elevation
The respective homes for each households are a significant visible aspect on this narrative centered on elevation.
The Kim home is positioned beneath avenue degree. Though Bong doesn’t set up the precise geography of each homes till the climax, it’s clear that to succeed in the Kim home, you’d must go down a number of flights of stairs. Even the eatery the place they hang around frequently exhibits a highway with an ascent proper behind it, implying that one must stroll down to succeed in the eatery, and there’s all the time one thing above the individuals there.
Parasite (2019)Credit score: Neon
Then again, when Ki-woo goes to the Park home for the primary time, we see him making fixed ascents. He begins by strolling up a flight of stairs from his home to succeed in the road, and continues strolling up the terrain. Ki-woo then walks up the road, after which the Park home is slowly revealed to him, after which lastly, he treads up an extended flight of stairs to succeed in Park’s entrance door. Right here, Bong Joon-ho makes use of the solar as one other visible metaphor. Up up to now within the movie, the solar doesn’t seem wherever within the movie—it’s all darkish and gloomy. We not often see daylight, however by no means the solar. However, as Ki-woo begins his ascent up the flight of stairs to the Park’s major door, for the primary time, we see the solar obtrusive within the body, shining brightly on him.
References From Parasite That Showcase the “Staircase” Therapy
Let’s check out a number of examples from the film to dig deeper into this visible psychology of elevation and the staircase.
1. The Stairs Contained in the Respective Homes
Reportedly, each the Park and Kim homes had been constructed, together with the slum space across the Kim home. Structure-wise, the staircase contained in the Park home results in a set of luxurious bedrooms, whereas the transient flight of stairs within the Kim home results in their toilet, which floods anytime it rains.
Parasite (2019)Credit score: Neon
Parasite (2019)Credit score: Neon
2. The Scene The place The Kims Run Residence
Solely on the tail finish of the movie, Bong reveals the geographical format of the 2 homes. When the Kims run to their home, one way or the other having safely managed to sneak out of the Park home, after the Parks return early from their tenting journey, unannounced.
As we observe them down the streets, we get an entire view of the setting of their house. The Kims run down the slope, then down a number of flights of stairs, and eventually down one other slope to succeed in their house. The fixed descent is a visible illustration of their place in society.
Parasite (2019)Credit score: Neon
3. The Discovery of the Outdated Maid and Her Husband
Because the Kims take over the Park home within the absence of the Parks, they uncover that the previous housekeeper has secretly bunked within the basement along with her husband, thriving on meals and water that she often steals from the kitchen. There’s a lengthy sequence following Mrs. Kim as she rushes down a seemingly countless flight of stairs to succeed in the depths of the basement.
Parasite (2019)Credit score: Neon
Conclusion
Bong additionally makes use of the staircase to indicate visible separation between the 2 households, right here and there. Anytime somebody goes up the social ladder, up they go a flight of stairs. Anytime they’re pushed down, down they arrive a flight of stairs. And essentially the most life like half, as you start to suppose that you simply’re near understanding the social ladder, the funnel opens up wider, to indicate extra individuals buried below the degrees.
To me, the great thing about Parasite lies in its impartiality. As a result of the narrative doesn’t current both household because the antagonist, it efficiently shifts the accountability of the unlucky ending to the actual wrongdoer—society. Ultimately, Mr. Kim (Music Kang-ho) stabbing Mr. Park (Lee Solar-kyun) to demise in wrath is a visible illustration of how capitalism pits mankind in opposition to itself.
The truth that Ki-woo continues to fantasize about shopping for the Park home even after all the things that has occurred there’s a robust trace on the irony of how he’s so desirous to develop into somebody he strongly detests.
Every other visible motif that caught your consideration from the movie? Remark down beneath!
