Created by Javier Sanchez

"A zeitgeist-defining sensation". That's how the Criterion collection speaks about the 2020 Academy Award-winning film Parasite. The film not only achieved recognition amongst international critics but its thrilling suspense plot captivated mainstream audiences as well.

In PARASITE we are introduced to the Kims, a basement-dwelling family that slyly infiltrates the lives of the wealthy Parks. One of the most impressive aspects of this class inequality tale is its use of space.

66% of the film takes place in the Parks’ house. The impressive household was built specifically for the film as a one piece set by production designer Lee Ha Jun. Wide rooms, endless stairs, and secret passages:a maze designed for the characters to traverse.

This house plays a defining role and the way that the protagonists inhabit it tells a lot about them. In this visualization, we try to understand the importance of architecture in the film and how it embodies a character’s class and intentions.

How does this building shape the characters? What does the way they move and the rooms they stay in reveal?

Parasite-house




Da Hye' s roomDa Song's roomKitchenGardenSide GardenIntercomEntranceLiving room2nd Floor corridorBasementStairs to 2nd floorBunkerMr. & Mrs. Park roomGarageEntrance IntercomStairs to the BunkerLiving Room to GarageStairs to garageKitchen to BasementIntercom to EntranceStreet to intercomStreet

This is the Parks' house. Here, we can see the main locations where the action takes place in the film.

This design was made by Korean-based Illustrator Jisu Choi and used in the French Blu-ray cover.

For the sake of our Visualization we will simplify things a bit. Let’s go back to the basics of the house’s floor plan.

Hovering over each area you can see what room of the house it represents.

Additionally, we have added some key locations that were not in the original drawing like the Basement and the Bunker.

Also, some aid elements were added to understand how different areas of the house are connected.

We have divided the scenes in the Parks' house into 8 important moments. To read what happens in each moment you can click on the above legend.

Each circle represents a Character.

In the Scene mode, we visualize who is staying longer in each room and the actions that they are performing.

We have classified character's actions in:

  • Up & Down:when characters use stairs.
  • Static:characters that don’t move because of a conversation or leisure.
  • Move.
  • Hiding.

In the Locations mode, we summarize the rooms that appear the most in the film. Brushing over small time ranges in the menu, you can see how the action evolves from place to place in the film.

Also we have divided the house into 3 different floors:The second floor, where the Parks rooms are located, the first floor, where the Living room and the Garden are, and the Street and underground level.

Across the film, the location that appears the most is the Living room. The secret Bunker, the Basement and Garden gain prominence as the film goes by.

Now, feel free to play around with the house before moving forward.

HIGHS AND LOWS

" The vertical structure of the house reflects the relations between the three families, with Geunse at the bottom. Whilst Park 's family mostly only go up the stairs, Kim and Geunse' s families move up and down repeatedly. That 's the essence of this film." . Lee Ha Jun - Interview with dezeen.


The character that introduces us to the house is Ki Woo, likewise he is the character with more screen time. If we count the time that we see all the characters in the house, Ki Woo’s appearances account for 15% of the total.
During Moment 5 , the Kims fantasize about being the owners of the house. Paradoxically, as a family, they are the ones taking up more screen time (47%) at the alien Parks’ house.
Things get more interesting when we understand what areas of the house the characters occupy.

Occupation

As we descend into the lower levels of the house, the Parks’ occupation decreases. They rarely go down to the lower levels of the House and the Street, leaving that for the lower social classes.

On the contrary, Moon Gwang , the first housekeeper, and his husbandGeun Se gain more screen time there. They barely reach the second level of the house.

Occupation

The Kims have an even distribution among the house levels. This portrays how well they have played their cards in the hoax. Coming from a poor background, they reach the higher levels of the house without too many complications.

As the film goes by, their game proves to be unstable, as they tend to lead to the lower levels of the house.

Movement

Previously we saw the different classifications made depending on Characters actions:Up, Down, Move, Static & Hiding. Here, we summarize the character traits depending on how they move.

Movement

Up/Down

In the underground, the poorer families (Kims and Geun Ses) move up and down the most trying to escalate as much as possible from inferior levels.

Yeon Kyo is the only member of the Park family who descends to the lower levels of the house. Though most of the times, she does so to to interact with the hired help and "teachers".

Movement

Static

Across the film, the Parks and Geun Ses tend to be more Static, though a closer look at each floor level reveals a different reality.

Parks tend to be static in the area of the Second floor, whereas Geun Se and Moon Gwang stay static the longest on the lower levels of the house, especially in the Bunker where they get locked in later on in the film.

Movement

Move

The second floor is a symbol of social recognision. As the Occupation figure revealed, Kims distribute their movement among the 3 floors.

In the street and underground, the Kims and Geun Se's movements are the most dynamic, as opposed to the Second-floor activity of Parks once more.

Methodology


The data visualized was obtained from a Dataset that I created addressing moments in the film. Please, feel free to use it. I am looking forward to seeing the possibilities that it offers! In exchange, please cite the source/me.
The dataset created addresses actual character screen time in the film. When there are some parallel actions taking place (eg:conversations over the phone, scenes with a lot of movement...) we count all implied character locations even if they are not on screen at the moment.
The film takes place in different locations:Parks' house (66%), Kims' house (14%)... (you can see them all in the dataset). Here we only focus on the Park's house.
In the Locations mode we brush in a 0 to 100 timeline. This range represents the total time that the house is on screen (rather than the duration of the film). In the bottom left legend we see the action distribution (%) among rooms. There, we only display room's contribution above 10 %.
There are some locations in the house (the toilet & sauna room) that were not included in the house visualization, as it was not clear where they are located and represented a minor time screen (less than 1%).
In the heatmap, on a family level, we see Floor level distributions (%) of occupancies and actions. On a character level, we see the contribution (%) of each family member to the family distribution.

The first Visual is inspired in the Parasite's Criterion Collection DVD/Bluray edition.
The text extracts were obtained from a Deezen interview with Parasite's production designer Lee Ha Jun.
The house drawing was made by Illustrator Jisu Choi and used in the French Blu-ray cover.
The inspiration of the whole scrollytelling article is The Pudding visual essays.