This film was honestly an all-around masterpiece. The visuals, pacing, storyline; everything was on point. I lovvee this movie. This is the second time I’ve watched Parasite (2019), and it still felt like I watched it for the first time. This time, I noticed how strong and intentional the symbolism is.
There was one thing that stood out to me, and that was the way this film makes use of stairs and levels. It symbolizes differences in social class and the movement between these classes. For instance, the first two images depict Ki Woo, the son of the poor family posing as a college student, going to the Parks’ place for his first tutoring session. These shots deliberately depict him ascending the sloped neighborhood road, showing his metaphorical rise from the dirt poor life he lived to his new job amongst the rich.
In the second image, the Ki family, having been used to a better life, walk down the stairs to the secret basement, eavesdropping. This itself symbolizes their innate connection to the lower class. What solidifies it, though, is the part where the family falls into the basement, which we could interpret as a moment of foreshadowing to their demise and a sort of “topple of power.” (The taste they obtained of the rich life was disturbed).
After their plans are foiled at the Parks’ place, they start running home to their beloved, working-class semi-basement. These sequences are subtle in the way they convey a message, but important. Using the similar idea that going upwards symbolizes climbing the social ladder, we can infer that the Ki family going down the stairs represents them scuttling away, almost like a Parasite, back to their little hole. This also reminded me of something Ki-Taek (Poor father) said beforehand: “…when you turn on the lights, and the cockroaches scatter...” The Ki family were cockroaches/parasites in the Parks’ home. The Park family turned on the lights, and the Ki’s scattered.
Overall, this film was suspense-fully interesting, with the story captivating me every scene. Watching the movie a second time definitely helped me make out details I wouldn’t have noticed earlier.
