Parasite (film)

Movie
German title	Parasite
Original title	Gisaengchung ( 기생충 )
Country of production	South Korea
original language	Korean
Publishing year	2019
length	132 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Bong Joon-ho
script	Bong Joon-ho, ; Han Jin-won
production	Kwak Sin-ae , ; Moon Yang-kwon
music	Jeong Jae-il
camera	Hong Kyung-pyo
cut	Yang Jin-mo
occupation
	Song Kang-ho : Kim Ki-taek; Lee Sun-kyun : Park Dong-ik; Cho Yeo-jeong : Park Yeon-kyo, Dong-ik's wife; Jang Hye-jin : Kim Chung-sook; Park So-dam : Kim Ki-jung; Choi Woo-shik : Kim Ki-woo; Jeong Ji-so : Park Da-hye; Jung Hyun-joon: Park Da-song; Lee Jung-eun: Gook Moon-gwang; Park Myung-hoon: Geun-se;

The cast of parasite . Left to right: Choi Woo-shik , Cho Yeo-jeong , Jang Hye-jin, Park So-dam , Lee Sun-kyun, and Song Kang-ho .

Parasite (Original title: 기생충 / Gisaengchung ) is a South Korean feature film by Bong Joon-ho from 2019 . The social satire about the son of a poor family (played by Choi Woo-shik ), who got a job as a private tutor for a wealthy family and, over the years, also found jobs in the luxurious property, was a great success with audiences and critics.

The “genre hybrid of drama , farce and parable , which aims beyond South Korean standards at a fundamental critique of the Western model of life, work and consumption”, won more than 250 film and festival prizes after its publication. As the first foreign-language production in the history of the Academy Awards , Parasite received the award for the best film of the year . He received a total of four Oscars. Other awards included a. the Golden Palm of the 72nd Cannes International Film Festival and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film .

action

The Kim family of four - consisting of Kim Ki-taek, his wife Chung-sook, son Ki-woo and daughter Ki-jung - live in poor conditions without a stable income in a shabby apartment in the basement of a house. A former school friend of his son Ki-woo suggests that he replace him as a tutor for English with a wealthy family during his absence. On that occasion he gives him a lucky stone from his grandfather's collection. His sister Ki-jung forges a diploma and other documents for Ki-woo, so he is employed by the Park couple as a teacher for their daughter Da-hye. He learns that the son of the family, Da-song, likes to paint, to the delight of his parents. He recommends Mrs. Park a friend named Jessica, who allegedly studied in Illinois and teaches art therapy . However, it is actually Ki-woo's sister Ki-jung. She can convince Ms. Park with her methods and demeanor and is employed as a Da-songs art teacher. After class, the family driver is supposed to take her home. Ki-jung takes the opportunity by taking off her slip while driving and leaving them in the back of the car. When Mr. Park discovers this, he assumes that his driver had sex in the back seat.

The couple then dismisses the driver, and Jessica recommends her uncle's alleged former driver. This is really her father. Now the family's housekeeper, Moon-gwang, is about to disappear in favor of her mother. She has lived in the property for a long time as the Park family; she had previously worked for the architect who designed the house. The family forges a plan. She takes advantage of the housekeeper's peach allergy. If they manage to get Ms. Park to believe that the housekeeper has tuberculosis and is a danger to the children, she is released and Chung-sook is hired.

For their son Da-song's birthday, the Park family goes on a camping trip. The Kim family takes advantage of this to spend time indoors and enjoy the wealth. Suddenly, however, the former housekeeper returns and says that she forgot something in the house that she would like to get. Chung-sook lets them in while the rest of the family goes into hiding. When she doesn't come back from the basement, Chung-sook looks to see what's going on. The housekeeper tries to move a closet; Chung-sook helps her. Behind it is the door to an underground bunker that only Moon-gwang knows about: when the house was sold, she took the opportunity there to hide her husband from loan sharks and bring him regular food.

