It is no secret that Parasite struck a chord with a lot of people in 2019. The film was praised both critically and popularly, being the best film of the year for many and winning the Academy Award for Best Film. The film shows a family in a lower social bracket attempt to “infect” a wealthy family in an effort to rise in class. The question posed in the film however is “at what cost?” and “Is this system good?” The Kim family goes to great lengths to attempt to rise on the social ladder, but at the expense of others in a similar situation(i.e. the driver, and the housekeeper). The promise of a rise in social mobility blinds the Kim family and causes them to go to extremes in an attempt to accomplish this goal. The director and co-writer Bong Joon-ho thus forces us to question the current mechanisms for rising on the social ladder and elucidates to us the inherit flaws in the system. The rich stay rich, and the poor can rise up on the social ladder, but only at the expense of other poor people. Throughout the film, this concept has been visualized through the use of staircases. This metaphor is pervasive throughout the movie and unites the films central message. One of the best scenes that perfectly encapsulates this metaphor is the scene where the former housekeeper returns to the house, when the Park family is out on vacation.
*I could not find a good clip of the scene in question, the timestamp for the scene in the film, on Hulu is 1:03:00 to 1:19:00*
The scene shows two families that are in somewhat similar situations. They begin to fight between each other for the right to stay above ground and not be secluded to the basement. The framing and blocking of the scene utilizes the staircases as a direct metaphor of the idea of social status. Geun-se, the husband of Moon-Twang (the former housekeeper), begins, before the scene, at the bottom of all of the staircases, symbolizing his low status in society, requiring him to be shunned to the bottom, in the bunker. The Kim family begins at the top, showing the progress on the social ladder they have made throughout the film. The fight that occurs around the stairs shows the emblematic relationship of the two families fighting on the staircase and the inherit flaw in the system that Bong Joon-ho is trying to point out, the only way in this world to rise in class is to do it at the expense of others in a similar position to you. The camera also helps to aid in this metaphor. When the camera is in the basement the camera always has a low angle, whereas when the camera is upstairs, it has a high angle looking down, persuading this idea of looking down on those lower in status, and people looking up in hopes to rise on the ladder. This metaphor is continued throughout the movie. When the Kim’s return home after sneaking out of the Park home, and at the end of the film right after Mr. Kim kills Mr. Park.
When the Kim family returns home, in a lower status neighbor hood, they constantly descend numerous stairs to return home. Showing the difference in status between the Kim’s and the Park’s. Once again at the end of the film after the murder, Mr. Kim descends a staircase. Symbolizing the Kim family’s return to the bottom of the class ladder.
The pervasive metaphor of the staircase throughout the film drives the viewer to feel the struggle of rising the social class ladder in the modern world. Rising the staircase, only to be knocked back down and asked to try again, leaving the viewer to ask why must the success of oneself be predicated on the failure of others? Why in order for me to rise must I force others to fall? These questions and thoughts are predicated on one central thing: The staircase, the social class ladder, and the metaphor therein.
Film Studies at Mines 