In South Korea, as in many other nations, such differences are coded in the vocabulary of distance: People are divided by “chasms” and “gulfs.” Yet the driving insight of Parasite is that, while the Korean class system’s injustices may stem from its distancing effect, its most profound harms result from proximity-from the intense relationships of interdependence forged between the rich and the poor under capitalism. Though it will likely be remembered most for the violent fever dream of its final act, the film also depicts the subtler injuries of economic disparity through its story about the down-and-out Kim family conning their way into the employ of the wealthy Park family. Parasite, which became the first Korean title to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May, is a movie about class set in an unequal country. The rich were just like anybody else, and the joke was their effort to deny it.
At an August screening in Sydney as part of the Korean Film Festival in Australia, many of the Koreans in the audience laughed twice-first at the mention of the noodles and again at the mention of the meat. Park’s recipe includes a genuine luxury: Hanwoo beef. Halfway through Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, when a rainstorm washes out the ultra-rich Park family’s camping trip, the matriarch (played by Jo Yeo-jeong) calls her housekeeper with a dinner order: “As soon as we walk in, chapaguri.” The popular dish is an amalgam of two instant-food products-black bean–flavored Chapagetti noodles combined with spicy, seafood-based Neoguri udon-and costs $2 to make.
The answer lies, as it sometimes does, in instant noodles. This story contains some spoilers for Parasite.
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