100 Fun Facts About Parasite Movie

Who directed Parasite?

He co-wrote it with Han Jin-won, his production assistant on Snowpiercer.

In Parasite, what kind of home do the Kims live in?

A semi-basement flat, or banjiha, was Bong's deliberate choice: still half above ground, he said, so the Kims keep a little sunlight and the hope that they haven't hit bottom yet.

In Parasite's opening scene, what are Ki-woo and Ki-jung hunting for around their home?

A free Wi-Fi signal is the prize: the neighbour upstairs has added a password, so the siblings roam with phones held high until they find one beside the toilet.

In Parasite, what job does Ki-woo take over from his friend Min-hyuk?

English tutor to Da-hye is a post Min-hyuk hands to Ki-woo because he trusts him not to chase her: he plans to ask her out himself when he returns from abroad.

In Parasite, what Western name does Ki-woo use with the Parks?

Kevin is the name Ki-woo gives the Parks, along with a university certificate his sister forged; he tells his father it isn't a crime, since he plans to enrol there next year.

In Parasite, what role does Ki-jung take in the Park household as 'Jessica'?

Art therapist to Da-song is a role Ki-jung bluffs her way through: she admits she just searched 'art therapy' online and improvised until Mrs Park was in tears.

In Parasite, how do the Kims get the Parks' chauffeur Yoon sacked?

Planting underwear in the car is Ki-jung's trick: Mr Park finds it, assumes Yoon has been having sex on the back seat and quietly lets him go, opening the job for Ki-taek.

In Parasite, which allergy do the Kims exploit to oust the housekeeper Moon-gwang?

Peach fuzz dusted over Moon-gwang sets off her allergy; Bong took the idea from a college friend who turned red all over when classmates tested his peach allergy with the real fruit.

In Parasite, who is secretly living in the bunker beneath the Parks' home?

The housekeeper's husband, Geun-sae, has hidden there from loan sharks for more than four years, fed in secret by his wife; he is the 'ghost' that once terrified Da-song.

In Parasite, who built the secret bunker beneath the Parks' home?

The house's architect and previous owner, Namgoong, never told the Parks about it; Moon-gwang guesses he was embarrassed, saying the rich build such rooms in case of invasion or angry creditors.

In Parasite, why do the Parks come home early from their camping trip?

A severe rainstorm washes out the trip, and Mrs Park phones to say they are eight minutes away, sending the Kims scrambling to clear up and hide.

In Parasite, where do the Kims spend the night after being driven out of their home?

A gymnasium serves as an emergency shelter, where Ki-taek lies among hundreds of displaced neighbours and tells his son that the only plan that never fails is having no plan.

In Parasite, what occasion is the garden party at the climax held for?

Da-song's birthday party is thrown together by Mrs Park that very morning, and she rings the Kims to come and help without knowing they have just lost their home.

In Parasite, what does Geun-sae use to bludgeon Ki-woo?

A scholar's rock, a gift meant to bring the Kims wealth, is carried down to the bunker by Ki-woo himself, and there it is turned on him.

In Parasite, how does Chung-sook kill Geun-sae during the party?

With a barbecue skewer still loaded with meat, driven into his side in the struggle, moments after he has stabbed her daughter Ki-jung.

In Parasite, what does Mr Park do that finally drives Ki-taek to stab him?

Holds his nose at a smell: Mr Park recoils from the dying Geun-sae while grabbing the car keys, the same disgust Ki-taek has overheard him voice about his own smell.

At the end of Parasite, how does Ki-taek send messages from the bunker?

Morse code with a light was Geun-sae's trick first; Ki-taek copies it from the bunker, flashing out a letter that his son reads from outside the house.

Who plays the father, Kim Ki-taek, in Parasite?

Song Kang-ho was cast before the script was finished: Bong had first spotted him in the 1990s and made him the lead of Memories of Murder and The Host.

Who plays Mr Park, the wealthy father, in Parasite?

Lee Sun-kyun plays Park Dong-ik, a company chief whose trusting wife does the hiring, the opening that lets the Kims take over the household one job at a time.

