
To express this effectively, Hong studied Bong’s very descriptive script and detailed storyboards. Stairs provide important transitions between the two extremes of spaces and relationships. However, in most of the shifts between different spaces, there were scenes with stairs. Now he sees them function as ‘pieces of landscape’ in the rich house.”

The sky could never be seen in the semi-basement and the grass was mere weed struggling to survive between the rocks in Ki-woo’s neighborhood. Once Ki-woo reaches Park’s house, he comes to face the ‘open sky’ and the ‘nicely kept green grass in the garden’.

There are no passers-by or even a street cat.
Parasite game about killing full#
The hillsides are full of citadel-like mansions, which Ki-woo would never know what happens inside. “In the beginning of the film, Ki-woo climbs a hillside in the rich neighborhood for a tutor interview. The sunny area is just as limited as the size of the small window.” On the other hand, sunlight comes through a small window in the semi-basement house and can be seen only for a short moment of the day.
Parasite game about killing windows#
In the rich mansion, on the high ground, you can see the sunlight all day long through the wide windows everywhere during all the daytime when the sun is up. To make Ki-taek’s semi-basement house and the open set of Park’s mansion more realistic, we collected data by repeatedly testing and checking the sunlight in each location, which are regarded as in the same neighborhood in the film. In terms of topography, if you visit the concentrated semi-basement area in the lowland and the rich area in the highland, the difference in the amount of sunlight is obvious. “This was something that director Bong and I had already studied the most with discussions and test shooting. “First, I tried to reflect the gap between the rich and the poor in the amount of sunshine,” said Hong.

He populates the frame with doppelgangers while emphasizing vertical spaces, and cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo executes his vision with stunning visual contrasts. The director crosses Hitchcock with Buñuel yet provides his own sense of cunning and precision. Watching the poor family leave their cramped semi-basement home to overtake the wealthy family’s exquisite mansion becomes a tragicomic exercise in the futility of aspiration. Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-contending “ Parasite” masterfully explores class divisions in Korea with voyeuristic delight.
