Musical Intimations to Timid Reflections: The Soundtrack to “Parasite”

The ‘simple’ soundtrack of “Parasite” respects the powerful messages of the film, adding a complex layer of emotion to the class-struggle thriller.

In Media and Music, our writers take a deep dive into how movies use scores and songs to engage viewers, give new meaning and tone to some of our favorite scenes, and establish themes. It almost goes without saying, but there are spoilers abound.

Written by Andrew Zhang
Illustrated by Vildan Karaca

Bong Joon-Ho’s “Parasite” has seen tremendous success — the movie premiered at a festival in May 2019 before exploding into mainstream movie theaters to become one of the highest grossing international movies in history. “Parasite” has garnered an array of accolades, most notably its historic Best Picture win at the Academy Awards this year.

In addition to its commercial success, the movie is accompanied by a masterfully constructed score, whose primarily minimalist pieces, varying between piano solos with some short opera and orchestral sections, still manage to build intense emotional energy. From its foreboding vibe of peril in the early tracks of the film to the somber pieces during the movie’s climax and end, the score composed by Jung Jae-il helps establish the vast array of feelings that audiences may experience, specifically in response to the movie’s complex allegory of social hierarchy.

The film’s soundtrack begins with “Opening,” a solo piano piece. Initially beautiful and bright, the track casually shifts into a gloomful key, reflecting the overall mood shift throughout the film. “Parasite” follows the Kims, a poor Korean family that lives in a beat-up, basement-style apartment, who struggles to make ends meet. Things start to look up for the Kims when the son of the family, Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo-Shik), is given an opportunity to tutor for a wealthy family — the Parks. However, this seemingly bright prospect eventually becomes a catastrophe.

The sinister piano tune “On The Way to Rich House” plays along Kim Ki-woo’s walk to the Park family mansion as a fake tutor. This eerie sound helps convey two meanings: Kim’s nervousness and a foreboding feeling over what’s to come. This mysterious mood also appears in “Conciliation I,” “Conciliation II,” and “Conciliation III,” all songs that connect several of the movie’s early scenes together.

When Kim Ki-woo realizes that the mother is a “simple” lady and easily fooled, he formulates a plan to help bring in the rest of his family to leech money off the affluent household. And one by one, each family member is hired in their respective role as tutor, art therapist, chauffeur, and housekeeper. “The Belt of Faith,” a seven-minute-long classical orchestral composition, helps weave all of these scenes depicting their schemes together.

Once trust is established between the Parks and the Kims, the wealthy family goes on a trip to celebrate their young son’s birthday. “Camping,” a slow, opera-like song befitting of any movie ending, seems to suggest a peaceful end to the story with its throaty ‘la’s’ — the Kims would support themselves by leeching off the Parks for a while. Although only the Kim mother is allowed in the house to keep order, the whole family settles into the mansion as if it were their own. “Camping” plays as the Kims lounge around and drink expensive alcohol. But, of course, such a plotline would be too simple.

Apart from “Camping” and “The Belt of Faith,” the songs leading up to this place in the plot provide a sense of looming danger. This feeling of impending jeopardy that the soundtrack molds throughout the beginning is not just appropriate for “Parasite,” but all movies directed by Bong Joon-Ho. The Korean director is known for throwing wild twists into his plotlines, and the eerie music throughout the beginning of this movie helps build up to this twist.

This danger is revealed during the deep string solo featured in “The Hellgate,” which pushes the film to a climax as a horrifying and shocking secret is revealed within the mansion. The Parks’ former housekeeper, who Park Chung-Sook, the Kim mother (Lee Jeong-Eun), replaced, comes banging on the front door. The mother reluctantly lets her in, and the housekeeper rushes inside to reveal a secret underground bunker, in which she has hid and nursed her husband for years. The housekeeper tries to win the empathy of the Kims, telling them that they are one and the same — lower class people. But the Kims, comfortable with their new lifestyles, forcibly close this secret up.

Just after the massive plot twist, “Zappaguri” plays as Kim Chung-sook finds out that the Parks have canceled their camping trip due to rain and are only minutes away from home. The Kims then rush to conceal the messes from their family drinking fest and the secret within the house. The song features a frantic orchestra to accompany the Kims’ urgent attempt to clean up the mansion so they don’t get caught. “Zappaguri” not only matches the rush of emotions the Kims are facing, but the viewers’ as well, as its frenzied and distressing style forces the audience’s involuntary empathy as the main characters brink on the edge of being caught.

Dramatic orchestra playing and rushing water sounds in “Water, Ocean” and “Water, Ocean Again” help convey the movie’s biggest cathartic release, as the Kims realize that their scheming has left them with nowhere to go. The Kims face the problem of dealing with the secret under the house, while still needing to maintain their identities as workers for the Parks. These emotions are heightened by a flood that ruins their shoddy apartment.

Even though the Kims face several crises simultaneously — the horrendous secret, their ruined home — the Parks are blatantly unaware, and decide to throw a new birthday party for the son. “It is Sunday Morning” plays as the family plans and prepares for the redo celebration. “It is Sunday Morning” is probably the most uplifting piece of the score, combining the peaceful ‘la’s’ of “Camping” with a playful melody that evokes the picture of a fun childhood parade. But this airy tune ends on a dark note, its musical shift foreshadowing another dark moment in the film.

This climactic event comes to light while “Blood and Sword,” a dread-filled song of despairing string solos and screeches, plays. The song helps show the collapse of the facade the Kims wore while working for the Parks and the emergence of the imprisoned man from under the house. “Blood and Sword” emits sorrowful emotions, filling listeners with dread and changing the movie’s world forever.

“Yasan,” “Moving,” and “Ending” outline the narration that concludes the movie. These scenes feature a monologue from Kim Ki-woo as he reflects on the fallout from the unthinkable climax that has occurred. This reckoning of Kim Ki-woo is similarly experienced in the audience, who undergoes a parallel realization. Slow moving piano notes in these three pieces allow for the audience to mentally assemble the allegorical bits sprinkled throughout “Parasite”— pieces which come together to brightly illuminate an image about class struggle.

As much as “Parasite” is meant to be a thriller (with a dash of comedy and horror mixed in), the final piano notes from “Yasan,” “Moving,” and “Ending,” which reflect rather slow and subtly peaceful moments, show the stagnant nature of this movie’s social hierarchy. In contrast to the majority of the soundtrack’s songs, which underscore action within the movie or incoming action, the final songs reflect a sense of complacency, implying that the societal unfairness in “Parasite” will stay forever. This reckoning is reflected in the final part of the soundtrack, ”Soju One Glass.” This final song, which contains the only lyrics on the soundtrack, verify this permanent injustice as the singer describes toiling through endless work, his time marked by a glass of soju at the end of every day.

Throughout the entire soundtrack of “Parasite,” notes of brief joy and long despair help illustrate the emotions experienced when watching the movie’s continually twisting plot. While the film already does an impeccable job of telling this story of class struggle, the music challenges the audience to actively engage with the film’s deep allegorical meaning. Overall, the score of “Parasite” accentuates the movie’s dynamic emotions and underscores its profound messages, transforming Bong Joon-Ho’s superb movie into a permanent example of cinematic excellence.

Media and MusicAfterglow ATXMarch 10, 2020Parasite, sound track