'Parasite' Director Bong Joon-ho Breaks Down the Opening Scene

[laughing] Hello guys.

This is Woo-shik and I play Ki-woo from Parasite.

I'm director Bong Joon-Ho

who write and direct this movie Parasite.

Yep, and this is Vanity Fair Notes On A Scene.

Yeah! Yeah!

[speaking Korean]

It's something very natural

talk about the rich and poor in this era,

in this age, in this time.

So, in everyday life, we always encounter those kind of,

who is rich, who is poor, and why kind of question.

Almost every day.

It's quite natural to create those kind of story

as a contemporary filmmaker, I think.

[Woo-Shik] The first scene is viewed from my house.

[speaking Korean]

Semi-basement is specific the way of Korean living

for the poor people, but actually,

semi-basement means also semi-overground.

Yeah, so it gives you a little bit of hope

'cause it's not fully underground, but halfway.

[Bong] Actually, yeah, it looks like a real location

but actually it's all-- All made on set.

Set. Yeah.

[Woo-Shik] So this whole street, this building,

[Bong] Actually, until, this is the border right?

[Woo-Shik] Yeah.

[Bong] Yeah, this is the set, the more far background

is VFX. Photographic.

[Woo-Shik] We had this, uh, blue screen here, right?

[Bong] Yep, and the production design team, they did such

a great job, and actually

[speaking Korean]

[Woo-Shik] Yeah we actually found-

[Bong] And one guy is coming, your friend is coming

[laughing] this man, this is you.

[Woo-Shik] Yeah, that's me. That's Kiwoo.

He's oldest son of Park's family.

[Bong] And our father Ki-Taek is here. Name of actor is

Song Kang-Ho.

[speaking Korean]

Great actor Song Kang-Ho, and mother, uh, her name is

Jung-sook.

Yeah Yep

Very strong woman, and our youngest, Ki-Jung.

[Bong] This is very strange situation.

Even very weird gift.

[speaking Korean]

Wow Wow

[laughs]

[Woo-Shik] So this is a scholar stone, uh, and Min-Hyuk

actually brought that to our family as a gift.

Actually, this is very weird situation. Nobody actually

gift the stone like this

[Woo-Shik] Yeah.

[Bong] But yeah, this quite strange, but anyway,

it happen in the movie but maybe this is very

important moment in the movie. Why?

Uh, 'cause

[laughs]

[Woo-Shik] This has very, uh, lot of, uh, symbols,

this stone actually has a lot of symbols in our movie.

[Bong] This is just for the collectors some old

generation collectors, they are collecting this kind

of stone, but actually these younger generations never care

We don't really trade our stones or whatever,

but in Korea, it's not usual gift to give a gift to other

family about different stones.

So this is a very bizarre moment in the beginning

part of the movie. We didn't expect it

[speaking Korean]

Actually, it's some kind of symbol of his desire

'cause the guy who bring the stone, is he from some kind of-

he's your friend, but he's from different world.

Yeah. He-

[Bong] Actually he is a different guy.

[Woo-Shik] His economic status is very different than

Ki-woo's, so our whole family is kind of surprised that he

actually brought a gift to-

It's just a stone, but it's actually very expensive.

[speaking Korean]

I really wanted to make the audience curious.

Something funny is happen, something going on, but we don't

know exactly, but it looks, it feels, uh, interesting.

[speaking Korean]

[Woo-Shik] This is a funny face right there.

This is a very crucial moment in the movie.

Yeah, yeah.

The beginning part. Yeah.

[Bong] Something- something bad happen. From this moment.

Right?

[Woo-Shik] Mmm. The whole movie kinda started off from

Min's uh, approach to Ki-woo, so.

This uh, funny looking green bottle is actually very iconic

uh, Korean liquor. It's soju.

So this is Da-hye,

and Min is actually giving us the opportunity to work

as a tutor, uh,

[Bong] In rich house.

[Woo-Shik] In rich house.

[Bong] So this is the beginning of everything. Yeah.

[Woo-Shik] So not only he's giving us the stone,

but opportunity for a new job, so he's doing a lot

for Ki-woo.

[speaking Korean]

It's quite common in Korea, college or university students

to do those kind of English tutoring job, but problem is

he's not

English student English student

Yeah, that's the problem. So. This is your friend, but

he's very rich guy.

[speaking Korean]

My- my clothes from this movie, is very, uh, normal

[Bong] Your hair style is also very nerdy.

[laughing]

[Woo-Shik] Yeah you can see my pimple there.

Actually, we didn't cover it up purposely.

Pretty realistic.

Yep. And this guy doesn't really have skin problem,

but yeah.

[laughs]

[Bong] Not so many details described in the script, but

I always discuss with the costume and hair make-up designers

and those kind of detail things, we all intend it, but

anyway, you yourself, look very contemporary, young.

And humble.

Young, humble.

Ordinary.

Poor boy, in Korea.

My clothing, I always had short sleeves.

Costume designer actually gave me, uh, whole clothing set

that is very smaller than my size, it was,

the size was different.

[speaking Korean]

Cause Ki-woo doesn't really have time to buy new clothings

[Bong] Kind of feeling

[Woo-Shik] Doesn't really care about fashion.

This is very crucial moment. So yeah.

[Bong] Pretend to be a college student

Pretend means a very important word. Yeah. Why?

Uh, because Ki-woo is not actually like a college student.

But in order to have a very decent job as a English tutor

you have to be a college student.

[speaking Korean]

It's calm. It's beginning of calm.

Beginning of some kind of crime, but

[speaking Korean]

So I heard from Director Bong that he actually timed

the bus at the back in this scene to match with the

This is some kind of borderline between the normal

daily life world and to the some kind of crime world,

which is not so serious crime, but anyways the world of

crime and calm.

Very soft crime.

[laughs]

So, at the moment, the bus is passing behind him,

and the background music start. Yeah.

We actually took like three shots, three takes

Yeah, yeah.

It was kinda difficult to take that cause we had to

time it with our dialogue and the dialogue was kinda

really long.

Yeah, yeah. It looks quite normal sequence, but actually

it was quite subtle and indicate sequence,

we have to control and, and yeah.

[Bong] Very soft and subtle.

We always want to hide our intention but yeah

it just happen naturally, so.

[speaking Korean]

Um, they means Park's family, rich people, and

not a college student, but you are going to do it.

Cause I believe, uh, in order to go into

a different family as a tutor, you actually have to

give them your diploma or degree,

so well he's asking if have to, um, be a fraud and-

But actually, this is just the beginning,

so all the other family members one by one infiltrate to

the rich family so, so that's the beginning of the story.

So, the main story of the film is the some kind of

invasion or infiltration, yeah. And also-

[speaking Korean]

[laughing]

[Woo-Shik] Human parasite

[speaking Korean]

It was really- I'm really honored to be part of this whole

Parasite crew, and yeah, I think changed me a lot,

gave me a lot of confident, it actually gave me a lot of

confidence in identity in general, so-

[speaking Korean]