Characters from Parasite (2019). BEWARE OF SPOILERS.
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General
- Dysfunction Junction: Pretty much every major character in this film has deep-seated personal issues (or hints thereof), the reasons ranging from the Kims' traumatic state of extreme poverty to Da-song's psychologically scarring "incident."
- Genre Blind: The classic recipe for any work of tragedy. Min thinks getting Ki-woo hired is safest for his plan to court Da-hye because there's no way she'll be interested in someone like him. Yeon-kyo thinks that she's being shrewd by hiring across Min's "belt" of connections. The Kims (and Moon-gwang) think they can continue lying to rich people until they climb up. You can guess how well all of this works out for each of them.
- Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: The Parks' actors are more wide-eyed than the Kims' so their characters appear more innocent (and by extension, gullible next to the obviously shrewder Kim family). However, this does not mean the Parks are "good," per se. Instead, they are naïve and blind to their own faults. The Kims are street-smart and cunning, not really evil. The film is chock-full of Grey-and-Grey Morality, after all.
The Kim family
The Kim family as a whole
- The Alcoholic: They are often seen drinking booze together, especially around meals. The first thing they do upon being given full reign over the Park estate is to pillage their slightly more exotic alcohol collection and continue their lifestyle as normal.
- Almighty Janitor: They're all unemployed layabouts, but they're actually quite skilled at whatever they actually do. They don't have any credentials in the work that they're doing, but they actually are good enough to legitimately pass as veteran-class professionals, be it driving, housework, or social engineering.
- Anti-Villain: They all do increasingly terrible things, but they all genuinely love each other and are driven by recognizable goals and resentments.
- Badass Family: They work almost perfectly in sync and have an amazing range of skills; the children tend to be more intelligent, but they are all resourceful and capable in a fight.
- Consummate Liar: They are each, to some degree, expert pretenders. Ki-jeong takes the cake, however, as explained in her entry below.
- The Family That Slays Together: They gradually become this, although not of their own free will. Ki-jeong is the only person not to directly or indirectly kill someone: Chung-sook kicks Moon-gwang down the stairs, resulting in her death, and kills Geun-sae during his rampage at the party; Ki-woo contemplates about bludgeoning Geun-sae; Ki-taek eventually kills Mr. Park. However, they're all very handy in a fight.
- Fatal Flaw: Greed. The family had already achieved their goals after all four of them are hired by the Parks in well-paying jobs, but they just can't help but want even more. This gets them caught red-handed partying in the Park mansion by Moon-gwang and Geun-sae, leading to the tragic birthday party.
- Happily Married: For all their criminal ways, the Kims have a happy and stable marriage.
- Hidden Depths: All the swindling aside, the Kims actually are quite competent at their jobs. Even Ki-jeong, whose feigned knowledge of art therapy is based on a quick Google search. Although perhaps that's the point — regardless of what you think of their later actions, they were deep in poverty that no one deserves and would've had a lot to offer if they'd had the right opportunities for their skill sets.
- Improvisational Ingenuity: Despite living in abject poverty and lacking any job credentials, the Kim family manage to successfully trick the Park family into hiring all four of them and pass themselves off as veterans at their respective jobs, through nothing but sheer cunning and impeccable teamwork.
- I Just Want to Be You: They feel this way towards the Parks, which leads to them pretending the mansion is theirs once the Parks leave on vacation, and the situation spiralling out of their control.
- Idiot Ball: For a family so ruthless, intelligent, and pragmatic, all four of them grab this when they allow Moon-gwang back into the mansion despite admitting it wasn't in their plan.
- It Runs in the Family: All of the Kims are intelligent, resourceful, competent liars — and all seem to be lacking the motivation or the pathway towards legitimate jobs, career paths, and happier lives. Given the way it turns out, it seems like this is probably a reflection of the cycle of poverty.
- Karma Houdini: Legally. Despite being party to the murders of three people and working with false documentation, Chung-sook and Ki-woo get away with only a minor probation. Emotionally, not so much.
- Karmic Thief: Reconstructed. They like to view themselves as this, but they are portrayed as genuine scammers who are exploiting their employers' trust... but, by the end of the film, it's clear that the Parks have no idea of the damage that their wealth has done to others, and especially in the case of Mr. Park, genuinely don't care at all.
- Lack of Empathy: The Kims are quick to dismiss the hardships of others, focusing on improving their own situation. Ironically, this flaw is something they have in common with the Parks.
- Lower-Class Lout: They are quite poor, and also dishonest vandals and scammers. Chung-sook also briefly mistreats animals.
- Meaningful Name: "Kim" is one of the most widespread Korean family names, akin to "Smith" in the Anglosphere. They're everymen who'd be more like everymen if they weren't so impoverished to turn to scams to survive; part of the film makes it clear they're pushed to despicable extremes to keep their heads above water (first metaphorically, then literally when a flood hits their basement).
- Mirroring Factions: While the Kims tend to assume that they are better than Moon-gwang and Geun-se, they learn that, actually, their high opinions of the Parks hide that the two families are pretty similar in a lot of ways, although the effect is inverted, as rather than leading to sympathy it causes mounting hatred until the finale.
- Moral Myopia: The Kims appear to be horrified that Moon-gwang has been hiding her husband in the Parks' basement and Chung-sook accuses her of being a sponger taking advantage of the Parks. Then the initially contrite Moon-gwang becomes appalled and self-righteous when she finds out that the Kims are a family of scammers and were responsible for her being fired. Each family geuninely seems to believe that they've got the moral high ground over the other.
- Nuclear Family: Both the Kim and Park families consist of a husband, a wife, a daughter, and a son.
- Social Climber: A very central idea. The Kims are willing to use many underhanded tricks to improve their situation.
- Society Is to Blame: Their justification for their underhanded methods. They can't be nice like the Parks because they can't afford to do so.
- Street Smart: They're tough, wily and willing to do whatever it takes to get themselves out of their current situation. Ki-woo and Ki-jeong are clearly not lacking in book smarts, either.
- Tragic Dream: Of getting stable jobs that might make them enough money to rise above their circumstances.
- Undying Loyalty: To each other. Even at the end, their shared goal is still to be back together some day.
- Unholy Matrimony: Ki-taek and Chung-sook are perfectly in sync with each other as ruthless grifters, and their relationship is actually quite honest, affectionate and playful.
- Villain Protagonist: Anti-Villain Protagonists, really. The Kim family are sympathetic for wanting to escape the utter poverty of their lives, but they do so by essentially scamming a rich family, stealing the jobs of two workers that were already employed by the family with no remorse, and outright resorting to deadly violence when their deception begins to get unraveled.
Kim Ki-taek
Kim Ki-taek
"Look around you. Did you think these people made a plan to sleep in the sports hall with you? But here we are now, sleeping together on the floor. So, there's no need for a plan. You can't go wrong with no plans. We don't need to make a plan for anything. It doesn't matter what will happen next. Even if the country gets destroyed or sold out, nobody cares. Got it?"
Played by: Song Kang-hoForeign V As
The Kim patriarch. Before posing as the Park's new driver, he went through a number of short-lived jobs.
