FOOD, CLASS, AND POLITICS IN PARASITE

Inequality has been steadily rising around the world. We have witnessed it first hand in the United States. The Academy award-winning film Parasite explores class conflicts that have arisen with increased inequality in South Korea. Parasite centers on the lower class Kim family as they con their way into working for a wealthy family and the drama that follows as they try to maintain the charade. Although there are many ways that director Bong Joon-Ho shows the disparity between the impoverished Kim family and affluent Park family, food is at the center of the struggle for power and agency. In the film Parasite, food, usually a source of nourishment and seen as a symbol of love, is transformed into something that is harmful and a source of manipulation. 

From the very beginning of the film, food defines the dire circumstances of the Kim family.  In the first scene, the family is folding pizza boxes in their squalid semi-basement to make enough money to buy food. Not soon after we see them sitting in the kitchen of their semi-basement drinking beers as junk food wrappers litter their table. They can’t afford the luxury of fresh food or even the pizza from the boxes they were folding. Later on, Min, a friend of the son, comes to visit. He brings a relic as a present for the family. Disappointedly the mother, Chong-sook says under her breath, “Food would have been better.” Her disgruntled attitude towards the gift further emphasizes the state of deprivation that the family is in, as Chong-sook is unable to see the value of anything that doesn’t contribute to their basic needs. By painting the picture of squalor for the Kims, Joon-Ho is shedding light on the inequalities that many South Koreans endure today. However, South Korea wasn’t always like this.

Historically South Korea is known as one of the “Asian Tigers.” The Asian Tigers are a group of Asian countries that experienced rapid industrialization and economic growth in the mid to late twentieth century, which led them to become highly developed countries alongside Europe. According to the Korean Studies Journal article by Hagen Koo, “until recently South Korea remained a relatively egalitarian society.”(“ The Changing Faces of Inequality” 1) However, because of this “egalitarianism”, the drastic increase in inequality has been all the more alarming and damaging.  “In fact, the level of income inequality [in South Korea] is approaching that in the USA, which is the highest among the OECD economies ” (“Rising Inequalities and Shifting Class Boundaries” 1) For many, living in the semi-basement like the Kim family is a harsh reality.

As the film progresses food becomes an integral part of showing how the Kims’ circumstances have improved since they have started working for the Parks. First, the son, Ki-soo is employed as an English tutor, and then the daughter, Ki-jeong as an art therapist. Then later the father, Ki-Taek replaces the Park’s driver while Chong-sook replaces the housekeeper. As the son and daughter become employed they can pay to bring their parents to a cafeteria serving a buffet. In the scene Ki-taek piles heaps of fresh food onto his plate -- a luxury they couldn't previously afford. And later they can afford to eat at the pizza place that they used to fold pizza boxes for. In another scene they are barbecuing meat in their home, again food signifies that they can afford more comforts. While all they used to worry about was food and the money needed to buy it, they sit around the table indulging in a meal and talking about how to improve the way they smell. Earlier that day the Park’s son, Da-song had recognized that they smelled similar due to the humidity of their semi-basement. Ki-taek says, “ Aren’t we fortunate to be worrying about things like this? Food makes the Kims feel secure. Food becomes a source of delusion, as it is the clearest material sign that they are better off than before. They begin to believe that their good fortune will last and that they have finally advanced in the world. However, this false sense of security food provides will lead to carelessness which will bring about their downfall. When the Parks leave town for a camping trip the Kims take over their house indulging in expensive food and alcohol making a mess of the home. Comically Ki-jeong unknowingly eats dog treats and when she realizes what they are she shrugs and continues to eat them. The Parks are so wealthy that even their dogs eat food better than the Kims. Amidst their food indulgence, the Kims fantasize that the house is theirs and even go so far as to imagine Ki-soo marrying Dae-dye, the Park's daughter. However when Moon-gwang the former housekeeper shows up at the doorstep they are thrown off guard which culminates in her learning their secret.

While the Kims’ poverty emphasized the importance of basic food, in the Park’s lavish lifestyle, even expensive food is an afterthought. The Parks feel entitled to their food, their way. Mrs. Park thinks nothing of calling Chong-sook unexpectedly from the car and ordering her to cook some “ram-don” with sirloin for her son Da-song. Although Yeon-kyo asks Chong-sook if she knows how to make the dish, she doesn’t wait for an answer and dismissively says, “ram-don as soon as we walk in, okay?” But Yeon-kyo Park’s special request for “Ram-don,” turns it into a symbol of class and wealth.“ In any act of consumption, especially, in eating, taste is related to social class, and aesthetic preferences perpetuate class distinctions. (Tam 51)

