Summary
We see Ki-woo Kim, a young man from a poor family, on his phone in his apartment in the slums of a South Korean city. He calls to his sister, Ki-jung, to tell her that the neighbor whose internet they use has put a password on the network. He tells his father and mother, Ki-taek and Chung-sook, about this, and Chung-sook worries that they will not be able to log on to WhatsApp.
Ki-taek goes to Ki-woo and tells him to hold the phone up to the ceiling and search everywhere in the apartment for the wi-fi, before killing a stinkbug on the table. Ki-woo finds a signal in the bathroom, up on an upper level where the toilet is. Chung-sook asks her children to check Whatsapp and see if an establishment called Pizza Generation has contacted her. Ki-woo finds a message from Pizza Generation.
Later, we see the whole family folding pizza boxes together. Ki-woo shows his family members a video online of a woman folding the boxes extra fast and suggests they all try to keep up with her.
Suddenly, they spot someone outside fumigating the streets, and Ki-taek tells them to keep the window open so they get free fumigation. Smoke pours in the window and they all cough, but Ki-taek continues folding the pizza boxes.
The scene shifts and we see Chung-sook speaking to a representative from Pizza Generation, who tells her that the box folding is below standard, and so she must withhold 10% of their payment. "Our pay is so low already! How can you do this?" Chung-sook yells after her as she walks away. The representative turns to her and tells her that faulty boxes can ruin the company's brand image.
At this, Chung-sook scoffs and says, "Brand? You can't even afford a box folder!" Ki-woo runs up and tries to turn the situation in their favor by getting the Pizza Generation worker to hire him. She tells him she will consider and hands over the payment for the boxes.
That night the family drinks beer at the table and Ki-taek expresses his gratitude for the wi-fi in the apartment. They suddenly notice a man urinating outside the apartment and argue about how to deal with it. In the middle of this, one of Ki-woo's friends, Min-hyuk, a college student, rides up on a motorbike and yells at the drunk man. He visits the Kim family and gives them a rock that his grandfather told him to bring; it is meant to bring wealth. "This gift is very metaphorical," says Ki-woo, marveling at the rock.
Min-hyuk and Ki-woo go out for a drink, and Min-hyuk comments on the fact that Ki-woo's parents look healthy. Ki-woo talks about how poor his family is, when Min-hyuk suddenly shows him a picture of the high school sophomore he tutors, and tells him he should take over as her tutor while he goes abroad.
"Why ask a loser like me?" asks Ki-woo, and Min-hyuk tells him he doesn't want the frat boys from his school drooling over the young high school girl. "You like her?" Ki-woo asks him, and Min-hyuk tells him he is planning to ask her out once she enters college. Ki-woo doubts his abilities, but Min-hyuk reminds him that while he was serving in the military, Ki-woo took the entrance exam many times and is a much better student than all the drunken college students he knows.
Min-hyuk assures Ki-woo that it will be no problem getting him the job, since he will recommend him, and since the mother of the family is "simple." Ki-woo enlists the help of his sister, Ki-jung, to help him make a resume with a college logo on it. When they show it to Ki-taek, he says, "Does Oxford have a major in document forgery? Ki-jung would be top of her class."
As Ki-woo leaves, Ki-taek tells him he's proud of him. Ki-woo tells him he does not think of the forgery as a crime, since he plans to go to the university in the next year.
Ki-woo goes to the house of the family for whom he is interviewing. The housekeeper, Moon-gwang, opens the door, and Ki-woo wanders into the large property. As she lets him into the house, Moon-gwang tells Ki-woo that a famous architect designed and used to live in the house.
He looks at what is on the wall while Moon-gwang goes to get Mrs. Park. There is a family photo, a magazine with Mr. Park on the cover, and an innovation award that Mr. Park received. Suddenly, he looks out the window to see Moon-gwang waking up Mrs. Park, who has fallen asleep at a small table in the yard.
Mrs. Park comes in and tells him that she is not very interested in his resume, since she is so impressed with Min-hyuk and Ki-woo comes with his recommendation. "Da-hye and I were quite happy with him. Regardless of her grades. Know what I mean?" she says, petting a small white dog in her lap. Mrs. Park asks to sit in on Ki-woo's first lesson with Da-hye and they go upstairs.
