Film Parasite 2019 Final Research Paper

Film: Final Research Paper (Parasite- 2019)

Research is essential in any field since it provides important knowledge relevant to the subject or study field. Film research is necessary for understanding the film’s fiction, non-fiction, or documentary narratives. Storytelling is an art that is best interpreted by analyzing a selective film. To fulfill this purpose, this paper aims to present film research for a specific era movie. The chosen era is ‘present .’ The movie is an Oscar-winning Korean drama and thriller named Parasite (2019). The learnings about the cinema of this particular time and its historical context and critique will be elucidated in further sections of the paper.

Historical Approach

The Korean film industry is a great competition for Hollywood since their filmmaking and direction are acclaimed worldwide. The funding from the government granted for filmmaking in Korea is the ‘subsidy’ required for strengthening the entire movie. Since recently, the Korean film industry’s prosperity has been dependent on the intensive subsidy policy[footnoteRef:1]. The importance of subsidies has been debated for two reasons: the advantage that it gives to the highly intensive film industry, Hollywood, and the demonstration of the true culture of a country through its film making, as seen in Korean movies. The cultural diversity and economies of scale have been part of the argument for subsidies for films. [1: Patrick Messerlin and Jimmyn Parc, "The Real Impact of Subsidies on the Film Industry (1970s- Present): Lessons from France and Korea", Pacific Affairs 90, no. 1, 2019, 51-74.]

In Korea, the government set an import quota that businesses misused after 1966, even imported for foreign films[footnoteRef:2]. The historical contest between US and Korea was started even from here when through US pressure, the import quota was abolished in 1986. Until now, screen quotas exist in Korea that requires binding impositions that the market conditions should reflect. Though the subsidy amount was insignificant for the Korean movies, it is recently magnified, observing the expansion and audience for the movies worldwide. The government has to take care while allocating appropriate quota amount to the Korean movies since extra quota could lead to over-production to low-quality movies or even higher quality movies for attracting larger audiences, which has happened after the 2000s[footnoteRef:3]. [2: Ibid.] [3: Ibid.]

The director of the film Parasite was one of the nine thousand writers who were restricted from having state subsidies for the movie initially. Still, with recent development in the subsidy policy of Korea, the director became lucky enough to offer a notable critical Oscar hit[footnoteRef:4]. The Korean government has announced that amidst the Covid-19 outbreak, parasite and various other movies would be supported with funds so that Korean cultural success could be enjoyed globally, as previously did through K-pop and Korean TV dramas. [4: Inkoo Kang, Parasite: Notes from the Underground, 30 October 2020, https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7158-parasite-notes-from-the-underground.]

The film style depicts political influences in several instances. For example, when the Kim family escapes the Park household, they come across Ahyeon-dong in Seoul that shows a redevelopment project, but the household is helpless[footnoteRef:5]. Although the community was under development during Chun Doo Hwan’s presidency, it still is criticized for the promise that is not yet fulfilled and the residents being in impoverished living conditions, showing an uneven distribution of resources within the society. [5: Aiden Mirza, Parasite and Democracy: A Case for Space,. n.d., https://umma.umich.edu/content/parasite-and-democracy-case-space.]

The alignment of the film’s style with the political movement in Korea is difficult to discern since the country follows a central democratic system where the citizens elect their choice of leader. Still, the data is scarce on political ideologies. However, capitalism and social class system are evident in the systematic injustice depicted in the movies at various instances, such as the type of home Kim’s family lives in, the scene of their washroom where their kids usually sit for getting Wi-Fi signals in contrast to the lavish home of Park’s, which is a sleek exhibition of the extravaganza in itself. The dialogues of the movie are delivered with dark comedy that signifies the same social class differences, such as that of Ki-taek, “So we’re all gathered here today to celebrate the reconnection of our phones and this bounteous Wi-Fi” (dialogue from the movie “Parasite”).

Moreover, South Korea has been struggling to depict its cultural diplomacy through nation branding to fortify foreign policy agendas without complexities[footnoteRef:6]. Regardless of the growth of de-politicalization and decentralization, Korean culture holds its position for unilateralism, which has been obvious in parasite’s private sector funding and production in the said market, much-admired internationally. Therefore, the nation identity is implanted in the filmmaking techniques of Korean filmmakers, which the Parasite director has effectively done. Global politicians assumed Korea was a less powerful nation. The country was ranked lowest in the polling score, suggesting the gap between its soft power, possessions, and the held perceptions by the outside world[footnoteRef:7]. The single tsunami wave of national cultural identity came for the world through cultural products and the display of nation branding through films like parasite. [6: Seow Ting Lee, "Film as Cultural Diplomacy: South Korea's Nation Branding through Parasite (2019)", Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 2021.] [7: Ibid. ]

For Korean films, literature about production history is limited; however, it should be noted that it was solely funded by Barunson Entertainment & Arts Corporation for the parasite. The transformation of its national cinema from being ‘antiqued cottage industry’ to now being the internationally celebrated cinema, in competition with Hollywood, points at the long struggle that it has been through[footnoteRef:8]. The film industry naturally progressed in two ways: internally and externally. Removing censorship and more frequent film subsidies opened the bottleneck of creativity and revolution for formal and narrative schools in films. The commercial filmmakers brought in new ideas that gained the attention of local, regional, and international audiences within no time. [8: Brian Yecies and Ae-Gyung Shim, "Contemporay Korean Cinema: Challanges and the Transformation of 'Planet Hallyuwood'", Acta Koreana, 2011, 1-15.]