Chung-sook tries to call the police while the rest of the family listens to Kim on the stairs, but Ki-taek slips and everyone falls down. Moon-gwang realizes that it is a single family. She makes a video and threatens to send it to Yeon-kyo if the family does not respond to her request. In a moment of inattention, Ki-woo can steal the smartphone. Moon-gwang passes out when she is kicked down the stairs; her husband is overwhelmed and both are left in the bunker. However, Yeon-kyo now calls and says that the camping trip was canceled due to the heavy rain and that Chung-sook should prepare a meal. The family quickly tidies up the worst while Chung-sook prepares food. But the family cannot leave the house in time and hides under the living room table, while Mr Park speaks disparagingly to his wife about the driver's smell, among other things, before they both have sexual contact on the sofa and finally fall asleep.

When the Kims leave the house and run home through the pouring rain, they realize that the sewer system has overflowed. Your apartment is under water; they have to spend the night in a sports hall. The next day, Ms. Park plans an impromptu birthday party for her son. The entire Kim family is needed for this: Ki-taek has to go shopping with Yeon-kyo, Chung-sook is needed as a housekeeper for various preparations, Ki-jung is supposed to be present as Da-song's art teacher and daughter Da-hye wants that Ki-woo also comes, who has started a secret love affair with her. While Ki-jung and Chung-sook are debating whether to talk to Moon-gwang and her husband, Ki-woo has made a decision. He goes into the bunker with his heavy lucky stone. But Moon-gwang's husband overpowers him and throws the stone twice on his head, and Ki-woo loses a lot of blood. While Moon-gwang cannot be seen, the man also wants to kill the other family members. When Ki-jung wants to hand over a cake, he stabs her with a knife. Chung-sook and Ki-taek fight with him, everyone else present just wants to flee. Mr. Park wants Ki-taek's car keys to drive his passed out son to the hospital, but they end up with Moon-gwang's husband, who is still fighting with Chung-sook. She can eventually kill him with a skewer. Mr. Park tries to get the keys, but shrinks shortly before the man's smell. Because he covers his nose while he turns to escape with the keys, Ki-taek grabs the knife, stabs Park and escapes.

Ki-woo wakes up in the hospital. His sister died, his father disappeared. In court, he and his mother get away with a suspended sentence . They also live in the shabby basement. One night, Ki-woo wants to see the house again. From a raised place he observes that the light over the stairs lights up in Morse code ; it is a message from his father. This is hidden in the bunker; he buried the body of the housekeeper in the garden. Ki-woo imagines how one day he will be rich, buy the house and free his father, who then just has to come upstairs without having to hide from the house owners.

production

Filming

Exhibition of film equipment in the Korean Film Museum

Filming started at the end of May 2018 and ended in September 2018. The English subtitles were created by Darcy Paquet in close collaboration with director Bong Joon-ho.

music

The soundtrack comes from the composer Jeong Jae-il , with whom Bong has worked in the past. The end credits include the song A Glass of Soju , which is interpreted by Choi Woo-shik , the performer of Ki-woo . This made it on the shortlist for the Oscar for best song , but was ultimately not nominated. In addition, three other pieces of music appear in the film's key scenes: the arias Spietati, io vi giurai and Mio caro bene from Georg Friedrich Handel's opera Rodelinda and the song In ginocchio da te by Gianni Morandi .

publication

The film celebrated its world premiere on May 21, 2019 on the occasion of the 72nd Cannes International Film Festival. It opened in South Korean cinemas on May 30, 2019. Koch Media secured the distribution rights to Parasite for the German-speaking area. The cinema release in Germany was on October 17, 2019.

Before the world premiere in Cannes, the film was also produced in a black and white version and shown for the first time at the International Film Festival Rotterdam from January 26th to 31st, 2020. This version started in German, Austrian and Swiss cinemas on February 13, 2020.