- Badass Driver: Driving has become almost instinctual to him. When he becomes Dong-ik's driver, he takes corners so smoothly that Dong-ik's coffee isn't visibly disturbed.
- Despair Event Horizon: After a lot of built-up resentments, the horror of seeing Ki-jeong bleed to death in the garden and Mr. Park snub Geun-sae a final time finally drives him over it.
- Dirty Business: He seems to feel guilt over the firing of the Park family's previous driver. He asks his son to reassure him that Yoon found another job after Ki-jeong's prank got Yoon fired.
- Due to the Dead: After the Parks sell their house, he sneaks out from the bunker one night and buries Moon-gwang's body under a tree in the yard.
- George Jetson Job Security: It is said he has a hard time keeping down a job for long as he's held a series of varying jobs such as a valet, worked at a chicken restaurant, at a Taiwanese cake shop before it closed and when the movie began he was folding pizza boxes. His wife has shown some irritation over his volatile employment.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: It's implied that this is happening to him at the end of the film.
- Hidden Depths: Of the very dark variety. There are a few instances throughout the film that hint that Ki-taek is much more insecure about his family's living state than he lets on. He has a violent outburst when his wife playfully compares him to "a cockroach" when compared with Mr. Park. He is also visibly hurt as Mr. Park's condescending outlook on him becomes more evident. Ultimately Ki-taek's feelings reach a breaking point when he is driven into a murderous frenzy and fatally stabs Mr. Park.
- Indy Ploy: Despite stating the family needs to follow a plan to succeed, he eventually admits to Ki-woo the only plan that can never fail is no plan. Everything he did up to this point in the movie was taking opportunities as they presented themselves.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's pretty nihilistic and helps in exploiting a very rich, dysfunctional family, but he's shown to at least love his family deeply and tries to communicate with them when he takes refuge in the hidden bunker of the Parks' home.
- Lazy Husband: He's called this by his wife Chung-sook. He tries to sleep (or pretend to sleep) all day and ultimately it is his son and daughter, not him, who successfully infiltrate the Parks' mansion.
- Mirror Character: Ki-taek learns of many parallels between himself and Geun-sae, namely worsening depression after multiple failed businesses along with rising debt. This is a major factor in the former's Sanity Slippage and eventual breakdown after Geun-sae's death.
- My God, What Have I Done?: During his narration at the end, he's shown hysterically sobbing "I'm sorry Mr. Park", to the man's picture. In a way not unlike how Geun-sae's obsession was depicted.
- Papa Wolf: He tries to keep his family together and at the end, faced with the possibility that both his children will die as they're both seriously injured, he finally loses it and kills Mr. Park.
- The Pig-Pen: Mr. and Mrs. Park dislike his smell, which Mr. Park likens to that of a boiled rag. (It's suggested to be the result of living in a damp, mildewy semi-basement apartment.) After the Kims' home overflows with sewage water during the flood, he smells even worse.
- Rage Breaking Point: Seeing Mr. Park deride Geun-sae's smell one last time drives him into jamming a knife into Mr. Park's heart.
- The Resenter: He is the family member who struggles the most with the constant reminders of the Park family's wealth and status, and that they don't have what the Parks have. He's also the most vocal about believing that the Parks don't deserve it, nor are particularly special.
- Sad Clown: He's a jolly, open-faced chap, but he outlines an extremely bleak view of the world to his son.
- Secret Squatter: At the end of the film, he takes Geun-sae's place in the Parks' basement bunker.
- So Proud of You: Although neither of his children pursue savoury careers, he is very proud and supportive of them.
- Straw Nihilist: Confides in Ki-woo that he sees no point in making plans as no one can predict what life has in store for them and that it "doesn't matter" what happens next.
- Yes-Man: Played for Drama. Although he's much more honest with his kids and wife, he unavoidably has to be this as he spends most of his time with Dong-ik, who makes it quite clear that he will not stand for any real defiance. He becomes an even more tragic example after killing Dong-ik and escaping to find refuge in the basement bunker.
Kim Chung-sook
Kim Chung-sook
"They're nice because they're rich. If I had all this, I'd be kinder."
Played by: Jang Hye-jinForeign V As
The Kim matriarch, who becomes the Parks' new housekeeper.
- Accidental Murder: Her kicking Moon-gwang down the stairs of the basement to prevent the latter from exposing her family to the Parks ended up giving her a concussion, which led to her death.
- Beauty Inversion: The actress who portrays her Jang Hye-jin is much prettier than her on screen counterpart as seen here.
◊ - The Big Gal: A former athlete and the most physically capable of the Kim family when push unexpectedly comes to shove.
- Brutal Honesty: Her most notable quality, in fact, it's less that she's a jerkass and more that she just says what she thinks.
- Does Not Know Her Own Strength: She's aware enough of her own physical strength, but probably wasn't expecting that her nudging Moon-gwang back into the bunker would literally kill the latter woman by giving her a concussion.
- Hypocrite: She criticizes the Parks for only being nice because they are rich, and says that she would be nicer if she were in the same position. After she and her family worm their way into the Parks' good graces, she kicks the Parks' dogs and tries to expose Moon-gwang and her husband for previously leeching just like the Kims are now.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Even if you take her brief roughness with Yeon-kyo's dogs as a sign of hypocrisy, she's right in that the Parks can afford to be "nice." At best, they only demonstrate superficial niceness, particularly in Mr. Park's case. However, she also displays hypocrisy when she tries to expose Moon-gwang and her husband even when she's better off, though that is kind of the point of the film.
- Kick the Dog: Ironically despite being tasked with taking care of the Parks' dogs, she doesn't really like them. She even violently shoves one of them away for getting close to her.
- Kindly Housekeeper: Her pretense, although she does become the mask throughout the film. She genuinely comes to like Da-song, although she retains her cynicism and dislike of Yeon-kyo.
- Mama Bear: Chung-sook overpowers and literally skewers Geun-sae after the latter stabs Ki-jeong.
- More Deadly Than the Male: Chung-sook is absolutely ruthless in a fight, and in fact it is she who rather brutally kills Geun-sae after he's stabbed Ki-jeong, and who delivers one of the fatal blows to Moon-gwang by pushing her down the stairs, arguably making her the deadliest of the Kim family. When Ki-taek grabs her by the collar and jokingly pretends that he's about to hit her, she doesn't even flinch, and when he says he was just joking, she says she would have killed him if he wasn't.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ironic for being a selfish Ice Queen, she actually let in the old housemaid Moon-gwang who was out in the cold homeless while it's raining. And then Moon-gwang tried to blackmail the Kims with video evidence for privilege of being allowed to join them in leeching off the Parks.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: She makes herself to be much more presentable when working for the Parks, with a more elegant hairstyle and wardrobe.
- Shipper on Deck: After hearing Ki-woo and Da-hye have something brewing between them, she and the rest of the family are pleased. Although they're initially just ecstatic from the thought of the financial windfall they'll be blessed by their potential union, Chung-sook, upon taking more time to really think about the relationship, admits that Da-hye is a good, lovely girl whom she would be honored to have as a daughter-in-law.
- Team Chef: Naturally, she becomes the Parks' cook.