In Parasite, which American city does Ki-jung's doorstep rhyme give 'Jessica' as part of her cover story?

Chicago, Illinois features in the cover story Ki-jung sings at the Parks' gate to drill it into her brother, a rhyme fans nicknamed the 'Jessica Jingle'.

Who plays the daughter, Ki-jung, in Parasite?

Park So-dam turned to independent films after some 17 failed auditions, and went on to play the Kim who slips most easily into the world of the rich.

Which K-drama star has a cameo in Parasite as Min-hyuk?

Park Seo-joon's Min-hyuk leaves to study abroad in the opening minutes, and it is his departure that gives the Kims their way into the Park house.

What did Bong first plan Parasite as, before it became a film?

A play was what a friend from the theatre had been urging Bong to write, so he pictured a story that could be staged in just two homes before deciding it had to be a film.

Which real experience of Bong's inspired the story of Parasite?

Tutoring a rich family's son in maths, a job his girlfriend arranged although he was bad at maths, left Bong feeling he was infiltrating the private lives of strangers.

Which classic Korean film did Bong cite as an influence on Parasite?

The Housemaid, Kim Ki-young's thriller about a maid who tears a middle-class home apart, is one Bong recommends to newcomers; he has said Parasite is, in ways, a homage to it.

Which real 1930s French crime helped inspire Parasite?

The Papin sisters' killings came in Le Mans in 1933: the two live-in maids murdered the wife and daughter of the family they served, a case often linked to Genet's drama The Maids.

In Parasite's English subtitles, what word did Darcy Paquet coin for the dish jjapaguri?

Ram-don blends ramen and udon, because the dish mixes two brands of instant noodle; Paquet later admitted he was embarrassed to have made the word up.

In Parasite's English subtitles, which university replaces Seoul National University in Ki-taek's joke?

Oxford was Darcy Paquet's swap so the forgery joke would land at once; he thought Harvard too obvious a choice and believed Bong was fond of England.

How was the Park family's house in Parasite created for filming?

Purpose-built as a set on an outdoor lot, with its upper floor added digitally, the house was convincing enough that film-makers on a festival jury assumed it was a real home.

Which outdated software did Yang Jin-mo use to edit Parasite?

Final Cut Pro 7, last updated in 2011, was simply what Yang Jin-mo knew and trusted; he used it to stitch separate takes into seamless single shots.

Parasite's soundtrack borrows from Rodelinda, an opera by which Baroque composer?

Handel's Rodelinda is heard alongside the original music; Bong wrote the script listening to Baroque composers, and Jung Jae-il answered with a Baroque-flavoured score built around strings.

Which festival gave Parasite its world premiere and top prize?

It was the first Korean film to win the Palme d'Or.

Which US distributor acquired Parasite at the 2018 American Film Market?

Neon's chief Tom Quinn had already worked with Bong on four earlier releases, including Snowpiercer, so Bong called the deal 'reuniting a great team of old friends'.

Besides Picture, Director and International Feature, Parasite won which Oscar?

Screenplay, in the original category, was one of four wins from six nominations, for a country whose films had never before received a single Oscar nomination.

Parasite was the first Best Picture winner of what kind?

A foreign-language film had never won in the 91 ceremonies before it; months earlier Bong had shrugged that the Oscars were 'not an international film festival' but 'very local'.

Which film's eleven nominations led the Oscars race that Parasite went on to win?

Joker led with eleven nominations in the first year that four films reached double figures, yet Parasite, with only six, went home with Best Picture.

Bong left the 2020 Oscars holding four statuettes, a one-night haul last managed in 1954 by whom?

Walt Disney's four Oscars in one night had stood alone since 1954; after carrying off four statuettes himself, Bong kept his promise from the stage to drink 'until next morning'.

In his Best Director speech, whose line 'the most personal is the most creative' did Bong quote?

Martin Scorsese was given a standing ovation in the middle of the speech, and afterwards wrote to Bong telling him to rest, 'but don't rest for too long'.

Which film won both the Palme d'Or and Best Picture 65 years before Parasite?

The Lost Weekend had done it earlier, under the Grand Prix name.

Which body gave the cast of Parasite its ensemble prize in January 2020?