The star discourse in the particular period is apt for the film since the director has successfully placed the surface story and has left with various themes entrenched within the movie, such as social class inequities, deception, capitalism, etc. It has been artfully covered with dark comedy and thrill since there are certain areas of the movie where the viewers keep laughing, while in the next scene, they are taken aback by a sheer unanticipated thrill.

The narrative innovation in parasite has been linked to his innovation in storytelling and bending of various genres with the movie’s theme. Though the film reflects contemporary modernity in social class injustice, the capitalism on which both the families play their roles has been wildly woven together with a seamless binding of systematic injustice.

Korean cinema has flourished rapidly with political intervention as soon as it was realized that it had gained an international response. The social issues and their interrelatedness with internal politics have been observed lately, contributing to the cinematic lineage that expresses for Korean people. The complex history of class issues was witnessed a long time ago when in the middle of the 20th century, Korea was divided into two regions as a result of war[footnoteRef:9]. True democracy took shape with the introduction of a truly free market, and this newly found liberty was seen in the technology boom, giving fortification to the economy. The newly created class system appeared unmistakable, demonstrated in the parasite, who had been struggling between the financial powers that society has imposed upon them. Korean cinema became a strong means for portraying the societal pressures, stress, and battle for identity. [9: Bryan Hempel, Class Isues and Identity in South Korean Cinema, 3 October 2020, https://hyperrealfilm.club/reviews/2020/10/1/class-issues-and-identity-in-south-korean-cinema.]

In historical context, the question of representation and struggling for capturing a true self-identity by the respective social class’s individuals while playing their weak part in social inequalities, the history of capitalism is strongly marked in Western and pre-modern Korean history, when the clash between the ideology of America during the time of First and Second world war was seen settling on the lines of colonialism along with relating to Japanese colonial settlement seen in Korea[footnoteRef:10]. Neoliberal globalization, patriarchal dominations, and the interplay of capitalism exemplify the long-term inhibition of American militarism and the emergence of social classes with the new boom, as mentioned earlier. [10: Criss Moon and Julie Moon, "Parasite" and the Plurality of Empire, 23 June 2020, https://www.publicbooks.org/parasite-and-the-plurality-of-empire/.]

Thesis

The thesis of the research paper would be:

“The film Parasite (2019) highlights the theme of capitalism with dark comedy that shows great social class differences, embedded in Korean history.”

Supportive Arguments

The parasite was successfully able to resonate with the international audience despite its entire crew and the production company being Korean and even filmed in the Korean vicinity like Seoul because it reflected cultural and class differences that are persistent all over the globe[footnoteRef:11]. It was pertinent and understandable for the audience since the movie’s beginning showed a contrast and co-existence of its major theme- social inequalities. Kim’s family is seen residing in Seoul’s semi-basement apartment and sitting near the window for Wi-Fi signals. [11: Seow Ting Lee, 2021. ]

Each class in the Korean system plays its part in keeping the position of ‘capital aims’ intact in a metaphoric manner within the movie under discussion. The stratification of the economic categories defined by the boundaries of the social classes and the lowest social class struggling to ‘climb up the social order ladder’ to reach the level of high class is what the movie is about. The low-income class of the Kim family and that of the residents in the basement inside the Park family’s residence are the two struggling class people who want to reach the high-class rank. Therefore, the climax of the movie shows a gigantic explosion of violence when all the classes confront each other, causing a disturbance in the existing order and normal status quo of the families. The creeping of the poor under the shadow of the rich, in which the poor would adopt as many means, even the replacement of the housemaid, to reach their desired position are the classic examples of capitalism that have been masterfully shaded with dark comedy and humor to minimize the impact of harsh realities of the themes the film presents to its audience. The dialogues like: corroborate it

“She’s rich, but still nice”- Ki-taek (dialogue from the movie “Parasite”)

“Not rich, but still nice. She’s nice because she’s rich. Hell, if I had all this money, I’d be nice too!”- Chung-sook (dialogue from the movie “Parasite”)

And:

“Rich people are naïve. No resentments. No creases on them.”- Ki-taek (dialogue from the movie “Parasite”)