Kim Ki-woo
Kim Ki-woo
"It's so metaphorical."
Played by: Choi Woo-shikForeign V As
Son to Ki-taek and Chung-sook. Ki-woo instigates the whole plan when he gets hired as the new English tutor, "Kevin", to the Parks' daughter, Da-hye.
- Beauty Inversion: Choi Woo-shik was deliberately styled in the film to look a lot worse next to a well-off character like Min. Look at the world of difference◊ the right styling can achieve◊.
- Believing Their Own Lies: Unlike the rest of the family, Ki-woo's Fatal Flaw is that he genuinely believes he can fake his way into the home, date Da-hye, and stay there.
- Beneath Suspicion: For Min. Min chooses to let Ki-woo take over his position because he wants Da-hye to himself, and doesn't trust his university friends. Ki-woo immediately succeeds in seducing Da-hye (who shows no interest in Min) and moves his whole family into the Park house.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Like his sister, he's sharp-witted and a great improviser. He takes on the role of writer/director for his father's big speech to get the old housekeeper fired; it works perfectly. When he attains the opportunity to climb up the economic ladder, however, he seems much more driven than Ki-jeong. (Although, clearly, it spirals.) Min notes that he has scored very well on the university entrance exam all times he's taken it, but he hasn't gone off to university regardless.
- Character Catchphrase: Ki-woo frequently refers to things as "metaphorical". He tends to say it whenever he has no idea what people are talking about, to hide his ignorance.
- Disney Death: Ki-woo unexpectedly survives the brutal attack by Moon-gwang's husband, which should have left him dead.
- Dissonant Laughter: A combination of a brain injury, the sheer strangeness of it all, and the fact that they're right back to square one leads Ki-woo to sadly devolve into laughter for much of the aftermath of Geun-sae's rampage that leaves Mr. Park and Ki-jeong dead, and his father trapped in Geun-sae's situation.
- Distressed Dude: When he's bleeding profusely and on the brink of death, Da-hye finds him and carries him to safety.
- Dumbass Teenage Son: Only relative to the rest of the Kims, Ki-woo is portrayed as significantly more naïve and less adept at cons, going so far as to believe his own lies. He also immediately disregards his dad's advice about having no plans, by forming a plan to kill Geun-sae. This nearly gets him killed.
- The Dutiful Son: When he gets the chance to rise up in the world through Min, he more or less instantly works to get the rest of his family to his social level, and his Tragic Dream at the end is crucially that they will be reunited in the Park home.
- Gold Digger: A male example. Ki-woo cultivates a Teacher/Student Romance with Mr. Park's underage daughter in order to gain access to her father's fortune.
- Hard Head: Downplayed. Ki-woo survives getting his head smashed with a big rock twice by Geun-sae and doesn't get fatal head trauma like Moon-gwang, but he still required brain surgery and spent weeks in a coma. He also regains full control of his faculties in what appears to be a moderate period of time.
- Ignored Epiphany: The letter he writes to his father at the end of the movie about saving up enough money to buy the house shows he hasn't learned anything from the whole ordeal.
- I Just Want to Be You: Implied with regards to Min. He repeats Min's words about Da-hye word-for-word to his family, as though they're his own, and uses "What would Min do?" as a mantra to convince himself that what he's doing in the Park household is not that bad. He also uses the same words Min uses at the beginning, in an effort to ward off the drunk man who constantly urinates by their household, but it doesn't have the same effect as Min's does.
- It's All My Fault: Once the Kims' secret is in great danger of being exposed by Moon-gwang and Geun-sae, Ki-woo admits it's his fault for getting the family caught in the mess and tries to solve it himself by murdering them.
- Loving a Shadow: He does seem to know a lot more about Da-hye than most examples of this trope, and he is genuinely interested in her, but his romance with her seems to be much more about emulating what Min would do than Da-hye, or even her wealth.
- Manchild: It's there if you look for it. He's the most naive of the Kim family, to the point where the film ends on a hopeless daydream of his, and he gets into a relationship with a girl who's significantly younger than him.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The "feminine boy" to Ki-jeong's relative "masculine girl", Ki-woo is dreamier and more emotional than his sister Ki-jeong.
- Missing Steps Plan: At the end of the movie, Ki-woo describes his "fundamental plan" to reunite with Ki-taek. However, it's incredibly vague: consisting of going to university and somehow becoming wealthy.
- Teacher/Student Romance: With Da-hye.
- Tragic Dream: In the final scene, his is revealed to be that he will be able to buy the house and live together with his family.
Kim Ki-jeong
Kim Ki-jeong
"Jessica; only child; Illinois, Chicago; classmate Kim Jin-mo, he's your cousin."
Played by: Park So-damForeign V As
Daughter to Ki-taek and Chung-sook. A cunning young woman who poses as "Jessica", an American-educated art therapist for the Parks' son, Da-song.
- All There in the Manual: An extended version of her jingle exists, with more details about her persona Jessica's life. Among other things, Jessica became interested in child psychology after backpacking in Syria, and is a Fangirl for Big Bang's G-Dragon.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: She can forge convincing documents (and without a computer of her own at disposal, no less); she's also a brilliant improviser. Unfortunately, she can't apply her brains to much beyond conning, due to her family's poverty. It's worth noting that Ki-woo thinks she's the only one in their family who really suits a lavish lifestyle, and yet she fits the "lazy" part of this trope more, as she can hardly be bothered to even fantasize about what her dream house would be like.
- Byronic Heroine: A sharp-minded, attractive young woman who's more aloof in private but charismatic in public, with Hidden Depths and a Dark and Troubled Past, whose pursuit of her goals leads to tragedy (including her death).
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Ki-jeong takes a smoke as their home floods.
- Combat Pragmatist: Not possessing the strength of her mother, Ki-jeong resorts to using an Improvised Weapon of a peach. However, it works brilliantly.
- Consummate Liar: Although the entire family are pretty damn remarkable liars, it's said more than once that Ki-jeong specifically would be an excellent con artist. There are also passing references to her making some money off acting in weddings. She matter-of-factly talks about catching the bouquet of "some bitch [she]'d never met."
- Eat the Rich: She's the one who drilled this idea into her family's heads, as while they all admitted what they're doing is stealing and leeching off the rich, Ki-jeong orders they only feel sorry for themselves.
- Fake Nationality: In-universe, she poses as a Korean-American rather than the locally born and raised Korean she really is. She goes by an appropriately Western name in this role (Jessica).
- Fiery Redhead: Although a fake one. She dyes her hair reddish brown to pose as "Jessica", and she's extremely strong-willed and determined when she wants to be.
- Important Haircut: She dyes her naturally dark hair a reddish brown and trims it to pose as the chic Korean-American tutor Jessica.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Plus Interclass Friendship, with Da-song. The little boy actually takes a liking to her.
- It's All About Me: Or rather it's all about her and her family. She becomes irritated when her father and brother express sympathy for the driver, Yoon, whose job they stole. She insists that they not worry about the troubles of others and that their own problems take precedence.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While Ki-jeong can be very blunt and cold, even with members of her own family, she clearly loves them deeply, as she demonstrates throughout the film, and she comes to genuinely care for Da-song despite her low opinion of the Parks in general.
