The film opens with a shot from a semi-basement with sunshine going through the window. And clean socks still hanging to dry.
The children of the Kim family trying to contact a pizza place to fold cardboard boxes for them. The highest point for free wifi is by the toilet near the narrow window.
Ki-woo is mesmerized by the huge yard and house of the Park family when arrived to give an English tutoring to the daughter of the family. It's a long shot where we follow Ki-woo walking up stairs to the house entrance of the Park family.
The housekeeper of the Parks, Moon-gwang, wakes up Yeon-gyo, the mother of the Parks. The housekeeper crosses the line. It is a metaphor of the confinement of lower class action invading high class.
Yeon-gyo is going upstairs to introduce Ki-woo to her daughter, Da-hye. So far, Ki-woo is having a successful plan of pretending to be a tutor because Yeon-gyo doesn't matter about his education. She just wants to see if it goes well with her daughter. Stairs play a huge role as Yeon-gyo doesn't look down as she is climbing up, but Ki-woo is looking down as he is climbing up.
Ki-jung just setup up a plan to get the Parks valet driver fired because she knew her father used to work as a valet driving a Mercedes. In this wide shot, the Parks are discussing about making an excuse to fire their driver, with Ki-jung listening to them with her art therapy lesson with the energetic son, Da-song, is over. Ki-jung is about to cross the line thanks to the symmetrical frame of Ki-jung preparing to see them.
A balanced wide shot frame of Yeon-gyo stopped walking back upstairs from the basement to see Ki-jung finished her art therapy lesson with Da-song for the first time. Orange light symbolizes an unnerving neurosis feeling.
This sequence is shot in a wide frame with slow motion while the camera slowly dolly forward to Ki-jung grabbing the peach for her plan to get rid the housekeeper. The sun shines on the outline of Ki-jung, but behind her is the shadow. She is a fraud. Their plan is about to work.
In this shot, Yeon-gyo is shocked to see Moon-gyang having an asthma meltdown with Ki-taek behind her as if he is invading her. This is shot in slow motion where the camera moves up slow as the Yeon-gyo and Ki-taek ascend upstairs in the house.
A POV shot from the parents of the Kim family looking at their son laying down outside with the sun hitting him. Ki-woo is across the line, but he doesn't move. His plan worked. He is family loving this lifestyle of him and his family working for the Parks by pretending they are not related and get to do whatever they want in the house. Green is almost used to resemble money. He has become greedy.
The Kim family are at the top of their game. While the Park family are out for a camp trip, the Kim quietly sneaks in their house to have fun and celebrate their schemes and plans. This shot showcases the power and success of the Kim family.
A shot of the Kim family talking about being on top of their game and discuss about rich people being ignorant. It is clear look at how low class people would behave when they becomes frauds. And by this point, the plot twist occurs afterwards which changes the tone, story, and genre of the movie.
The Kim family hiding from the Parks after coming home from the cancelled camp trip due to heavy rain. The camera showed the parents of the Parks going to sleep on the living room couch, and we move down to see the Kim hiding as if they were like bugs.
A creepy wide shot of a flashback scene of Da-song seeing a ghost. Very little orange light from the cabinet with the head of the "ghost" slowly looking at the viewer from the basement.
Wide shot of Ki-woo, Ki-jung, and Ki-taek running home with rain becoming heavier. They were on the top of their game, and now going down at the bottom. Back to where they started.
Wide shot with the dirty smelly sewer water slowly rising up with Ki-jung is smoking while trying not to get soaked in it and sitting on a toilet full of dirty liquid coming out of it. It's a harsh look into what low class people suffer.
Symmetrical shot of Ki-woo looking at the scholar rock from his friend floating from the water after finding out it is not a pure good luck charm rock. He still wants to believe in the luck, but his father is telling to get out of the house with the flood increasing. The light also flickers above Ki-woo in which his dreams has shattered.
The focused shot of Ki-taek being annoyed by the amount of Yeon-gyo called the heavy rain washing away all the dirt and awful smell from the streets of Seoul a "blessing" while talking her friend on the phone. While Yeon-gyo is blurred out of frame, Ki-taek becomes increasing angry after hiding from the Parks revealing their true identity, leaving their flooded house for shelter, and witnessing the secret.
The same opening shot, but with the color grade in a less saturated and dark blue and snow falling. Ki-woo made his plan to go to university and work hard to make money.
The movie selected for the title sequence assignment is the 2019 South Korean film Parasite.
Directed by Bong Joon-Ho, Parasite is a satirical black comedy thriller film that explores the discrimination of class and wealth inequality of 2 families. The Kim family who are in poverty, and the clean and very wealthy Park family.
