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.
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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.