- Kill the Cutie: She's a young woman with Hidden Depths who bleeds to death in the Parks' garden.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Besides a couple of pained moans, she takes getting stabbed to death with in usual downbeat manner.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Relatively, she is brusquer and more physically aggressive than her brother.
- More Deadly Than the Male: To a lesser extent than her mother, but nevertheless, Ki-jeong is the one who has the presence of mind to use Moon-gwang's deadly peach allergy against her in a fight, and she is shown to be more resourceful than both her brother and father.
- Pet the Dog:
- Her relationship with Da-song, even if it is based on deception.
- Ki-jeong, near the end of the film, is the one who suggests that the Kims make peace with the trapped Moon-gwang and Guen-sae, and even tries bringing them food. Sadly, she doesn't get the chance and is murdered shortly after.
- Positive Friend Influence: To Da-song. Despite the fact that her degree and background are totally fraudulent, she's remarkably effective as a therapist to him. The initially skeptical Mrs. Park is astonished when, at first meeting, she manages to command the attention of the otherwise-anarchic child. And even though, again, she's just bullshitting her way through the job, she's actually not at all wrong when she guesses that Da-song is suffering from trauma. Soon enough, Da-song recovers from his trauma thanks to her. Doesn't last long though, sadly.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: She's normally quite grungy with a preference for T-shirts, but as "Jessica" she wears sharp business clothes and glams herself up a bit with makeup and well-coiffed hair.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: She is notably more foul-mouthed than the rest of her family.
- The Slacker: Unlike the rest of her family, Ki-jeong cannot even summon the energy to dream about what she would like if she was rich. Though in fairness, she was inebriated at the time.
- Smoking Is Cool: She smokes when she first demonstrates her skill onscreen, by forging documents for Ki-woo.
- Token Evil Teammate: She stands out as the most ruthless of the Kim family. Downplayed in that they're all in on the con.
The Park family
The Park family as a whole
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Although they mostly try to keep it repressed, they exhibit glaring signs of this. The "incident" that traumatized Da-song in first grade seems to signify the unpleasantness they try to ignore in their household.
- Foil: The Park Family is this to the Kims. While the Kims are incredibly poor and living in abject poverty, the Parks are wealthy and live in a beautiful house. Both families have their own dysfunctions, but they present differently due to their lifestyles: the Kims are a group of loud Jerk Asses who scam the Parks alongside a number of other horrific actions, but they are also incredibly loyal to one another and do it out of necessity. The Parks are a family of genuinely polite and mild-mannered people who, unlike the Kims, never actually hurt anyone directly, but they are secretly quite callous towards others and very superficial as a Big, Screwed-Up Family.
- Happy Marriage Charade: While not unhappy per se, the Park parents' marriage is implied to be not quite as picture-perfect as they project to society. In a conversation with Ki-taek, Mr. Park admits that he doesn't quite love his wife, Mrs. Park is a Stepford Smiler who possibly does drugs and is uncomfortable with their distance, and both of them hide things from each other throughout the film.
- Hypocrite: The Park parents act thoroughly disgusted by Driver Yoon being a "pervert", but a later scene shows that they themselves are into some pretty weird shit, sexually. They seem to fetishize youth and poverty.
- Lack of Empathy: Tied in with their Sheltered Aristocrat status: the Parks have lived such a relatively painless life that they simply aren't capable of understanding the struggles of others. Mr. Park's inability to even care about a dying man other than how he smells is what leads to his death.
- Nice to the Waiter: Deconstructed. Technically, the Parks are nice to their employees, but when push comes to shove, they are extremely quick to abandon their household staff. They'll just do it politely.
- Nuclear Family: Both the Kim and Park families consist of a husband, a wife, a daughter, and a son.
- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Big time. The Parks are so rich that they don't even know how big their house really is, failing to discover a bunker in their house behind a wine cabinet. The Kims con them with such ease, since they don't know how to deal with people or a problem without throwing money at it.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: Their privileged obliviousness and classism are their most prominent faults. Notably, when the neighborhood in which the Kims reside gets flooded, causing destruction and chaos for many innocent poor people, the Parks are perfectly fine in their mansion and are even busy planning a lavish birthday party for their son. It's implied they can't even do the most basic of chores by themselves, forcing them to rely on others to take care of them.
- Slave to PR: Mr. and Mrs. Park care about their reputation very deeply.
Park Dong-ik
Park Dong-ik
"I can't stand people who cross the line."
Played by: Lee Sun-kyunForeign V As
The Park patriarch, who heads the successful tech company Another Brick.
- Asshole Victim: He didn't really deserve to die, but Mr. Park probably won't have that much sympathy from the audience due to his disdain for the poor (which is the trigger for Ki-taek stabbing him).
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: When Ki-taek asks Mr. Park about his marriage, he gives a vague answer that suggests he doesn't love Mrs. Park. However, Ki-taek later learns the hard way that the Parks have a happy sex life, even after almost 20 years of marriage. Indeed, Mr. Park is happy to pleasure his wife while in full view of their son's tent.
- Callousness Towards Emergency: The essence of his Kick the Dog moment, an extremely important instance of someone who isn't a villain doing so since he's not actively malicious as his son is also dying and he's in a rush to save him. While Geun-sae is dying and Ki-jeong is bleeding to death, Dong-ik shows no reaction and in fact responds only by noticing his smell one last time.
- Disneyland Dad: Although he and Yeon-kyo are still married, he falls into this by working constantly, and the only time he returns home, he tends to lavish his wife and son (he mostly ignores his daughter) with presents and outings.
- Failed a Spot Check: To get Chung-sook hired as the Parks' housekeeper, the Kims fake a company business card and pass it on to Mr. Park. He apparently doesn't bother to check if it's a real company. He was simply impressed that the card simply looked professional and "cool", which ties in with his superficial personality.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: Despite seemingly bonding with Ki-taek, he reveals in private that he still looks down on him, especially for his smell. Ki-taek overhears this comment, and is rather hurt by it.
- Jerkass: By a long shot, he's depicted the least sympathetically among the Parks. Apart from his salient classism, it may be that he exploits the fact that his wife gets desperate for drugs so she'll have sex with him.
- Kick the Dog: When Ki-jeong is bleeding to death, he doesn't even take notice, much less show a hint of empathy. On the other hand, he will take notice of Geun-sae's smell and show utter disdain.
- Morality Pet: In contrast to his strained relationship with his wife and nearly non-existent relationship with his daughter, Mr. Park actually seems to be genuinely affectionate towards Da-song and gladly plays along with his "Indian" obsession.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: His urgency to save his son from dying from a seizure directly results in him getting killed.
- Papa Wolf: Although significantly downplayed due to being a workaholic, the minute he sees that Da-song is hurt, he rushes to his aid.
- Parental Favoritism: Very clearly favours his son Da-song and mostly ignores his daugther Da-hye. The only time he pays attention to Da-hye is when she complained about not getting her "share" of the Ram-don, as both Dong-ik and Yeon-kyo refuse to think she's entitled to a share and tell her to stop throwing a tantrum about not getting any.