The narrative mainly focuses on the Kim family with the son who wants to make money to have a better lifestyle. The son was chosen by a friend to have him tutor the daughter of the Park family, but realizes the solution to receive more money and live a better life is his family to become frauds for the Parks. The Kim family infiltrates the Park family, who live in a big modern house on a small hill in the city of Seoul. With Ki-woo, the son of the Kim family, pretending to be an English tutor for the daughter of the Park family, he invites his sister Ki-jung, the daughter of the Kim family, to become an art therapist for the energetic son of the Park family. Ki-jung then has Ki-taek, the father of both children, being a valet for Mr. Park. And to complete the plan of having every family member hired and working for the Parks, the Kim family has to fire the housekeeper of the house to be replaced by the mother of the family. They find out that the housekeeper has been the working and living in the house for a long time before the Park family moved in. With the Kim family being on the top of their game, they soon discover that the choices they have made will turn out to affect them. The Kim family finds out their plan didn’t go well as they thought.
The movie's tone and genre shifts in the mid-point where a plot twist occurs and showcases the biggest reveal that leaves the audience at the edge of their seats.
Parasite
Words: Satire, Class Difference, Social Division, Wealth Inequality, Fraud, Stairs, Crossing the Line, Rain, Black Comedy, Thriller
Set in the present time of Seoul, a poor family in poverty make plans to earn more money and take control over the lives of a wealthy family.
In the film, the lines is one of the symbolisms used throughout the movie. The idiom is a subtle message of reminding us that successful schemes and being ignorant about it can cause conflicts. Another significance in the film are stairs. Stairs obviously symbolizes that social stratification. When one member invites another upstairs, they both have more control and power. However, when one person goes downstairs, he or she has less control. At the top of the board, there are money, sunlight, and power. But in the bottom of the board, poverty is shown with stink bugs and dark basements with little to no light at all.
For the film, there is an exploration between black and white background to represent the family and their status. Black background with white text at the bottom half are the Kim family who live in a semi-basement. Meanwhile the Park are presented in black text placed on the top half of the composition with a white background to represent their power.
In general: bar element stays the same size/width. Here poor neighborhood: no straight lines.
Bars and background rearrange themselves to create different scenario
Bars and background rearrange themselves to create architecture. Rich house = all straight
Bars and background rearrange themselves to create architecture. Rich house = all straight
Bars rearrange themselves to become title. Maybe title sits on black background and "sucks" the "life" = color out of it (parasite behavior).
Starts with a white filled bar where the text enters downwards into the bar sucking the the white filled bar to reveal the distributors and the creator of the film becoming the host of the bar. The camera booms upwards to the organized horizon.
Title rises from the black bar to take the black filled bar up to the letters. Then the camera slowly booms down into the black filled area.
The star of the poor family falls off one of the unorganized white filled bars.
Camera booms up to the organized architecture of the rich family and the star being on the top.
Slowly booms down where suddenly a text enters one of the bars and becomes one of the host of a step. The text is in a tilted angle to signify an invasion to the rich family.
Booming up reveals another rich member next the house. But then another poor family member invades one of the black filled bars of the rich family.
While slowly booming down along with the text continuing the invade, the white bars starts becoming more organized. Three white bars start facing vertical.
With three vertical bars, the black filled bar decreases vertically to form a window. Static the organized windows along with the name being placed on the top.
Dissolve transitions to the unorganized window arrangement with the text tilted. The white area then quickly fills the whole area
Repeating booming up and down for the text invading bars from the editor, cinematographer, and composer.
We slowly boom down where we are entering into the darkness where the white stroked bars are dissolving as we continue going down. The text of producers invade the bars and then the writers.
Zoom into one of the white filled bars in the black filled areas. The text (Director) takes away the white fill into the name. Fades into black. End of sequence.
If the plan is to switch from chaos/poor to order/rich, I think there should be a certain consistent rhythm switching back and forth. This sketch is just how it formally makes sense to me without thinking too much about it. It's dividing the sequence into chaos and order sections but maybe with a clearer structure. Not sure - will take another look tomorrow together with you.
The film Parasite is a satirical film that blends dark comedy in the first half, until in the center of time, changes into a suspenseful thriller which leads into a more tragedy.
The use of stairs in the film has become a symbolism of power. When a character goes up then they have making progress to have more control.
For the title sequence, the bars create stairs. The bars are filled on the opposite color to shows that they possess the power. While the text become the same color as the bar to represent fraud where the fill area of the bar slowly dissolves into the text where the text is becoming more powerful.
The movement used in the title sequence move simply up and down. White is for the sunshine, and black is for darkness.
Armenta_Parasite Film Title from UIC DESIGN on Vimeo.