What to know
Parasite grew out of a play Bong Joon Ho wrote in 2013, which he later developed into the screenplay with his co-writer Han Jin-won. Bong has said he was inspired by the Korean film The Housemaid (1960) and by the case of the Papin sisters, two maids who killed their employers in France in the 1930s.
It was filmed from 18 May to 19 September 2018 in Seoul and Jeonju. The Parks’ house is not a real mansion but a set: the ground floor and the garden were built on an empty outdoor lot, and everything beyond the garden was added with visual effects. Bong designed the basic layout himself; a fictional architect was created as the house’s designer and previous owner, and the production designer Lee Ha-jun shaped the house the way that architect would have built it. The Kims’ semi-basement flat and its street were also built as sets, partly for the flooding scenes.
The world premiere was at Cannes on 21 May 2019; CJ Entertainment released the film in South Korea and Neon in the United States. Besides Best Picture, Parasite won Oscars for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film, and it is one of only four films to win both the Palme d’Or and the Academy Award for Best Picture. For more Bong Joon Ho, try Memories of Murder (2003) or Snowpiercer (2013).