- The Proud Elite: Downplayed. He can afford to seem nice, but he still thinks poor people are beneath him. He wants his employees to be inherently aware that there's a "line" they shouldn't cross, in his opinion.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: He's always dressed impeccably, which makes the poverty-stricken Kims look even more pitifully shabby.
- Stink Snub: Played for Drama, Mr. Park consistently makes denigrating remarks about the way Ki-taek (and other poor people) smell. This is one of the things that causes Ki-taek to snap and kill him.
- Villainy-Free Villain: Lampshaded and discussed, essentially making it the point of the film. Dong-ik doesn't do much wrong... but he also barely ever does anything right, with the whole point that he is simply the rudest, pettiest face of the prejudice the Kims face. He is, at best, totally indifferent to his wife (although he's attracted to her), condescending and rude to the Kims, and a stranger to his daughter. About his only visible redeeming quality is that he loves his son. His worst gesture is shunning the dying Geun-sae, and still noticing his smell.
- Warts and All: Dong-ik is a highly respected and well known businessman, but he's also a more or less total dick.
- What You Are in the Dark: A comic example. He professes total disgust and disdain for the chauffeur having sex in the back of the car, but role plays that exact scenario when he initiates sex, in the only time he and his wife are shown expressing any kind of physical intimacy.
Park Yeon-kyo
Park Yeon-kyo
"How should I describe it? A belt of faith."
Played by: Cho Yeo-jeongForeign V As
Wife to Dong-ik and mother of his children. An Idle Rich wife, she is easily manipulated by the Kims.
- Brainless Beauty: She's beautiful and noted to be quite young for a matriarch. She's also The Ditz, although God knows how much of her apparent cluelessness is due to repressing her misery.
- Cheating with the Milkman: Implied Trope. There are subtle hints she may have had an affair with Min: when talking with Ki-Woo, Min describes her as much younger-looking than she is (as if to justify sleeping with an older woman), and Yeon-kyo is shown to be rather upset and disappointed with Min's decision of leaving their service, moreso than you would expect considering that he was merely an easily replaceable part-time English tutor.
- The Ditz: Min-hyuk mentions that Mrs. Park is "simple", and of all the Park family, she is the most easily fooled by the Kims' machinations.
- Dumbass Has a Point: She's certainly not the brightest bulb, yet she does prove to be fairly observant. She provides some insights into her son's trauma and notices the strange flickering of their lights. However, she doesn't do anything about it. Really, she doesn't do much of anything, except for overseeing their social events.
- Establishing Character Moment: Yeon-kyo being asleep (or possibly high) outside in her first scene when she's supposed to be interviewing Ki-woo.
- Extreme Doormat: Yeon-kyo is very gullible but she's also afraid of losing face in front of her husband (who bosses her around constantly), so she's easily manipulated by the Kims.
- Fainting: Her reaction to watching Ki-taek kill her husband.
- Femininity Failure: Mrs. Park looks the part of a rich wife but she's terrible at housework and cooking, which is why they need to a hire a new housekeeper ASAP after the Kims get Moon-gwang fired.
- Foreign Culture Fetish: She's enamoured with American things. She's quite impressed when she learns that "Jessica" supposedly studied in the U.S., serves American food at her son's birthday party, and occassionally includes English phrases in her speech.
- Freudian Excuse: She's trapped in a loveless and dysfunctional marriage. The fact that she's offhandedly implied to have sprung from a working-class background like the Kims is another interesting detail that alludes to Hidden Depths.
- Functional Addict: Implied. Although the "functional" part is relative, people are simply under the impression that she's ditzy.
- Gold Digger: Is implied to have come from a lower-class background as well, which could certainly explain the state of her marriage. Also, she has no interest in doing what a typical housewife would do such as cooking, cleaning, or counseling her children so she hires the Kim family to perform those tasks while she goes out to shop and party.
- Horrible Judge of Character: She is a depressed Stepford Smiler whose husband doesn't really love her, so it's pretty easy to see how the Kims' combination of ingenious subterfuge and emotional appeal manages to fool her so well. Mr. Park, however, doesn't catch on either, despite seeming more authoritative and reasonable than his wife. Meanwhile, Da-hye correctly suspects that Ki-woo knows "Jessica" (Ki-jeong) as more than a college acquaintance (if for the wrong reasons — she assumes they're dating) and Da-song, a little boy, actually comes the closest to realizing that something's up before the second half of the film.
- Housewife: Of the classic Extreme Doormat type. In scenes where her husband is talking, she is usually just saying elaborated variations of "Yes, you're right!" and affirming him. She also oversees domestic tasks and occasions, although she's not always good at it.
- Hysterical Woman: Although she isn't hysterical in the climax — because she's frozen with shock — she tends towards being much, much more emotional than her husband or kids.
- Idle Rich: She's meant to be doing housework, but she's ultimately awful at it (and she has servants), so she mostly spends her time hanging out with other rich wives, drinking, shopping, and planning lavish parties.
- Innocently Insensitive: In a notable scene, she cheerily talks to a friend over the phone about how the heavy rain had been a blessing since it cleared the skies and allowed her to hold a garden party for her son's birthday instead, all while Ki-taek, whose house had been flooded due to said rain, is in earshot.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: A mostly sympathetic version. She constantly but well-meaningly chides "Jessica" on her naïveté... while Yeon-kyo herself is so extremely naive that she falls for every single one of the Kims' scams, on top of being extremely easy to read.
- Mama Bear: Subverted. She professes to be concerned for her children's welfare but her obliviousness and gullibility expose her kids to trauma and danger.
- Morality Pet: For her, she clearly loves her dogs, and Da-song - she just doesn't seem able to express it properly.
- Ms. Fanservice: Particularly the moment when her husband starts rubbing on her private parts (both under and over her clothes) while they sleep on the couch.
- Neat Freak: This is the kind of character Cho was playing as Yeon-kyo, according to this interview. Yeon-kyo is such a Neat Freak and Nervous Wreck that "she is afraid of water, but must use it to clean.""I want to focus on the idea of touch, of contact," [director Bong Joon-ho] explained. "She has a fear of being contaminated by the world. Her house is so clean, but she is afraid of being invaded in some way." As always, Bong tackled this terror of the unknown with an unexpected twist. He imagined his heroine wearing high fashion and thick kitchen gloves, scrubbing her already spotless floor.
- Nervous Wreck: She's prone to delivering some shrill overreactions.
- Proper Lady: Deconstructed. She appears to be one, but she actually can't do any of the usual activities.
- Rich Boredom: Because of her lifestyle, she has no need or desire to either work outside the home or do much work inside it; she has an obsession with cleanliness, but most of the actual cleaning is done by the help. As a result, she spends her days drinking, doing drugs, and neglecting her children.
- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Yeon-kyo's solution when faced with any dilemma is to throw money at it until that fixes it. While she has some good ideas, she is very naive and immature.
- Selective Obliviousness: She makes some good points and seems to have good intentions about her children's welfare... she just doesn't actually do anything.
