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Parasite and its representation of genders

  • Writer: Nick Saward
    Nick Saward
  • Nov 4, 2022
  • 2 min read


Parasite is a South Korean film released in 2019 about a family finding work in a society that is too closed off to working class people. To me the film handles representation through its poster very well (even though its from a different country). there are both an equal number of male and female actors on the poster that you can clearly see even if you take a quick glance at it. This shows that both females and males (in South Korea) have the same equality in their country. The positioning of the actors is also key to understanding the films plot and characters without actually watching the movie. The position of the father is key to understanding his character and what he is all about. He is positioned right at the front of the poster to represent that he is the main character and possibly the breadwinner of the family, which is still a common stereotype in not just Korean Society, but Western society as well. The Father is also the only character in the poster who's shadow is clearly showing, which could mean that he has a darkside by him waiting to explode. On the topic of dark colours, the male characters on the right hand side of the screen have their eyes covered with a black rectangle and the female characters and the youn boy on the left have a white rectangle covering their eyes. This could represent that young boys and female characters have good thoughts and honest minds, whilst when the young boys turn into adults, their thoughts get dark scary and violent. *SPOILER ALERT NEXT SENTENCE* These attitudes are reflected in the film because the young man is the one who got the family into the mess of the job they are in, and the father eventually ends up stabbing someone near the end of the movie. The women in the background are also seen to be visibly lying down which indicate that women are more relaxed and less-hardworking than men. This is a stereotype that is more indicated towards men, so to see two woman doing this shows again that woman have the same amount of equality in Korean than men do.


 
 
 

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