The Screen Actors Guild crowd laughed as the cast accepted: despite the title, their spokesman said, the story is about coexistence, and the win suggested 'maybe we haven't created such a bad movie'.

Where did The New York Times rank Parasite in its 2025 list of the 21st century's best films?

Number one, ahead of Mulholland Drive, in a vote of more than 500 film-makers and actors; three years earlier the Sight and Sound critics' poll had ranked Parasite only joint 90th.

Roughly how much did Parasite gross worldwide on a budget of about $11 million?

$258 million made it Bong's first film to pass $100 million; takings were still climbing after the Oscars, when its US cinemas were doubled although the DVD was already on sale.

Who is credited as Bong Joon Ho's co-writer on Parasite?

Han Jin-won spent months interviewing real housekeepers, tutors and chauffeurs to turn Bong's 15-page outline into a script, a job he'd been told would take a couple of hours a day.

Which camera did cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo shoot Parasite on?

Filming ran from 18 May to 19 September 2018 around Seoul and in Jeonju, using Angenieux zoom lenses.

What is the name of the fictional architect who designed the Park house?

Production designer Lee Ha-jun planned the house's form around how this invented previous owner would have designed it.

Which 2013 film was the last before Parasite to win the Palme d'Or by unanimous vote?

Parasite was also the first South Korean film ever to take the Cannes top prize.

Which actor, who plays the Kims' son in Parasite, also sings the end-credits song 'Soju han jan'?

Choi Woo-shik sings 'Soju han jan' ('A Glass of Soju') over the credits; Bong wrote the lyrics himself, about his character slogging away to earn money.

Which version of Parasite did Bong premiere at Rotterdam in January 2020?

Black-and-white was Bong's nod to the classics he grew up watching on a monochrome television; he had already given his film Mother the same treatment.

Which streaming service secured exclusive US rights to Parasite from April 2020?

Hulu got Parasite through a standing deal with the film's US distributor, the same arrangement that had already brought it I, Tonya and Honeyland.

In Parasite, what does Mrs Park want added to the instant noodles she orders on the drive home?

Steak goes in because, as Bong explained, the wealthy mother wants to give her boy a dish all children love but can't bear to serve him cheap noodles plain.

In Parasite, the Kim siblings roam their home holding phones up to the ceiling in search of what?

Unlocked Wi-Fi pinched from neighbours and nearby businesses keeps the jobless family online, an early sign of how they live off whatever is within reach.

Early in Parasite, the jobless Kim family earns a little cash at home by folding what?

Pizza boxes earn the Kims a scolding as well as cash: the parlour's owner tells the family off for folding them badly.

At a 2020 rally, Donald Trump said which 1939 film deserved Best Picture more than Parasite?

Gone with the Wind and Sunset Boulevard were the films he named as worthier winners, though neither was in the running: they were released in 1939 and 1950.

Jung Jae-il, who composed the score for Parasite, went on to write the music for which Netflix hit?

Squid Game, released two years after Parasite, brought him an Emmy nomination for its main title theme.

Sharon Choi became an unexpected star of Parasite's awards season by doing which job at Bong's side?

Interpreter Sharon Choi, a filmmaker herself, put his speeches into English so deftly that IndieWire named her the MVP of Oscar season.

Which long-running animated series parodied Parasite in a segment of its 2021 Halloween special?

The Simpsons sent Bart to work for Rainier Wolfcastle's rich family in a Treehouse of Horror segment named after Bong himself.

In Parasite, which member of the Kim family replaces Moon-gwang as the Parks' housekeeper?

The mother, Chung-sook, is the last of the Kims to be hired, which puts the whole family on the payroll without the Parks knowing they are related.

Parasite made Bong the second Asian winner of the Best Director Oscar, after which filmmaker?

Ang Lee, the Taiwanese director of Brokeback Mountain, had been the first, and he won the prize again for Life of Pi.

Which science-fiction film starring Robert Pattinson was Bong's first feature after Parasite?

Mickey 17 casts him as a disposable space-colony worker who is cloned afresh every time he dies, in an adaptation of Edward Ashton's novel Mickey7.

