Parasite’s Classism and Wealth Inequality: The Shocking Ending Revealed

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For numerous decades, movies and television have offered us a glimpse into realms distinct from our everyday lives. Artists have traditionally utilized fiction and media as platforms to share their unique perspectives with the public, inviting people to explore unfamiliar experiences that diverge from their typical interactions with the world. Iconic films such as “Ikiru”, “Breathless”, “8½”, and “Cinema Paradiso” left a lasting impression on American viewers. This trend significantly escalated when foreign titles gained traction among American audiences, including those from South Korea and other regions.

In today’s streaming scene, South Korean movies and shows have significantly expanded in the American media landscape. Shows such as “Squid Game” and musical phenomena like BTS have taken over U.S. television and music charts respectively. The groundbreaking film “Parasite,” directed by Bong Joon Ho, marked a historic moment as the first non-English movie to win Best Picture at the Oscars. This foreign masterpiece offers viewers a compelling look into the societal and political dynamics that shape Seoul.

Bong Joon Ho Has Always Been Focused on Issues of Class and Wealth Inequality

I’ve long admired Bong Joon Ho, one of the most illustrious directors of recent times. His films resonate deeply with American audiences because they narrate stories that are strikingly universal—tackling themes like inequality, climate change impacts, and the profoundly detrimental consequences of power dynamics on the powerless.

Movies such as “Memories of Murder,” “Mother,” and the genre-defying fusion, “The Host,” masterfully infuse Korean societal observations into diverse cinematic genres.

Highest Rated Bong Joon Ho Films
Parasite (2019)99%
Mother (2009)96%
Memories of Murder (2003)95%

In a refreshing take, Parasite emerges as one of the finest films of the 2010s and a remarkably perceptive production of the 21st Century. The movie presents Song Kang-ho in the role of Kim Ki-taek, a father residing with his wife, son, and daughter in a shabby neighborhood in Seoul, South Korea. The family struggles to make ends meet by taking on any odd jobs they can find. However, the clever son Ki-woo and resourceful daughter Ki-jung devise a plan to secure employment for the entire family within the Park household, a group of affluent and unsuspecting elites. Successfully deceiving their way into roles as the Parks’ English tutor, art teacher, driver, and housekeeper, they soon discover that they are not the only ones attempting to deceive this particular family.

Approximately midway through the movie, it’s unveiled that the previous caretaker of the Park household, whom the Kim family had dismissed so their mother could work there, has been concealing her spouse in the Park family’s basement to dodge debt collectors for years. This discovery places the Kim family in conflict with the former caretaker and her husband, both striving to preserve their recent situation and their comfortable positions by conniving against the overbearing and uninformed Park family.

The latter part of the story becomes captivating as it expands upon the initial amusement of witnessing an endearing, less privileged family outsmart the wealthy, and instead portrays their downfall. In essence, this leads to two struggling families competing against each other in a desperate bid for upward mobility. Consequently, Bong subtly critiques how class conflict tends to disproportionately harm the lower classes, with the balance never truly being restored.

Parasite Shows How Class Warfare Will Never End Well

Towards the movie’s finale, chaos erupts at a celebration for the Park family’s son. The spouse of the household worker, who lost his wife during an early altercation with the Kim family, instigates violence amidst the festivities, resulting in the Kim’s daughter’s death and causing fear among the wealthy attendees. When Kim Ki-taek realizes that the elite partygoers view his family as indistinguishable from other lower-class Korean families, regardless of his attempts to assimilate into a higher social circle, he murders the Park family patriarch. On the run from authorities, Kim Ki-taek seeks refuge in the same hiding place where the household worker’s spouse once concealed himself, and his son swears that one day he will accumulate enough wealth to purchase the house and liberate his father.

As a fervent admirer, I can’t help but reflect on the movie’s poignant conclusion, which underscores an arduous journey that appears unattainable for the Kim family in terms of social standing and affluence, much like the Parks. Regardless of their relentless efforts or the legitimacy (or illegitimacy) of their talents, it seems that breaking through the entrenched social and class barriers in South Korea is a challenge few can realistically overcome. The ruthless survival-of-the-fittest mentality, often encapsulated in the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” tale, merely serves as a tool to maintain the status quo, keeping the majority powerless against the wealthy elite.

The repeated manner in which the father from the Park family responds to Kim Ki-taek’s odor, following their escape from the floodwaters of their shabby apartment complex, underscores his evident disregard for anyone outside his social sphere. It seems that any member of the Kim family breaking through the rigid barriers of their class is little more than a pipe dream, an aspiration that seems unattainable in a society where lower-class individuals are constantly pitted against each other. This underlying message is what makes the themes of Parasite so universal, and what has solidified it as a modern masterpiece.

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2025-06-05 06:10