ABSTRACT
The stunning success of Bong Joon-Ho’s film Parasite, receiving both the Cannes and Hollywood top prizes in 2019 and 2020 respectively, marks the global arrival of Korean cinema. This chapter analyzes Parasite within three intersecting contexts – the rise of the Korean Wave, and Korean cinema specifically, over the past few decades; the development of contemporary neoliberalism and the accompanying emergence of a global precariat, which inform both the production and plot of Parasite; and memories of the repressed in modern Korean history, including the economically marginalized sectors of society and the subversive political “underground” of divided Korea since 1945. The global success of Parasite is both a singular achievement for Korean cinema and a mirror to the fractured and profoundly unequal world of the advancing twenty-first century.
