Parasite (2019) Script Review | #4 WGA 101 Greatest Scripts of the 21st Century

A South Korean dark comedy that transcends language barriers, and a formidable and unpredictable thriller that critiques capitalism's effect across society.

Logline: All unemployed, the destitute Kim family ingeniously embed themselves into the household of the wealthy Park family until they get untangled in an unexpected incident.

Written by: Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin Won

Story by: Bong Joon-ho

Pages: 141

Scenes: 159

“When I was young and studying cinema, there was a saying that I carved deep into my heart, which is that ‘The most personal is the most creative.’ That quote is from our great Martin Scorsese.” – Boon Joon-ho in his acceptance speech for winning Best Director at the 92^nd Academy Awards

I read the Parasite screenplay before I watched the film in 2019. I still remember feverishly burning through the pages, wondering how this story would play out, and my jaw hitting the floor when it took a complete left turn halfway through. At the time, I’d never read anything so audacious or as original; re-reading it a few years later, I stand by that opinion.

Parasite is a thriller and a blistering criticism of capitalism. It’s dark, but it can also be funny; it’s terrifying, but it also has the capacity to be saddening. Above all, even though it is rooted firmly in South Korean culture and traditions, the ways in which inequality ravages society can be understood universally.

It is a tale of two families— the low-income struggling Kim family, barely able to make ends meet; and the Park family, who seem to have more money than they need. One day, Min-Hyuk drops by Ki-Woo’s place with an offer: He wants his friend to replace him as the English tutor to the Park’s daughter, Da-Hae. The money is good, the work is relatively easy. But Ki-Woo uses the first opportunity to smuggle the entire Kim family into various roles within the Park household— without letting the wealthy family know they are related!

Cast of characters:

KIM FAMILY

• Ki-Tek, 49

• Chung-Sook, 49

• Ki-Woo, 24

• Ki-Jung, 23

PARK FAMILY

• Dong-Ik, 45

• Yon-Kyo, 41

• Da-Hae, 17

• Da-Song, 10

OTHERS

• Mun-Kwang, 45

• Kun-Sae, 45

• Min-Hyuk, 24

The whole plan unfolds with the mesmerizing synchronicity of a heist film. First, Ki-Woo brings in his sister, Ki-Jung, as the qualified arts teacher ‘Jessica’ for the younger son, Da-Song. Next, the siblings get rid of Dong-Ik’s driver and replace him with their father, Ki-Tek. Lastly, and most difficultly, they push out the Park’s loyal housekeeper, Mun-Kwang, so that they can get their mother, Chung-Sook, instead.

And the Parks are oblivious to the deception! The Kims are careful to maintain their covers, though there’s a fraught moment when Da-Song almost gives them away with a stray observation about the smell of their clothes.

As it progresses towards the halfway mark, the Parks go away on a camping trip to celebrate the boy’s birthday. The Kims take the opportunity to inhabit the house, eating the Parks’ food and drinking their liquor, enjoying themselves as if this was their own house. But as night falls and torrential rains break out, they are rudely interrupted on page 71 by the arrival of the ex-housekeeper, Mun-Kwang.

The thing is, just like the Kims, Mun-Kwang has a secret. In the house, there is a secret bunker. It was built by the architect in case of an attack from North Korea. The Parks don’t know about its existence. But Mun-Kwang does, and she’s been using it to hide her husband, Kun-Sae!

Why is Kun-Sae living in a bunker? He’s hiding from creditors to whom he owes money after the cake shop he opened went under. Ever since Mun-Kwang was fired, he’s been trapped without food or water, unable to open the door. When Mun-Kwang discovers the Kims, she puts it together, and threatens to expose them to the Parks. For their bad luck, they are returning home due to the bad weather!

Things really take a turn at this point. The Kims resort to desperate measures to prevent Mun-Kwang and Kun-Sae from destroying their elaborate deception— including kicking the former down the stairs, giving the former housekeeper a fatal concussion that kills her. But that’s only half the problem sorted. Ki-Tek, Ki-Woo, and Ki-Jung need to flee the house before they are caught, leading to a series of close calls and one extremely awkward scene where Dong-Ik disparages Ki-Tek’s odor and Ki-Jung’s underwear, and then later has sex with Yon-Kyo— a few feet away from where the trio are hiding!

