A May 2019 opening, and a count of 127 trophies in February 2020

Parasite opened in May 2019 and draws two families at financial extremes: Dong-ik and Yeon-kyo on the hill, Ki-taek and Chung-sook in a semi-basement, and Mun-gwang and Geun-se tied to both. The essay places it at a peak of Hallyu that began in Japan with Winter Sonata in 2002 and Jewel in the Palace in 2003, later Psy and BTS, including a triple crown at the American Music Awards in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

A 10 February 2020 Munhwa Ilbo piece placed 127 trophies at 56 ceremonies, with the tag “first in a non-English language”; that count stays with that date. The film was made in Korean. Bong’s The Host in 2007 and Snowpiercer in 2014 are placed as earlier treatments of family and class.

A scholar’s rock, a rain that does not fall the same way, and a reading of responsibility

Ki-woo enters through forged papers and a friend’s introduction; a scholar’s rock said to bring luck stays on screen. Ki-jung, Ki-taek, and Chung-sook are eased in as therapist, driver, and housekeeper. Mun-gwang returns and reveals Geun-se hidden in the basement. After a fight and a flood of the semi-basement, a garden party the next day ends in a stabbing, and Ki-taek kills Dong-ik when Dong-ik covers his nose at a smell. Ki-woo wakes in hospital and vows to buy the house.

The rain is only irritation on the hill and a flood below. The essay refuses a simple split of good and evil: the poorer family enter by fraud, yet they do the hired work well, and it finds no plan to use the new income to change their lives, so it will not place the whole responsibility for poverty on social structure alone. This page stays with that reading of the May 2019 film and the dated award count, and does not add later official income-share figures. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite opened in May 2019 and draws two families at financial extremes in Korean society: Dong-ik and Yeon-kyo above, Ki-taek and Chung-sook below, and, tied to both, Mun-gwang and Geun-se. Hallyu beginning in Japan: in 2002, KBS’s Winter Sonata, with Bae Yong-joon and Choi Ji-woo, was a hit there; BoA rose on the Oricon chart; Nami Island in Chuncheon drew Japanese visitors. Shin Na-ra, 27 February 2020, Women’s Chosun, on BoA. In 2003, MBC’s Jewel in the Palace (Dae Jang Geum) spread through East and Southeast Asia, including Taiwan and Thailand; Yeon Hwi-seon, 12 November 2010, Chosun Ilbo, places it as exported to 99 countries. After Psy’s Gangnam Style, BTS swept Billboard and, the essay says, took a triple crown at the American Music Awards in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Parasite took trophies in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, France, and elsewhere, with the tag “first in a non-English language.” Ahn Jin-yong, 10 February 2020, Munhwa Ilbo: 127 trophies at 56 ceremonies; that count stays with that date. The works were made in Korean, not in English for overseas markets. Bong’s The Host, a hit in 2007, and Snowpiercer, opened in 2014, as earlier treatments of family and class. The story opens in the Ki-taek family’s dark, cluttered semi-basement, hunting for a neighbor’s or café’s wifi — a clinging the essay links to the title. Ki-woo, through elite-university friend Min-hyuk, enters Dong-ik’s house as a tutor; Min-hyuk gives him a scholar’s rock said to bring wealth and luck, a stone that stays on screen and works on Ki-woo’s mind. Kim Gu-cheol, 12 June 2019, Munhwa Ilbo, on symbols and metaphor in the film. Ki-woo forges elite-university papers; Ki-jung, Ki-taek, and Chung-sook are eased in as art therapist, driver, and housekeeper, after a planted pair of underwear costs the previous driver his job. When Dong-ik and Yeon-kyo leave to camp, the Ki-taek family drink in the house; Mun-gwang, the former housekeeper, returns and reveals that her husband Geun-se has been hidden in the basement and fed in secret. The two households threaten each other. The couple come home early because of the weather; in the struggle Chung-sook kicks Mun-gwang down the stairs and Mun-gwang’s head is badly hurt. The Ki-taek family get out and go home, but a heavy rain half-floods their semi-basement, down many steps, and they sleep in a disaster shelter. The next day Yeon-kyo holds a calm garden party. Ki-woo goes down to the basement with the rock, drops it on the stairs, and is struck with it by Geun-se. Geun-se stabs Ki-jung in the chest with a kitchen knife; Chung-sook, once a track athlete, stops him; Dong-ik, reaching for a car key, covers his nose at the smell from Geun-se’s body, and Ki-taek, in a rush of stress and anger, kills Dong-ik with the knife. The essay closes with Ki-woo waking in hospital and vowing to buy that house. The rain is only a cancelled trip and an irritation for the household on the hill, and a flood for the family in the semi-basement. Park Geun-young, 5 March 2020, Gyeongju Sinmun, on housing. The film does not split rich and poor into simple good and evil: the poorer family enter through forgery and fraud, and the richer family can be read as victims of that fraud. Yet Ki-taek drives so steadily that coffee in the car does not spill, and Chung-sook, Ki-jung, and Ki-woo do their hired work well. Even so, the essay finds no plan to use the high tutoring fees or the new wages to change their lives — no savings, no art-school or university path for Ki-jung — and reads the absence of that effort as a reason not to place the whole responsibility for poverty on social structure alone. When Mun-gwang uncovers the fraud, the two sides might have protected each other — her hidden husband, their jobs — but they do not. This page stays with that reading of the May 2019 film and the dated award count, and does not add later official income-share or inequality figures.

Last updated: 14 November 2026