CLAIM

Through the use of camera shots and colour to portray the Kim family’s lower class setting, Bong Joon-ho is able to highlight wealth inequality in his movie Parasite.

EVIDENCE

ANALYSIS LEVEL 1

LEVEL 2

LEVEL 3

The opening shot begins from the interior of the Kim family apartment. The shot tracks down, with a low angle shot depicting the street above the apartment, which is below ground, from a barred window.

Tracking Shot

• The camera moves down showing the street is above the apartment..

Framing

• It also highlights the bars on the window, which are a visual metaphor for being trapped.

Low Angle Shot

• The low angle shot looks up to the street, and therefore society.

Colour

• The colours of the property and the outside street are washed out and dull. The apartment is poorly lit and dark.

Through these choices, the setting is depicted as impoverished, at the bottom of society. Symbolically, it is the lowest it could be as it is literally below the street. This achieves a pessimistic and hopeless mood. Bong Joon-ho is critical towards this issue.

This develops themes of class, specifically highlighting wealth inequality as the poorest in society are at the lowest level.

The bourgeoisie and proletariat are divided in a society, with the proletariat trapped in their economic oppression literally and metaphorically in the film.

The movie echoes similar themes and presentations of lower-class streets as the recent hit TV show Squid Game, also from South Korea. As a result, it is inferred that the issue of wealth inequality, minimal social aid, and a lack of social upwards mobility are a problem in the country.

Interestingly, South Korea endured an economic crash in 1997, of which it still feels the effects. Today, whilst 15% of the country live in poverty, only about 3% receive social aid.

The director, Bong Joon-ho is critical of wealth inequality in Parasite, but in other works as well. Snowpiercer, directed by Joon-ho in 2013, is about a large social divide in a dystopian future set on a train. The upper classes occupy the front and live extravagantly whilst the lower classes are kept to the back and live in awful conditions. The film is of their revolt.