FILM · 2019

Gisaengchung

98 archived facts · 7 topics · 1 source · Last reviewed Sep 2026

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8 Facts on the Deeper Meaning of Gisaengchung

1. #006
   Contains a major spoiler — show

   Bong Joon Ho's statement about the film: "It's not easy for people in different circumstances to coexist in the same space. In this sad world, it is becoming increasingly common for human relationships based on coexistence or symbiosis to be unsustainable, and for one group to be pushed into a parasitic relationship with another. In the middle of such a world, who can reach out a hand to a family struggling and fighting to survive and call them parasites? They cannot be said to have been parasites from the start. They are simply our neighbors, friends and colleagues who have been pushed to the edge of a cliff. This film, a depiction of ordinary people caught up in an inevitable turmoil, is a comedy without clowns, a tragedy without villains, all leading to a violent chaos and a fall down the stairs."

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   1. IMDb — IMDb

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2. #012
   Contains a major spoiler — show

   The scholar's stone represents both the hope of upward social mobility, similar to the American Dream, and the burden of carrying such hopes, literally to the point that after Ki-woo reveals his place it strikes his skull and allows the housekeeper's husband to attack him. Before the party scene, the stone floats in sewage water for Ki-woo to find, suggesting for that scene that it is fake and hollow and cannot be used to dream of a better life, and foreshadowing that this will be the downfall of Ki-woo and the family.

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   1. IMDb — IMDb

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3. #014

   Stairs and vertical structures are a motif throughout the film that emphasizes the social divide between the Parks and the Kims. Director Bong Joon-ho even called the project a "staircase movie" while shooting it.

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4. #041

   Akira Kurosawa's High and Low (1963) is one of Bong Joon-ho's favorite films, and its elements inspired this film.

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5. #042

   Bong Joon-ho is not sure why the rich father named his company Another Brick, but he thinks it may stem from his having been a big Pink Floyd fan in high school.

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6. #058

   The on-screen title uses spirals where circles would normally be, and Bong Joon-ho says this came from the original poster design. The artist did it there and the filmmaker liked it "because a spiral feels like a parasite in our body."

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7. #060
   Contains a major spoiler — show

   (Around the 2-hour mark) Near the end of the film, when Kim Ki-taek steals food from the new owners' refrigerator, all the magnets holding the family's pictures on the fridge show Swiss motifs: the Swiss national flag, the flag of the city of Bern, and three tourist sites in Switzerland (the Kapellbrücke in Lucerne, Jungfraujoch and Harderkulm). This may indicate that the family is in fact Swiss and that Kim Ki-taek thought they were German because they speak German (which is spoken in Switzerland). Of course, they could also be Germans who traveled to Switzerland.

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8. #093

   The "scholar's rock" shown in the film was chosen specifically to represent wealth and aspiration, as well as a burden.

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