As the script builds towards the end of Act 2, it truly never rains but pours. In the extreme weather, Ki-Tek, Ki-Woo, and Ki-Jung discover that their basement apartment is flooded with sewer water. Without shelter, they drift to a gymnasium to spend the night with other displaced people. Their fine plans washed away in the flood, they wonder what the dawn will bring them.

They don’t have to wait for too long. Yon-Kyo calls Ki-Jung and invites her for a birthday party to make up for the canceled camping trip. Ki-Woo is also invited as he and Dae-Hae have been engaged in a secret romance. Ki-Tek is called in to help with groceries. But the rich couple’s humiliating comments are still in his mind; one can almost sense the otherwise placid man on the verge of snapping, when he catches Yon-Kyo reacting to his body odor, and when Dong-Ik makes him dress up as a Native American as part of a playact to entertain Da-Song.

When reading the Parasite screenplay for the first time, I remember wondering, How on earth are they going to stick the landing? Plenty of scripts exist where the third Act derails all the good that came before it. Parasite avoids this trap. At the party, Kun-Sae is able to escape captivity when Ki-Woo ventures into the basement. After bludgeoning Ki-Woo in the head, he proceeds to fatally stab Ki-Jung and attack Chung-Sook until the latter stabs him with a piping hot barbecue skewer. As for Ki-Tek, well, when he sees Dong-Ik react to Kun-Sae’s smell, he finally snaps.

The ending comes swiftly. Ki-Jung dies; Ki-Tek disappears. Ki-Woo survives his injuries though not without some brain damage. He and Chung-Sook return to their basement, probably worse off than before. But one day, when scoping the old Park house (now occupied with different tenants), he notices the lights blinking in a strange manner. It takes a moment for him to realize that the lights are blinking in Morse Code. It’s Ki-Tek— he disappeared into the bunker to avoid being arrested. Ki-Woo writes a letter promising his father that he will make enough money to buy the house and when he does, Ki-Tek can reemerge into the light. It’s a heartening note, with one catch… how is Ki-Woo going to get the message across?

The title, Parasite, has multiple connotations. The immediate reference is to the Kim family, who embed themselves into a single household in order to gain employment; no different to an actual parasite absorbing nutrients from its host’s body. But it also references the Park family, leeching off the lower-income labor to enjoy their lavish lifestyle. Consider the scene, for instance, in which Yon-Kyo is inept in running a house without a housekeeper (even though she doesn’t work or do anything else).

Consider, too, Mun-Kwang and Kun-Sae. Although Dong-Ik makes a comment early on that Mun-Kwang eats enough food for two, she’s been smuggling portions for her husband, though she claims to pay for it using her money.

That, then, makes three different interpretations of the title. There’s a fourth but minor interpretation in which Da-Song appropriates Native American iconography for his amusement, in what can be considered a symptom of parasitic behavior. Altogether, it gives the script thematic heft to its narrative.

None of this would work, however, if writers Bong Joon Jo and Han Jin Won didn’t develop flawed yet sympathetic characters. Each character has their own trait that makes them memorable. Ki-Tek is passive in his acceptance of fate (and his wife’s insults) until he snaps at the end; Chung-Sook is a realist; Ki-Jung is the smartest of the lot and the most cynical; and Ki-Woo is an optimist and planner. In fact, Ki-Woo takes parasitic behavior to a different level: he plans to marry Da-Hae and literally become part of the Park family—which is exactly what his friend, Min-Hyuk was planning to do.

Meanwhile, Dong-Ik is a bit aloof, while Yon-Kyo is a bit simple and sheltered. Da-Hae is demure, while Da-Song is sharp. Mun-Kwang is alternatively sycophantic and steely (plus, she does great impressions of North Korean newsreaders); and Kae-Sun is pitiable, like a chained animal, that goes berserk following the death of his wife.