The film was released on February 20, 2020 on German-speaking digital streaming platforms and on March 5, 2020 in German-speaking retailers on DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray . In the latter case, the wrong material was delivered to the German rental company - 4K SDR instead of 4K HDR - which is why an exchange campaign was started for discs that had already been delivered. The HDR exchange disc that was delivered a few weeks later received the Korean original sound with Dolby Atmos without any indication that it was included.

synchronization

The German version was created at Cinephon under the direction of Wolfgang Zahl from a dialogue book by Stefan Kaiser.

role	Actress	Voice actor
Kim Ki-woo	Choi woo-shik	Max fields
Kim Ki-jung	Park So-dam	Maria Hönig
Kim Ki-taek	Song Kang-ho	Stefan Gossler
Kim Chung-sook	Jang Hye-jin	Marina Krogull
Park Yeon-kyo	Cho Yeo-jeong	Manja Doering
Park Da-hye	Jeong Ji-so	Jodie Blank
Park Da-song	Jung Hyun-joon	Oskar Ehrhorn
Park Dong-ik	Lee Sun-kyun	Alexander Doering
Min-hyuk	Park Seo-joon	Karim El Kammouchi
Gook Moon-gwang	Lee Jung-eun	Sabine Falkenberg
Geun-se	Myung-hoon Park	Marcus Off

reception

criticism

In the international critics' survey for the 72nd Cannes Film Festival by Screen magazine , Parasite achieved the highest value of all competition films at the 2019 Festival with 3.5 out of 4 possible points.

In the United States , Parasite became the most successful non-English language film of 2019. The film received a lot of media attention, but also went viral on the Internet before that. Guy Lodge of the Guardian cited the reason for the commercial success of the film in the West that it appeals to the socially conscious youth who repeatedly need material for their discourse on the social imbalance in the world.

In the Rotten Tomatoes critics' rating , Parasite achieved 99% approval from 439 reviews. On the film rating page Letterboxd , the film became the best-rated feature film of all time and replaced the godfather . Variety's Jessica Kiang describes Parasite as "a remarkable pitch-black tragic comedy about social inequality in modern Korea." The scene designer Lee Ha-jun succeeded with the contrast of the houses of the two families with space and light, a masterful example of depicting a class difference. As cruel, brilliant and sarcastic as the film is due to its style and humor, it is just as dark. This is underlined by Hong Kyung-pos's flawless camera work. For Screen Daily 's Jonathan Romney , Parasite is an "ominous delight" from start to finish. The film is inventive and full of surprises. According to his interpretation, the actions of the Kim family may not be justified but are driven by economic realities. In the world, the rich do not despise the poor, but treat them like dirt, which is expressed in the film by the disgusting smell. The cast is in top form in a series of outrageous and petty situations with pinpoint comedy. For Verena Lueken from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Parasite was one of the highlights of Cannes and outshone Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood . Bernadette Grubner praises in concrete terms, the director that he shows in his work, "based on which the neuroses of the upper class and the social context: on the repressed (the proletariat as a symptomatic point of a society that postulates the formal equality where economic constraints prevail ) and its return ”. At the same time, however, she criticizes the choice of the title, since the “parasite metaphor” uses the “scheme of poor versus rich”, “which makes it all too easy for viewers to locate themselves neither here nor there - that is, not to feel that they are meant”.

Gross profit

Over ten million cinema tickets have been sold in South Korea. There were over 961,000 moviegoers in Germany. It is the most successful South Korean film in France with over 1.6 million admissions. Parasite is the most successful Palme d'Or at the French box office since Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004).

As of March 2, 2020, the global box office total was 256 million US dollars, of which 72 million US dollars in South Korea alone.

Awards (selection)

Parasite has won over 200 film and festival awards to date and has been nominated for more than 180 others. At the 2020 Academy Awards , the film was nominated in six categories and was the most successful film of the award with four awards. It was the first foreign language film ever to win in the Best Film category , as well as an Oscar for Best International Film , for Best Director and for Best Original Screenplay .

A selection of the awards received:

2019

Blue Dragon Awards