I know that this idea started for you actually as a theatre play didn't it? What
was the development of that and when did you decide that, no, this this had to be a movie?
So like the two actors over here, I often
work with and I'm very close with stage actors and they would often suggest that
I direct a theatre production. So I thought that because this story mostly
takes place in two houses it could work on stage.
But when I began to write this story, from the very first line, I keep thinking about where
is the camera, how big the frame size is. Very obsessional, I keep
thinking about camera and camera movement, so, yes, so I realized once again
that it would be impossible for me to direct theatre, that I am a filmmaker and I should just do films.
We're glad you do otherwise we wouldn't be able to see it.
I wanted to ask, I know your last two films were both international productions in English,
Snowpiercer and Okja, did you know when you started this that it had to be a
specifically Korean story?
To be honest, I first came up with this story and
decided to do this project with the production company in 2013 when I was
working on Snowpiercer, so it was already before Okja, so it wasn't as if I
intended to return to Korea after having done two English language projects. It's
just naturally I came up with this story in that timeline.
But I did want to feel free and be playful in my native language
working with Korean actors. That is what
I didn't want that kind of process this time and it was like that on set. It was great fun.
Speaking of working with the actors, I wanted to ask the actors since we
have them here, its such a beautifully integrated ensemble, it's very well
balanced, there's no one lead, you're all.. everyone has a moment.
Did you work together before filming or did you all come on individually?
What was the preparation process for the ensemble?
So with that actress, Lee Jung-eun over here, we did work on a project together but for most of the
actors it was our first time working together and to be a great ensemble you
always need something that brings you together and for us that was alcohol.
So, all the actors that we worked with were amazing performers and, you know, one
concern that I do have showing this film in an international setting is I hope
not.. I hope everyone doesn't assume that all Korean male actors look like that
within the film. You know, there's so many handsome and good-looking actors in
Korea, for example there are around 50 Jude Laws, 50 Brad Pitts, always waiting
to appear on screen. So please, do not, you know, think that all Korean actors look like that.
I mean you look great I have to say, I really want that coat.
Thank you.
Director, Bong, you and actor, Song, have made now four films together, is that right? Do you write with a
specific kind of character in mind for him?
Hmm, yeah, always during 17 years. For Parasite the character that Song plays and
also the original housekeeper, Lee Jung-eun, and the young son played by Choi Woo-Shik,
these three characters, I knew, I had already agreed with the actors that
they would play this role even before I wrote the script. So while I was writing
I constantly thought of these actors to develop the characters. So actually
during screenwriting that always keep them in mind, during writing it
makes me very happy and
chuckling because I know them so well, I find myself just laughing while
I'm writing thinking about them performing these roles. It's a story that
feels very embedded in Korean society and that specific, you know, social
hierarchy. But it also I think taps into quite a universal frustration right now
with class inequality, did you anticipate it being so globally resonant? You've now
travelled around the world with it?
So I was quite surprised to see how similar the reaction was from all
over the world. In the beginning I was actually quite stubborn to fill this
film with very Korean details that Korean audiences would chuckle while
watching but ultimately the completed film turned out to be so much more
universal than what I originally intended. I think these days you know
national borders don't really mean much anymore, whether that's good or bad, I
think, that's how the global community works these days. And this is, this might
be really fearful but I think it's because we're all dominated by
capitalism. We're all living in this one giant nation of capitalism. And from the
very beginning you see a sibling searching for Wi-Fi and I think the
story is already universal from there, people open up their hearts because
wherever you go everyone is searching for a Wi-Fi.
The relatability starts right there, its the endless struggle.
I'm going to open it up to the audience now... Their
question was about the ending and whether director Bong has an idea or a
theory of what happens afterwards? So at the end you see the boy sort of declaring
that he will purchase that house. We did a cruel calculation with his average
salary, how long it would take for him to afford the house and we came to the number of 547 years.
And a lot of people mention that this is a sad portrait of
this era of polarization that were in but I think what's even more fearful is the
thought that this won't actually improve in the future. So in that sense the
ending is not hopeful at all but I didn't want to paint a false hope
with the ending, I wanted to be very honest.
And so for Moon-gwang, you know, she's
buried in the garden of that rich house and you don't really see it in the film
but she becomes.. her remains become a flower and so I did wonder when her
remains would be discovered after everything that happened.
There's this moment of these six people against these four people.. how will it
end? And you decide a massacre and I'm just wondering if there were other paths
that you considered after the six have that moment of possible complicity?
So I developed this idea in my head for four years but it actually
took me four months to just write the script with my computer and the.. from the
moment the original housekeeper comes back and rings the doorbell, the husband
and the bunker, all of that came to me in the last four months of actual
screenwriting. So for the first three and a half years I didn't have that plot-line
or those characters at all, so everything came to me at the end and the story
worked itself out after I came up with those ideas. And
so that situation that you just described of, it's funny but it's also
very sad because you have the have-nots fighting one another while the rich
people, they're completely unaware of what's going on because they never cross the line.
So at one point you do see the original housekeeper, Moon-gwang
calling the mom, you know, sister and, you know, let's.. let the needy.. and suggest
that the needy should work together and they should form a solidarity. But that
never really works out for them and although I wrote it, it felt very sad
that that could never work out for these characters. And if you think about it
there was one opportunity for them to avoid the tragedy that happens in the
end, when the poor mother and daughter they talk about how they went too far
the night before and, you know, she hands her the meatball and she should go down
and talk to them. But from a slip of fate they missed that
opportunity to even try negotiating with the people downstairs. It was the only
opportunity that they unfortunately couldn't grasp. So there was once a time
when the have-nots formed, you know, a coalition and struggled and fought
against the rich but I think we currently live in a much more
complicated time and the film really reflects that. I apologize for talking as
if it was someone else creating this story when I'm the one who
created this tragedy. In terms of the tone of this.. of the film it's like a
really delicate balance between a lot of different things going on. So you've got
this sort of suspense and the black comedy and I just wondered in terms of,
between the writing, the shooting of the film and then the editing of the film,
was there any difference in your mind in terms of how the tone shifted? Or is the
finished film tonally exactly what you imagined when you were writing it? I
think in the film the moment the original housekeeper comes back to
ring the doorbell, that's when the tone really shifts and it's like a turning
point for the film but we never really discussed that onset, we just continued to shoot.
An hour into the film the original housekeeper comes back to ring the
doorbell and the story heads towards a completely different path and a lot of
people say that at that point the genre of the film changes but when we were
shooting or talking about the story we never defined these genre shifts or tonal
shifts. The original housekeeper comes back to the house just to negotiate
something with this new family that has taken over the house and then later on
everyone else, you know, started talking about how the genre shifted but that was
something that we never really discussed.
No matter what that visual atmosphere of the film is all the actors
maintain a fundamental realistic tone that doesn't really rely on genre. They
all have such rich and realistic, alive texture to their performances so I felt
very comfortable taking various, you know, courses in terms of genre. I really
relied on the fundamental reality that they brought to the story.
I couldn't pin down the genre of the film if I was asked to. I think that's
what's wonderful about it. There's so much more we could talk about and ask.
I'm sure we'll all go home tonight thinking about a lot more but we are out
of time, I'm afraid. So thank you so much.
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