In Parasite, the Kims trick Mrs Park into believing her housekeeper has which contagious disease?

Tuberculosis is the lie that costs the long-serving Moon-gwang her job, and it clears the way for one more Kim to join the household staff.

In Parasite, what does young Da-song believe he once saw in the family kitchen?

A ghost is what the boy takes the figure for, and the fright brought on a seizure that his parents treat as a lasting trauma.

Da-song, the Parks' young son in Parasite, is obsessed with toys and replicas of which people?

Native Americans fascinate the boy, and Bong said the point was that a long, complicated history had been reduced to a rich child's hobby and decoration.

In Parasite, what does young Da-song notice that the newly hired Kims all have in common?

Their smell is the one thing the family cannot disguise, and the film keeps returning to it as its mark of class right up to the violent climax.

How does the sacked housekeeper Moon-gwang gain a hold over the Kim family midway through Parasite?

She films them on her phone after the eavesdropping Kims accidentally give themselves away, then threatens to expose the whole deception to the Parks.

At the end of Parasite, Ki-woo writes a letter vowing to free his father by doing what?

Buying the house is the plan, but Bong said the final shot of Ki-woo back in the family's old home was meant to show that he never will.

The idea for Parasite came to Bong in 2013 while he was at work on which Chris Evans film?

Snowpiercer, his thriller about a train whose passengers are divided by social class, was being made when the idea for another story of rich and poor arrived.

Miky Lee, who helped accept Parasite's Best Picture Oscar, is a grandchild of which firm's founder?

Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul was her grandfather, and as Parasite's executive producer she had championed Bong's films for years.

Winning Best Director for Parasite, Bong thanked which fellow nominee for praising his early films?

Quentin Tarantino had supported and praised Bong's earlier films long before the Academy noticed them, a debt Bong chose to acknowledge from the stage.

Which network announced in 2020 that it was developing a limited series based on Parasite?

HBO planned a six-hour story set between the scenes of the film, and Bong said it would keep the title Parasite.

Which Hollywood veteran opened the final envelope and announced Parasite as Best Picture?

Jane Fonda handed over the last award of a ceremony that ran without a host for the second year in a row.

Lee Jung-eun, Parasite's housekeeper Moon-gwang, voiced which creature in Bong's earlier film Okja?

A giant pig named Okja, genetically modified in the story, was her voice role, eight years after she and Bong first worked together.

Bong named the rich man's house in which 1963 Kurosawa thriller as a visual influence on Parasite?

High and Low sets a shoe executive's house on a hill overlooking the slum where the kidnapper who targets him lives, a layout Parasite echoes.

Parasite's English subtitles replace the Korean chat app KakaoTalk with which better-known rival?

WhatsApp stood in because, as the translator put it, a joke only works when viewers understand it at once.

Lee Ha-jun earned an Oscar nomination for which part of the making of Parasite?

Production design took Lee to abandoned villages awaiting demolition, which he photographed for reference, and he wrote backstories for the Kims' neighbours.

Parasite lost the Oscar for Film Editing to which fellow Best Picture nominee?

Ford v Ferrari, the Le Mans racing drama, took the prize; Parasite's editor had stitched different takes together inside single shots to widen his choices.

Which director chaired the festival jury that voted unanimously to give Parasite the Palme d'Or?

Alejandro Iñárritu, the Mexican filmmaker, presided over the main competition jury that year; no Korean film had won the prize before.

Parasite was the first film to win which Oscar category under the new name it took in 2020?

International Feature became the category's title from the 2020 ceremony, after the Academy's committee called the earlier wording outdated.

Parasite won Best Picture although none of its six Oscar nominations came in which field?

Acting was the gap: Parasite became the 12th film to win Best Picture without a single nomination for its cast.

Which Oscar-winning British actress joined the planned Parasite TV series before leaving in 2022?

Tilda Swinton was confirmed for a lead role in February 2020, with Mark Ruffalo rumoured to join her, but she said in 2022 that she was out.

Which prestige home-video label released Parasite with its black-and-white edition in October 2020?

Criterion paired a remastered version with the monochrome cut, a transfer supervised by Bong and his cinematographer.