In Da-hye's room, Ki-woo conducts a lesson, picking up her arm at one point and feeling her pulse as a way of flirting with her. He tells her that she needs vigor in order to "dominate" her exam work. At the end, Mrs. Park hires him, and pays him well for his session, adding a little "for inflation." As she tells him to go to Moon-gwang if he ever needs anything, Mrs. Park's son, Da-song, shoots an arrow into the room.
Moon-gwang plays with the boy, while Mrs. Park laughingly tells Ki-woo that her son is eccentric and has a short attention span. She tells him that she enrolled Da-song in Cub Scouts, but it's made him even more poorly behaved, blaming it on the figure of the American Indian. Ki-woo lies that he was a Cub Scout.
Mrs. Park shows Ki-woo a painting that Da-song did, framed and hanging on the wall. "It's so metaphorical. It's really strong," Ki-woo says of the drawing, which is very rudimentary. He asks if the picture is of a chimpanzee, but Mrs. Park informs him that it is a self-portrait. As she walks him out of the house, Mrs. Park talks about the fact that they have been unable to find a good art teacher.
Struck with inspiration, Ki-woo tells Mrs. Park that he knows someone, Jessica, a friend of his cousin's, who studied art at Illinois State University, and who might be perfectly suited to tutoring Da-song. He tells her that Jessica could help Da-song get into a good art school, and Mrs. Park becomes eager to meet her.
The scene shifts and we see Ki-woo bringing his sister, Ki-jung, to the Park residence. Before they enter, they sing a little song reminding Ki-jung how to remember the biographical details of her character, "Jessica." Inside, Mrs. Park brags that Da-song has "a Basquiat-esque sense, even at age 9!"
Ki-woo goes up to Da-hye's room, where she tells him that Da-song is faking his genius. She talks about the fact that sometimes Da-song stares at the sky, as if struck by inspiration, and that it is all an act. She then asks Ki-woo if "Jessica" is his girlfriend. Ki-woo laughs and tells Da-hye that he is not interested in "Jessica" at all, and compliments her looks. They kiss, awkwardly, before getting back to the work.
Analysis
At the start of the film, we are presented with a family that is trapped in a state of desperation and poverty. The film takes a playful but unflinching look at the Kim family, who are making do with what they have, but do not have much. They poach wi-fi from their neighbors, find stinkbugs crawling around everywhere, and must fold pizza boxes for work just to make a little money. The Kim family is scraping by with very little, trying to find some dignity in an economic system that is constantly shutting them out.
Not only must the Kim family contend with poverty, but they are also fighting the uphill battle that comes with seeking to earn their way to a more stable life. This is demonstrated when they fold the pizza boxes and Ki-woo shows them a video online of someone folding them especially fast. If they are able to fold them at this super-human speed, they will earn more money. Director Bong Joon-ho stages an instance in which productivity is valued to an absurd degree; it is ridiculous to fold a pizza box as quickly as the woman is folding it, and it is even more ridiculous to have to do that all day just in order to earn a living wage.
The film also shows the ways that, under capitalism, opportunities are given to people who already have opportunities, and this does not necessarily reflect merit. When Ki-woo wonders why Min-hyuk does not want to give the position of tutor to someone from his university, Min-hyuk insists that Ki-woo, who has taken many entrance exams and is a smart person, is much better suited for the job than drunken college students. Then, when Ki-jung helps him fabricate a college resume, Ki-woo notes that his sister is so skilled with graphics, yet cannot get into art school. In both of these details, the film shows us that the difficulty the Kim family has getting opportunities has more to do with their economic position than it does with their level of skill.
The film stages the absurdity of the relationships between high-end tutors and their clients. When Ki-woo meets Mrs. Park, she talks about the fact that she was very impressed with Min-hyuk even though her daughter's grades did not necessarily improve. This statement makes clear that the relationship between tutor and student is not about learning at all, but about the presence of a tutor in an upper-class home. For the rich Park family, a tutor is less there to impart knowledge than to act as a kind of status symbol.
Bong Joon-ho's direction is at once humorous and whimsical as well as suspenseful and excruciating. He depicts poverty without romanticizing it, stinkbugs and all, but then stages humorous scenarios in which the apartment gets flooded with fumigation smoke. He makes light of the air-headed Mrs. Park and her family, yet also builds tension through dramatic irony. Absurdity and tension are interwoven within the film, which creates an endlessly pleasurable but also uneasy atmosphere within the narrative.