The writers also flesh out the relationships between the characters in different ways. Note how the dynamic between Ki-Tek and Chung-Sook largely hinges on the former being dominated by the latter.

As for the siblings, note how Ki-Woo and Ki-Jung have a close bond, such as in the silly rhyme they come up with together.

That’s only for starters. There’s a great balance struck between humor, darkness, and suspense.

Since Bong is directing, there is a liberal use of camera directions…

And even musical cues to establish the tone…

Not to mention the liberal use of “we” to direct our attention to certain elements or imagining how the scene will be set.

The visual descriptions are also fantastic—look at the imagery of the noose in Scene 128.

And the emotion is wrenching— Scene 106 on page 109, for instance, excellently conveys Kun-Sae’s anguish at watching his wife die and being helpless to do anything.

Even though the script runs for 141 pages, about 20 pages longer than the standard screenplay length in Hollywood, not once does it feel as if the pace is dragging. It should also be noted that this is an English translation of the script originally written in Korean. Likewise, a few things are different on the page versus what was filmed. One of the biggest changes is the manner of Dong-Ik’s death—in the script, it’s implied that Ki-Tek didn’t realize he was using a real axe instead of a toy axe…

Whereas in the film, Ki-Tek uses a knife to stab him, and appears to be caught up in a rage when he drives home the knife. The ending is also tweaked— Ki-Woo’s uncertainty about getting the letter to his father as written in the script is removed in the film; it ends, instead on an image of the young man in the basement, bleakly implying that he is fated to be stuck at the bottom of the rung for good.

For such an unnerving story, Bong actually drew from his personal experiences in his early 20s as a math tutor for a wealthy family in Seoul. In South Korea, the system works on personal recommendations— Bong got the gig through his then-girlfriend/now-wife, Jung Sun-young. Initially, he envisioned Parasite as a stage play, but soon came to realize that it would work better as a feature film. He was also inspired by the 1960 South Korean film, The Housemaid. After making Snowpiercer, Bong compiled a 15-page treatment for the first half of the story, then tasked Han Jin Won, his assistant, to conduct research. Han spent the next several months meeting and interviewing real-life housekeepers, tutors, and chauffeurs in order to get a feel for what their worlds were like. He also visited the lower-class neighborhoods as well as the wealthy neighborhoods around Seoul to better understand what it would be like. Impressed by his assistant’s diligent work, Bong asked him to write a script. Han would ultimately come up with three different versions of the story. Bong would select the best from each and put it together into a master screenplay, especially after he cracked the second half of the story a few years later when it came to him in all at once one day in a whirlwind.

To read Parasite is like watching a daredevil trapeze artist confidently dancing along a tightrope. Between two skyscrapers. Blindfolded. Without a safety net below. It doesn’t put a step out of place. You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe; you’ll feel for everyone, you’ll be stunned by what comes. Little wonder that Parasite made waves and, ultimately, movie history— aside from Bong and Han winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay¹, Parasite (the film) became the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Every once in a while, the gods of cinema see fit to bestow upon us an instant classic. Parasite is one such gift.

Notes:

Brzeski, Patrick (November 8, 2019) | Making of ‘Parasite’: How Bong Joon Ho’s Real Life Inspired a Plot-Twisty Tale of Rich vs. Poor (The Hollywood Reporter)

Han, Karen (October 14, 2019) | Bong Joon-ho on weaving his personal memories into Parasite (Polygon)

Sims, David (October 15, 2019) | How Bong Joon Ho Invented the Weird World of Parasite (The Atlantic)

Ulaby, Neda (December 10, 2019) | 'Parasite' Director Bong Joon-ho 'Wanted To Reflect The Truth Of Current Times' (NPR)

Miyamoto, Ken (February 10, 2020) | Screenwriting and Filmmaking Wisdom from PARASITE Auteur Bong Joon-ho (ScreenCraft)

1. Other contenders in both Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay categories that year which made it on the WGA’s 101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century List: Knives Out, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Original); Jojo Rabbit, and Little Women (Adapted).