- Spoiled Sweet: Discussed and deconstructed. Park Yeon-kyo is highly feminine and never anything but nice to her servants, but when Ki-woo points this out, his mother responds - correctly - that she's able to be nice "because she's rich", and not in spite of it, and she's also shown being completely clueless of her marriage, the root of her son's issues, or the Kims' pain and problems, such as the flooding of their house (granted, they never tell her about that last part).
- Stepford Smiler: She's a rich, feminine lady in a Happy Marriage Charade. She's clearly depressed and anxious, but perhaps too clueless to realize she's actually depressed. When having sex with her husband, who has professed to not loving her, decidedly unsexy and un-romantic cries of "Buy me drugs! Buy me drugs!" escape from her lips. (But it could be part of a sexual play.)
- Super Gullible: Min claims that Ki-woo will easily be hired by the Parks because Mrs. Park is "simple" and easily fooled. He's right — she believes that he's a university student, and later that Ki-woo's family members are all who they say they are. Overall, she is easily manipulated and pushed around by basically everybody in her life, which allows the Kim family to very effectively infiltrate her household.
- Terrified of Germs: Implied, with the extra irony that she can't actually clean, which makes her even more reliant on house help.
- Trademark Favorite Food: "Chappaguri" (mix of Chapaghetti and Neoguri) with Hanwoo sirloin in it. Hanwoo sirloin is considered a very rare and expensive type of steak and it comes from a cow only found in Korea.
- Trophy Wife: She's implied to be one, with the unaddressed misery and lack of real love within her marriage down pat. Despite the latter, her husband clearly finds her sexually attractive.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her kind act of inviting the whole Kim family over to have a nice dinner party with them. She just didn't realize there was an insane widower and her old housekeeper's dead body in the house.
- Upper-Class Twit: She is referred to as "slow", and what we see of her is very ditzy-seeming and oblivious. However, how much of this is her intelligence and how much is drug addiction is left ambiguous.
Park Da-song
Park Da-song
"It's the same! They smell the same!"
Played by: Jung Hyun-junForeign V As
The Parks' rambunctious young son.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear if Da-song's wild behavior and odd antics are due to a behavioral disorder, a lack of discipline from his parents, or untreated trauma.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Da-hye certainly thinks so, even going on a lengthy rant about his faux-genius in art.
- Anti-Role Model: His Cub Scouts leader views Native Americans as "savages" and this is where Da-song picked up his obsession with treating these cultures as his toys.
- The Baby of the Bunch: He is the youngest Park and a loud, cheerful little kid. Also he's the youngest character in the movie who is important to the story.
- Braids, Beads and Buckskins: Da-song is currently obsessed with Native Americans (called Indians), which manifests in his parents buying him generic bows-and-arrows and a tepee from America, and staging an Indian attack (complete with tomahawks and feather headdresses) during his birthday party. Justified in that as a small child in Korea, Da-song would only be exposed to the watered-down Hollywood-exported image of Native Americans.
- Cloudcuckoolander: But he's rather compliant to Ki-jeong once she straightened him up slightly.
- Creepy Child: Invoked before being subverted. A lot of Da-song's drawings are creepy and "Jessica" is slightly concerned that she may have bitten off more than she can chew... but Da-song is actually just secretly traumatized from seeing the "ghost" in the Park home.
- Curious as a Monkey: This turns out to be much more of a cause of Da-song's problems, as he is always playing and exploring.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He is described as being strange ever since an incident in his childhood. He was eating his birthday cake in the middle of the night, and saw Geun-sae coming out of the basement. Thinking that was a ghost, he ran upstairs and had a bad seizure afterward.
- Foreign Culture Fetish: Loves Native American stuff.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Doubling as Interclass Friendship. He grows genuinely very fond of Ki-jeong, and utterly futilely — he's just a little boy, after all — tries to stop her death.
- Lonely Rich Kid: He has a mom who "adores him but is afraid of touching him." It's probably why he takes a liking to Ki-jeong instantly, as she actually gives him lots of physical affection.
- Morality Pet:
- For Dong-ik and, to a lesser extent, Yeon-kyo. Yeon-kyo clearly adores him and worries about him constantly, which helps to give a much more sincere and kind dimension to her Idle Rich behavior. Dong-ik on the other hand is a jerk, but he genuinely really loves his son.
- He's also this for the Kims as well, particularly Chung-sook and Ki-jeong. Chung-sook, despite harboring disdain for his mother, doesn't transmit that ill feeling towards him and goes out of her way to make sure he's comfortable. Ki-jeong, meanwhile, takes to her job as his art therapist at first as a means to enforce her masquerade and get her parents into the Park household, but steadily becomes genuinely invested in his recovery.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Da-song makes several observations that would lead to the unraveling of the various schemes targeting the Park family, but is repeatedly dismissed as an odd, troubled child.
- Parental Favoritism: He's the family's only son - the much younger child - and has a mental disorder, so it makes sense for his needs to be prioritized over those of his sister. Da-hye isn't exactly ignored most of the time, but the ram-don scene is pretty symbolic. Apparently the order of priority is 1) Da-song 2) Dong-ik 3) Yeon-kyo who ends up eating it 4)... and Da-hye is overlooked.
- Seemingly Profound Fool: His mother thinks he's an artistic genius; no one else does. To be fair, he shows the best instincts in the family, despite really just being a normal (relatively speaking) kid.
- Trauma Button: Da-song is traumatized by seeing a "ghost" in the house. The button gets pushed again at his birthday party when he sees Geun-sae (who had been living in the underground bunker; sighting him going up the stairs one night was what scarred Da-song). This causes him to have a seizure and collapse to the ground.
- Uncertain Doom: During the first half, his mother talks about how he had a seizure and how he could've been in serious danger if he hadn't been treated in under fifteen minutes. During the climax, he experiences another one, but the audience never learns what becomes of him.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He isn't seen again after collapsing from a seizure upon seeing Geun-se yet again. His mother did say that he only has 15 minutes to get to an emergency room and receive a special treatment before he dies, it's possible they did but very unlikely Da-song was ever taken to the hospital in time since Ki-taek refused to drive them and he killed Dong-ik (Da-song's father) as while Yeon-kyo who was holding Da-song fainted and collapsed to the ground witnessing this.
Park Da-hye
Park Da-hye
"I want to eat peaches. I like peaches best."
Played by: Jung Ji-soForeign V As
The Parks' observant teenage daughter.
- Big Sister Bully: She smacks Da-song on the head and rebukes him as her Establishing Character Moment.
- Dude Magnet: Downplayed. We don't see throngs of admirers for Da-hye, but it's worth noting that she attracts the two bachelors who have ample screen time in the film (Min, Ki-woo). Min also predicts that other boys would be attracted to her as well.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Promotional stills and the film itself make a pretty big deal of Da-hye snooping in on Mrs. Park and Ki-jeong's first conversation, suggesting that she suspects something fishy is going on. In reality, she's just jealous of the pretty girl who may be here to steal her Kevin. ("Kevin" and Ki-jeong are actually brother and sister, as the viewer knows.)
- Horrible Judge of Character: She correctly suspects that Ki-woo knows "Jessica" (Ki-jeong) as more than a college acquaintance (if for the wrong reasons — she assumes they're dating) and Da-song, a little boy, actually comes the closest to realizing that something's up before the second half of the film.
