Four Things You Might Have Missed in "Parasite"

If you haven't watched Bong Joon Ho's 2019 masterpiece "Parasite", you should go and watch it. Don't worry. This article can wait.

The critically acclaimed movie's win at the 2020 Academy Awards lit up my little, Asian heart; so much that I went on a Bong Joon Ho movie marathon. At the time I was planning to write a movie review, but everyone seems to have already done that. So, this is a top 7 list with only 4 items on it, 4 items in the movie which may have gone unnoticed by the casual viewer. How many of these did you pick up?

Image courtesy: https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/movie-poster-of-the-week-the-posters-of-parasite

4. None of the rich people look down

First, something obvious - this Oscar winning movie is a commentary on the gap between the rich elite and the common unfortunate, working class people. (That's how I write "poor" in a polite manner). One interesting thing is how in order to emphasise the distance between the upper class and the lower, director Bong made sure that none of the rich characters ever look down, when it is important.

First, we have Mr. Park, who only notices the underwear left by 'Jessica' because a paper dropped in the backseat of the car. Here, he does look down (so... bad example to begin this list) but only because a paper just happened to fall from his hands to the floor of the car.

Then, we have the high tension moments at the half of the movie. 'Kevin - Ki-woo' hides under Da-Hye's bed, while Ki-jung and Ki-taek hide under the table. The members of the house proceed to go around the house, doing their regular business but they never look below the table or the bed. When Da-Hye picks up Foofoo, the dog, she doesn't pay attention to what's under her bed. Granted these scenes were used for dramatic and suspense-building purposes, but nevertheless this was a mechanism to comment on how rich people are oblivious to what happens in the lives of the lower class people. They literally do not (or cannot) pay attention to what goes on under their noses

That is not the end of this device. There is also the fact that Moon-gwang had been hiding her husband in the bunker below the basement for four years, and none of the rich homeowners have noticed.
But while we are talking about the basement, we observe that the shelf was stuck because of a metal grill - a metal grill which was...

Yes. On the ground.

What about the beginning of the movie? When none of the Park family members were introduced; the audience is introduced to another rich character. Ki-woo's friend, Min, who almost trips upon entering the basement house, because he wasn't looking down.

3. The pizza shop

Now, the pizza shop employee is a random girl who shows up at the beginning of the movie to introduce us to the main cast and to show the plight and poor condition they are in, right? Well, she does serve that purpose and is actually easy to forget about her.

But did you notice that she makes an appearance during the montage where Ki-woo and his family are planning on getting their mother a job in the house? Yes, it's brief but the part where they are eating a pizza while discussing their plan is clearly the pizza shop with the same employees from earlier. You can tell that the service was somewhat frustrated with the family - who used to fold boxes for them - suddenly showing up for pizza at the shop, despite being under their pay a mere few days ago. This shows the dynamics of the main four characters and how the sudden change in their fortune led to them being perceived differently by the other side-characters.

2. The Taiwanese shop

Now, this is a throw-away line that is mentioned for just a short bit at the beginning of the movie. Ki-taek mentions a Taiwanese shop getting shut down in the vincinity. At that point it has no relation to the plot.
However, when Geun-sae is explaining how he got into such a debt, he mentions that he lost all his investment after his Taiwanese shop got shut down. Ki-taek even makes a face while he recollects the Taiwanese shop; a face recalling that dialogue from the first act of the movie, perhaps.

1. Flies

Now smell is a large driving force in the movie. We have Da-song mention how the new driver and the new housekeeper smell the same. Then, Mr. Park talks about the smell that Ki-taek has, which slowly drives Ki-taek into his actions at the end of the movie. Of course, his violence isn't all caused by Mr. Park's criticism of the way he smells. Regardless, if the audience wants to have a quick understanding of the bad smells that Mr. Park had to endure, they should pay attention to the brief shot of Geun-sae after he is stabbed by an angry Chung-sook.
As Mr. Park pinches his nostrils and moves away, we see (and hear) two houseflies. This little detail explains just how bad Geun-sae must have smelled, from living in the basement bunker for a long time. After all the conditions in such a place (the basement bunker) would leave the inhabitants in want of a better fragrance. However, the speed with which the flies are in his dead body just focuses on exactly how pungent, and horrible Geun-sae must have smelled.

Peaceful Sparta didn't think he was going to end an article with "Geun-sae must have smelled".