 Sara Coughlin, writing for Food 52 explains, “The term “ram-don” was invented for the film by subtitle translator Darcy Paquet, as the actual Korean name for the dish, jjapaguri—a combination of two types of instant noodles.”(Coughlin) Similar to maggi noodles in India, instant noodles cross class boundaries in Parasite’s South Korea. However, the Food 52 article goes on to explain the “sirloin” that Yeon-kyu tells Chong-sook to add to the dish is actually a premium, expensive Korean beef called “hanu”. To casually ask for instant noodles to be served with such a luxurious ingredient shows the exorbitant amount of money the Parks have.  Chong-sook scrambles to have the dish ready in time and after all her efforts when the Parks arrive, Da-song refuses it. In this instance the, “food serves to remind the Kims of their place: lower, and beholden.(Makalintel)

The reason the Parks spoil Da-song so much is to appease him since he is troubled due to a traumatizing incident. Yeon-kyo explains to Chong-sook what happened and we see a flashback. Da-song sneaks downstairs to the fridge to eat his birthday cake. He sits on the ground indulging in the cake with his hands. It is then that he sees a “ghost” pop its head from the basement below with its eyes eerily wide. At this part of the movie, the audience knows that this is no ghost at all but the stowaway husband of Moon-Gwang, the Park’s former housekeeper who was replaced by Chong-sook. Moon-gwang hid him to avoid loan sharks. The husband's existence in the bunker of the house is a metaphor for his, his wife’s, and Kim's status in society. He literally lives below the rich which is imagery reinforcing the social hierarchy. He pokes his head out from the basement possibly to gain some relief from his confinement. To see Da-song eating the cake is the ultimate reminder of his inferiority. He resides in the same place yet he has so little and the Parks have so much.

Food is at the forefront of the manipulation, deception, and violence that occurs in the film. In order to acquire their positions, the Kims use food in an attempt to subvert the Park’s agency. The biggest obstacle to the Kims infiltrating the Park household is the housemaid, Moon-gwang because of her watchful eye. Without Moon-gwang the Kims believe that they will have full control over the Parks. Aftering learning she has a severe allergy to peaches, the Kims devise a plan to convince Yeon-kyu that Moon-kwang has tuberculosis by inducing coughing fits in her with peach fuzz. They seal the deal by using hot sauce to imitate blood on the tissue Moon-gwang has coughed on. In this instance, food is being used to harm not only physically but economically. Moon-gwang is fired immediately. As she is quickly forced out of the Parks home, she looks distraught. We soon learn why when Moon-gwang returns to the Park Mansion many days later to confront the Kims while the Parks are camping. The Kims are thrown off guard. Moon-gwang is beaten up, most likely by loan sharks, for not paying her husband's debt. Perhaps because of guilt, Chong-sook allows Moon-gwang to come into the house. She then scrambles down to the bunker where her husband is revealed to be living. 

Interestingly Moon-Gwang's husband, Geun-sae says that the reason he was in debt was because his castella cake shop business had failed. Castella cakes became a trendy food in 2017, but the hype was short-lived. According to an article in The Wire, “Due to low start-up costs, king castella shops were relatively cheap to open and a number of South Koreans staked their life savings on getting rich from the fad. The market soon grew oversaturated and the king castella bubble burst, leaving hundreds if not thousands of people with massive debts and no way to repay them..” (Balhorn) To give more historical context, after the 1997 Asian financial crisis the employment structure of the South Korean economy changed. The previous system of lifetime employment was discarded and many South Koreans had much less job security and benefits such as pensions and tenures than before. People looked for ways to support their families and earn some savings with ventures such as the king castella cake shop. However, in the context of the film, the fact that opening the castella cake shop was the reason Geun-sae is the situation he is, shows how food can be deceiving.

Similar to Pedro Almodavar’s film What Have I Done, food is used as a weapon to challenge class inequalities. Towards the end of the movie, scenes showing literal class warfare with food play out. It is Da-song’s birthday party. The scene is tranquil. Both Moon-gwang and Geun-sae are being held in the bunker so they don’t reveal the Kims’ secret. However, Geun-sae escapes and walks out into the party with a kitchen knife and stabs Ki-jeong. She is holding Da-song’s cake and she shoves it in his face. He then struggles with Chong-sook who is able to stab him with a barbecue skewer. This violence shows that there isn’t only conflict between classes, but within them as well. In order to attain upward social mobility, the Kims needed to ruthlessly fight for their positions even if it meant hurting others who face the same struggles.

Paradoxically food, their lack of it, or the excess they witness in the Park household, constantly reminds the Kims of their subservience. However, they attempt to reappropriate food using it to help them social climb, such as the manipulation with the peach and the ram-don dish which helps them maintain the pretense of qualified servants. However, food fails them.