- The Jailbait Wait: Invoked. Min tells Ki-woo that he's waiting for her to go to university. Ki-woo has similar plans after he woos her during the movie.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Like Da-song, this is probably why the Kims dupe her so easily. While Da-song and Ki-jeong have a wholly platonic friendship, however, her feelings toward Ki-woo are romantic.
- Loving a Shadow: She falls for "Kevin," but he's actually scamming her family.
- Morality Pet: She's also one for her mother and the Kims, albeit not towards the same extent as Da-song. Yeon-kyo tells Ki-woo upon first meeting him that she highly prioritizes her children's education and that she expects nothing but the best results from him as her daughter's tutor. Chung-sook, meanwhile, tells Ki-woo that she would be honored to have Da-hye as a daughter-in-law if they indeed make things official.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: During the climax, she's shown lifting a bleeding Ki-woo up and running with him over her shoulder; she shows no visible signs of strain. She's much shorter and smaller than he is. Justified by the adrenaline and panic she must have been feeling in the circumstances.
- Nerves of Steel: In the film's climax, Da-hye has the rather impressive presence of mind to carry the nearly dead Ki-woo to safety. This is especially true in comparison to the rest of her family, who each have a Freak Out in their own way.
- Perpetual Frowner: She's constantly with an unhappy look on her face, presumably due to her status as the unfavorite as well as being in the throes of hormonal adolescence.
- Piggyback Cute: During the climax, she is carrying out Ki-woo who is bleeding. Well known in Korea to show genuine affection in a very chaste manner, it serves as a subtle nod to her true feelings.
- Satellite Love Interest: There isn't much to her character beyond her attraction to Ki-woo.
- Shrinking Violet: To the point that Ki-woo teaching her to be more confident caused her to fall head-first for him.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Although it's clear that her loneliness plays a huge part in her attraction to Ki-woo, she apparently harbors no romantic feelings towards her previous tutor Min, who seems more than nice enough, is much better-groomed, and has a crush on her. It's unknown exactly why she vastly prefers to be in a relationship with Ki-woo, but the best explanation may be that Ki-woo's teaching style – at first meeting, he encourages her to conquer her nerves – is particularly swoon-worthy for a bashful girl like her.
- Smitten Teenage Girl: Becomes smitten with her older tutor Ki-woo/Kevin, which helps hide the Kim's deception.
- Spoiled Sweet: Is generally pretty nice, considering her background.
- The Unfavorite: It's extremely clear in the case of her father, who ignores her totally and dotes on her brother. More downplayed for her mother, who seems to value her more, but doesn't actually show it, while fussing intensely over Da-song (although this makes a lot more sense because he's a lot younger).
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Da-hye casually talking about her love of peaches supplies the Kims with information for a plan to get Moon-gwang (who's badly allergic to peaches) fired. Moon-gwang, as it turns out, really won't take that lying down...
- Uptown Girl: She's a privileged Spoiled Sweet daughter of a rich family who is in love with Ki-woo, or rather her tutor "Kevin."
- Wrong Assumption: She correctly suspects that "Jessica" is more than just Ki-woo's acquaintance, but wrongly concludes that Jessica is his girlfriend. Ki-woo, of course, can't help laughing sincerely, as Jessica is actually his sister.
Other characters
Min
Min-hyuk
[Ki-taek, about Min] "That's an impressive friend!"
- Played by: Park Seo-joonForeign V As
A well-off friend of Ki-woo's and a university student about to go abroad for a year. Min kickstarts the plot by offering Ki-woo the position as Da-hye's English tutor in his absence.
- The Ace: Handsome, stylish, and well-off — following his Establishing Character Moment, all of the Kims are shown admiring how "cool" he is. He's basically like an honorary Cool Big Bro to them, and Ki-woo even shows signs of I Just Want to Be You towards him.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Probably. He wants to court Da-hye when she finally goes to university, but Da-hye almost immediately takes a liking to her new tutor "Kevin." There's no indication Da-hye ever requited Min's feelings.
- Casting Gag: Min needed good chemistry with Ki-woo, so Park Seo-joon, a former co-star and real-life close friend of Choi Woo-shik, was cast.
- Condescending Compassion: He trusts Ki-woo to take over tutoring Da-hye, because he doesn't think there's a danger of Ki-woo stealing her away. Ironically, Da-hye quickly develops a crush on Ki-woo, who has every intention of acting on it.
- Horrible Judge of Character: He wants to date Da-hye when she's older and asks Ki-woo to take over as her tutor so she won't get snatched up by a horny college student. Within a few lessons Ki-woo has started wooing Da-hye.
- Interclass Friendship: Although likely nowhere near as obscenely loaded as the Parks, he's evidently quite well-off, his gift to the Kims in one of the film's opening scenes being an expensive rock sculpture (among other indicators). He's also very, very nice to them.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Lusting after a girl several years younger than you who you tutored, with implied Gold Digger intentions, is definitely sleazy, but Min at least intends to wait for her to come of age and go independent before he makes his move. Ki-woo doesn't even bother, and also takes the sleaziness to the next level by reading her diary and lying to her about his identity.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The characters simply refer to him as Min. His last name is also never disclosed.
- Only Sane Man: Min, who conveniently enough spends most of the film abroad after giving Ki-woo a job recommendation. The worst thing he does is advise his friend to fake a university transcript, because he's convinced he can do the job anyway. Said friend and his family proceed to escalate everything to insanity in his absence. Towards the end of the film the family starts wondering what Min would do to fix the situation, only for Ki-jeong to point that he would have just avoided it in the first place.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Is sporting an evidently quite expensive, high-quality blazer in his scenes. This contrasts with Ki-woo's Beauty Inversion.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He's the one who recommends working at the Park household before he leaves to study abroad.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He encouraged Ki-woo to lie about his educational background, yes, but he was clearly well-intentioned and did so because he knew that Ki-woo was both deep in poverty and truly intellectually qualified for the job. Ki-jeong later states that Min would not have gotten himself in the mess that they, the Kims, have.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never find out what happened to Min or how he responded when he found out what the family he recommended have done.
Moon-gwang
Moon-gwang
[Ki-jeong, about Moon-gwang] "She may look like a sheep, but inside, she's a fox."
- Played by: Lee Jeong-eunForeign V As
The Parks' dedicated housekeeper.
- Anti-Villain: She isn't motivated by personal greed or ambition; she's motivated by genuine love, and thus is depicted sympathetically, in spite of everything. Ki-taek is shown endeavoring to give her a proper burial near the end of the film.
- Comically Small Bribe: Offered this to Chung-sook in exchange for letting Geun-sae live in the bunker. Though because her bribe is peanuts compared to what the Kim family are making off their jobs servicing the Parks, her bribe is shot down and Chung-sook again threatens to call the police.
- Creepy Housekeeper: Invoked in her early appearances, but she actually doesn't resemble it too closely after we learn she has a perfectly good reason for her protectiveness over the house.
- Faux Affably Evil: When she returns midway through the film she initially behaves in a contrite, submissive manner and tries to butter up Chung-sook until she learns the Kims are scammers, at which point she drops the act.