Kwak Sin-ae made Oscar history sharing Parasite's Best Picture award with Bong in which role?

Producer Kwak Sin-ae was the first Asian woman to receive the Best Picture award in that role in the 92-year history of the Academy Awards.

Bong nicknamed Parasite after which part of its two homes, a motif that marks each family's place?

Stairways gave him the label 'stairway movie', because the staircases in the two families' homes chart who stands above whom.

Bong says the title Parasite also fits the rich Parks, who live off what belonging to others?

Their labour, he argued: the Parks cannot wash dishes or drive themselves, and his marketing team had worried the title pointed only at the poor family.

In Parasite, Ki-woo wins his job with the Parks by posing as a student of which Seoul university?

Yonsei University is on the certificate his sister forges for him, and it is also where Bong himself studied sociology.

For which film was Parasite's lead actor the first Korean named Best Actor at France's top festival?

Broker, the first Korean-language film by Hirokazu Kore-eda, cast him as a laundry owner who sells babies left in a church's baby box.

In 2020 Parasite became the first Korean film in 15 years to top the box office in which country?

Japan had also not seen a Korean film draw a million filmgoers in nearly 15 years until Parasite did it that February.

Critics link Parasite to which nickname for South Korea that spread among young Koreans around 2015?

Hell Joseon says life in modern South Korea is hellish, a satirical phrase fed by scarce jobs, exam pressure and a widening gap between rich and poor.

Which South Korean media company released Parasite in its home country in May 2019?

CJ Entertainment opened it nine days after its festival premiere, and more than ten million tickets were sold at home, about one for every five South Koreans.

In Parasite, Geun-sae's debts trace back to a failed shop selling which Taiwanese-style cake?

Castella shops were briefly fashionable in South Korea until the craze collapsed amid a glut of bakeries and claims of excess oil in the cakes, a real fad the film borrows for his backstory.

Parasite's 'Jessica Jingle', a rhyme for learning a fake identity, reworks a song about which place?

Dokdo Is Our Land, a 1982 pop song first sung by a comedian, supplied the melody, and the jingle later went viral online in its own right.

A Chinese festival scrapped its closing-night screening of Parasite in 2019, officially citing what?

Technical reasons was the whole explanation given, one day before the film was due to close the FIRST International Film Festival in Xining.

Which South Korean food company makes both instant noodles mixed into Parasite's jjapaguri dish?

Nongshim makes Chapagetti and Neoguri, and after the film it began selling the two together as a single Chapaguri product.

Beyond its original score, Parasite uses a 1964 pop song in one key scene, sung in which language?

Italian singer Gianni Morandi recorded it, and the film's success gave his 55-year-old hit a fresh burst of popularity.

Which actress portrays Mrs Park, the trusting wife who hires the Kims one by one, in Parasite?

Cho Yeo-jeong portrays her as sweet but naive, a woman so reliant on recommendations that every Kim arrives vouched for by the last.

Parasite's lead actor first worked with Bong in 2003, as a rural detective in which acclaimed film?

Memories of Murder began a long partnership: the same actor went on to lead The Host for Bong and returned for Parasite sixteen years later.

At the BAFTAs, Parasite won the prize for films not in English and an award for which craft?

Screenwriting brought the film Best Original Screenplay, but its other two nominations, for Best Film and for directing, went unrewarded.

Which American comedy director signed on beside Bong to oversee the planned Parasite TV series?

Adam McKay was announced with Bong in January 2020, weeks before the Oscars, and Bong said five years later that the series was still in development.

Parasite composer Jung Jae-il played piano at which diplomatic event in April 2018?

The inter-Korean summit that month was the first time since 1953 that a North Korean leader had entered the South's territory, and he performed for the occasion.

Parasite cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo also shot which 2018 mystery by director Lee Chang-dong?

Burning, adapted from a Haruki Murakami short story, sits beside Parasite as one of the two films he is best known for.

Parasite's US opening weekend posted the best per-cinema average since which 2016 film?

La La Land had set the mark three years earlier; Parasite opened in just three cinemas, and its average was the best ever for an international film.