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Parasite takes place in contemporary South Korea in the capital city of Seoul, though the exact neighborhoods remain unnamed. This urban backdrop, which has many very different neighborhoods within it, is an important part of the story’s central conflict. Bong Joon Ho compares two very different environments throughout the film: the grimy semi-basement apartment where the Kim family lives, and the luxurious hilltop home of the Park family. These spaces shape the characters’ lives in profound ways, as well as displaying how deeply-rooted the inequalities of their world are. These fundamental environmental differences do more than reflect economic and social class; they also create the conditions that trap the Kim family within systems they cannot change. 

The Kim family’s home is a cramped semi-basement unit at the base of a nondescript downtown building. Its one small window sits at street level and frames their daytime view of passing legs and feet. At night, they also see drunk men urinating with startling regularity. The apartment is dimly lit by yellowish bulbs and a small amount of filtered daylight. The family’s toilet is higher than most of the rest of the dwelling; the Kims have to clamber onto a tiled ledge and maintain a crouch to use it. The toilet ledge is also often the only place where the Kims can get a Wi-Fi signal, so they spend quite a lot of their time crowding onto it. The apartment’s damp underground location also makes it unpleasantly vulnerable to pest infestations and pollution, and in bad weather, rainwater and sewage can rapidly flood the entire place. The Kims perform much of their life packed closely together in the small, shared area of this home. There are no clear divisions between spaces for sleeping, eating, and working, and nowhere where the family can have privacy from one another. 

In terms of geographic hierarchy, the Parks live on the opposite end of the Kims. Their pristine house is protected by a large, modern gate at the top of a sloped street. It was designed by a famous architect, a fact the Parks are quick to share. The house is made up of large, open rooms, which all have expansive windows, bathing the interior in sunlight. All of the décor is expensive, minimalist, and earth-toned, and the interior design is intentionally soothing and peaceful. Every piece of furniture and paint color contributes to the overall feeling of comfort and luxury. The property also has a wide, enclosed lawn, a private driveway, and a finished basement (which turns out to be even more “finished” than the Parks are aware). The house’s height above the street, tucked away from traffic and pedestrians, reinforces how detached people like the Parks are from the people in the city below. Their wealth has insulated them from every imaginable hardship.  

The stark difference in elevation between the two families' homes becomes most apparent during the movie’s dramatic flood scene. When a heavy rainstorm hits, the Kims scramble out of the Park household and race down the sloped streets and narrow alleys of Seoul, leaving behind bright, clean neighborhoods to end up in their flooded, destroyed semi-basement apartment. While the Parks fall asleep to the soothing sound of rainfall, the Kims return to find their home submerged in sewage and damaged beyond all repair.  

Another important setting in the Park home is the hidden underground bunker. Unknown to the current family, this secret space houses Moon-gwang’s husband, Geun-sae, who has lived there in hiding for years, utterly isolated except for occasional visits from his wife. Dark and windowless, the bunker sits both literally and symbolically beneath the Parks’ pristine living quarters. The sleek, carefully designed architecture of their upper levels is in stark contrast to the grim, unseen space below.  

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