Parasite; A look into the film

Parasite is an academy award-winning 2019 Korean film that speaks on the issues within rich and poor, evil and good, and everything in between like inequality. We are introduced to two families, the Kim family are the main characters in this film and are a family living in poverty. They're shown living in a small dim apartment, similar to a basement as it is underground, working folding pizza boxes and other small jobs as well as having poor cellular connection and problematic sewage systems. On the other hand we have the Parks, a rich family with a huge, beautiful, gated home with a very spacious backyard as well as glass doors. Not to mention their chauffeur and chef.

The film takes a turn when Ki-Woo (the son in the Kim family) has a friend come over before he leaves to study abroad. His friend comes with a "scholar's rock" which is basically a big rock that is said to grant wealth. As well as that, since he's leaving to study abroad, he's also leaving his job as an English tutor for the daughter of the Park family. He then advises Ki-Woo to pose as a student at a prestigious university in order to take over the job and make good money and with the help of his sister Ki-Jung's master photoshop skills, he manages to fake all of his school documents for his interview. Once he gets the job working for the Parks, he devises a plan in which the whole family can infiltrate the Parks' homes one by one as new employees.

Ki-Jung infiltrates as an art therapist for the Parks' youngest child and goes off on a made-up tangent about how severely "damaged" their son is, which prompts her to get hired. On her way home, she gets a ride with the very young chauffer and plants her underwear, framing him for inappropriate behaviors on the job, later getting him fired and getting replaced by the father in the Kim family, Ki-Taek. After three out of four members of the Kim family have successfully infiltrated the Parks' home, Ki-Taek scores a job for his wife, Chung-Sook, after convincing the Parks that the original chef has tuberculosis, by planting peach fuzz (which she's extremely allergic to) near her.

The major turning point however, is when the Parks have a birthday party for their youngest and invite the Kims. The Kims arrive and eat with all the rich people there, clinging onto their fake personas. While there, Ki-Woo takes his scholar's rock down to the basement where they had previously found out the chef and her husband were living for the past four years. During the time they originally found out, they had knocked out the chef so she would stay and not reveal their secret, but she had died from a concussion once they returned for the party. In an attempt to avenge his wife, the husband rushed out of the basement, hit Ki-Woo in the back of the head and ran with a knife, where he stabbed Ki-Jung in front of the whole party, revealing the Kims secret to everyone.

That's when Chung-Sook impales the husband with a barbeque skewer to avenge their daughter. In all the chaos however, the dad of the Park family cannot stop looking down at Ki-Taek with a disgusted look on his face. That's when Ki-Taek remembers all the times he would be ridiculed by him for his smell and status. He finally grabs the knife used to kill his daughter and kills Mr.Park, fleeing the scene almost immediately.

In the beginning, the film implies that the Kims are the parasite, them being the main characters and infiltrating a rich family's home by lying can set that tone. However, when Ki-Taek had had enough of being looked down on, seeing Mr. Park's constant disgust for him, it enraged him so much that he went on to kill him. It's not a matter of whether the Kims were the parasites or the Parks; it's the labels and society's injustices when it comes to rich and poor. The scholar's rock was meant to represent the Kims will get the wealth they've been wishing for, but in the end it was only used to try and kill the ones who were trying to ruin it. The evilness within greed, whether rich or poor is the real parasite.