- Freudian Excuse: Her husband is ill and she doesn't have a lot of options for sustaining him even after all those years of working for rich people.
- Haughty Help: Although her actual reason for being this is much more selfish and logical - she doesn't trust the Kims at all and she fears they'll learn her secret.
- Hypocrite: Unlike the Kims, she doesn't reassess her position that they're wrong for being con artists, even though she has her husband stashed in the basement.
- Knight of Cerebus: Her reappearance in the latter half of the film turns things from a dark comedy to a full-blown tragedy.
- Lower-Class Lout: She and her husband are very vicious, but played with in that they act only out of desperation.
- Loyal to the Position: For a very good reason. Her husband is stashed in the basement, so she can't leave the house.
- Old Retainer: A variant in that her loyalty isn't to the family, but to the house — she was the housekeeper to the previous owner, and returns to it after she gets fired. The Kims know that it'll be difficult to unseat her because of it. More specifically, her loyalty is to her husband in the house's bunker.
- Plot Allergy: Moon-gwang is deathly allergic to peaches. The Kims exploit this to get her fired, inducing an allergic reaction and framing it as active tuberculosis.
- Silk Hiding Steel: She acts like an impeccably matronly, dutiful figure. Ki-jeong astutely detects that she bears a cunning side, but the Kims fail to do anything about the unpleasantness lurking beneath her except get her fired for their own gain.
- Staircase Tumble: Moon-gwang falls down the stairs and eventually dies of a concussion as a result.
- Undying Loyalty: To her husband, whom she kept hidden in the house's secret bunker for years to protect him from loan sharks.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Or rather violently protective wife; Moon-gwang will fight tooth and nail for her husband Geun-sae.
Geun-sae (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
Geun-se
- Played by: Park Myeong-hoonForeign V As
Moon-gwang's husband.
- Anti-Villain: He and his wife operate under what's probably the darkest shade of moral gray in the film, but are ultimately sympathetic and tragic characters.
- Ax-Crazy: His wife Moon-gwang's death drives him totally over the edge, although he was well on his way.
- Character Catchphrase: A rare example that's consistently Played for Drama. His boisterous "RESPECT!" is reflective of his Sanity Slippage-fuelled obsession with Mr. Park.
- Crusading Widower: He stabs Ki-jeong and unsuccessfully tries also stabbing Chung-sook with a kitchen knife as revenge for Moon-gwang's death.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: His gonk features could be attributed to him being the main antagonist.
- Freudian Excuse: No matter what you think of his later actions, it's extremely difficult not to sympathize with his plight. He's very sickly, his wife can't let him out of a dingy underground bunker much, and by the time he is introduced, his sanity has already slipped to the point that he's begun to believe he was born and married inside the bunker.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: Although there's plenty more going on here, it seems that Geun-se's years in the basement, with only sporadic visits from Moon-gwang, have driven him more or less insane, and definitely propelled him into an obsession with Mr. Park (although non-romantic and motivated by gratitude).
- Happily Married: He and Moon-gwang love each other very much. In a flashback scene, the two are shown dancing to music and enjoying the lovely view from the Parks' living room while the Parks are away. A stack of condom wrappers stored on a nail in his bunker suggests that they have a healthy sex life. He's in visible distress as Moon-gwang lies on the floor, dying from her injuries, and her death shatters what's left of his sanity.
- The Heavy: Indirectly. His existence drives the main conflict for the darker second half of the film, and his rampage of revenge against the Kims constitutes the climax.
- Knight of Cerebus: When he's revealed, the film sobers. Hard.
- Laughing Mad: Seems to alternate between laughing and sobbing hysterically after everything that's happened to him.
- Loan Shark: Evading them after falling into debt is the reason Geun-sae is hiding out in the underground bunker.
- Madwoman in the Attic: The housekeeper's mentally unstable husband, whom she keeps hidden away in the house's bunker away from society. Her employers are none the wiser.
- Mirror Character: There are parallels between himself and Ki-taek, namely worsening depression after multiple failed businesses along with rising debt. This becomes a major factor in the latter's Sanity Slippage and eventual breakdown after Geun-sae's death.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Downplayed. He has this reaction when he realizes he stabbed Ki-jeong in front of Da-song, but goes after Chung-sook right after.
- Off the Grid: Hides in his wife's employer's basement to avoid debts.
- Sanity Slippage: Geun-sae was already going mad from the isolation of living in an underground bunker, but slides right into Ax-Crazy territory when Moon-gwang dies and he goes into a rampage.
- Secret Squatter: He has been secretly living in the Parks' basement bunker for four years, hiding from loan sharks.
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: For obvious reasons, promotional materials completely omit him since his mere existence drives the latter half of the movie.
- The Snack Is More Interesting: When he first appears, Moon-gwang has no choice but to reveal to Chung-sook that she is sheltering Geun-sae in the bunker. As Chung-sook threatens to call the police should they stay in the house, Moon-gwang starts wildly begging for their "share" of the Parks' wealth while Geun-sae pays more attention to eating his banana.
- Stalker without a Crush: Part of his Sanity Slippage involves becoming platonically obsessed with Mr. Park. Entirely justified in context, especially taking into account that Geun-sae can't leave his terrible bunker often and a poster with Mr. Park's face on it is one of the few things he gets to see on most days for four years.
- The Unblinking: He hardly ever blinks on the rare occasions when he leaves the basement.
- Villains Want Mercy: When the Kims regain dominance over Geun-sae and his wife, Geun-sae is dragged back to the bunker and tied up with cables then duct tape by Ki-taek. Geun-sae begs Ki-taek to let him stay in the bunker.
- Walking Spoiler: Just talking about him spoils Moon-gwang's motivations and the fact there is an underground bunker in the house. And that's not counting what he does later!
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He ultimately kills the mostly sympathetic Ki-jeong, and in front of her parents, no less. He also bludgeons and tries to kill Ki-woo. However, it's impossible not to feel some sympathy with him because he's a totally broken man, motivated only by a desire for revenge on behalf of his now-dead wife who kept him alive.
- The World Mocks Your Loss: His insane stare out over the birthday party where he sees the Kims and Parks all together having a nice time.
Yoon
Yoon
- Played by: Park Keun-rokForeign V As
A chauffeur for the Park family.
- Frame-Up: Ki-jeong plants a pair of her panties in his vehicle. When Mr. Park discovers them, he incorrectly assumes that Yoon is having sex with women in his work vehicle and promptly fires him.
- Nice Guy: From what little is shown of him, he seems to be a thoughtful, friendly lad willing to drive Ki-jeong, a complete stranger, home safely without compensation and while off-duty. Unfortunately…
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ki-jeong uses the opportunity to frame him as a sexual deviant who does his dirty business in his employer's car, getting him unjustly fired.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Invoked by Ki-taek. While the Kims are partying at the Park house while the family's on their camping trip, he ponders about what became of Yoon after they got him fired from his job – thinking he probably went on to get a new job soon enough. Ki-jeong curtly tells her father to drop the subject, saying that the only people they're capable of looking after are themselves. However, it's ambiguous whether she was genuinely annoyed or felt guilty and was trying to suppress it.
