Parasite may be a human-scaled story, but it’s still steeped in the elemental. The new international poster emphasises the clash between earth, represented by the special stone given to Ki-woo, intended to bring wealth, and water, evoking the flood that submerges the family’s home in sewage and forces them into a encampment for the displaced poor.
Ki-woo loves to remark on the symbolism he perceives in the world around him, so he’d surely be taken with the metaphor implied by the striking artwork. A new tagline ‘Uncontainable Desire’, hints at his game; the spirit of striving and industriousness is what drives ordinary citizens to work for a better life, but that same concept can be perverted by bourgeois greed, leaving even the wealthiest unstimulated and unsatisfied until they get more, more, more.
The initial poster laid out the terms of conflict in Bong Joon-ho’s latest film with a simple visual schematic, placing a white bar over the eyes of the upper class and black bar over those of the lower. The artist has taken a more creatively roundabout approach, channeling those opposing forces into the imagery of his illustration, which harkens back to Korean minhwa folk art with its hand-hewn aesthetic and themes of the natural world.
It’s a beaut, the sort of movie poster that doubles as an expression of fandom and a lovely addition to a living room’s statement wall free of context.
Parasite is released in the UK on 7 February, 2020.
Published 28 Oct 2019
By Halim Kim
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