How 'Parasite' Made One of the Greatest Montages Ever

There's something about great movies that move you. It's the way they make you feel and the way they make you concentrate on what's in front of you at any moment.

The montage at the end of the first act in Parasite is one of those sequences emblematic of a great film. Let's talk about what happens in that part of the story and how it sets us up for everything that follows.

Check out this video from Nerdwriter about this exceptional montage.

The Parasite Montage

At the heart of every montage is a specific rhythm and cadence. It can be the beating of a drum or the eye of a tiger, but montages tell a story within a story. Frequently used to show the passing of time or plot points, they're the connective tissue that pushes your journey forward.

Parasite both honors and subverts that, which only bolsters the scene's effectiveness and emotional impact.

At surface level, the montage reveals how the family works to get their mother hired as the housekeeper and to get the other woman fired. Subtextually, it's about the cunning and conniving lengths they're willing to go to in order to secure their future.

This all occurs at the end of the first act and sets up a family who thinks they're in control, only to realize they're not the ones pulling the strings.

How does the montage convey all these details?

Classical Music Sets the Tone

Classical music, slow motion, and linear camera moves help connect all sixty of the scenes shown in the five-minute montage.

Shots mirror themselves as a story arc is built into the action; How will they get rid of the housekeeper?

There's an economy here, we get a story detail, the housekeeper is allergic to peaches, and eight shots later, we see her poisoned. These shots line us up and knock us down by mirroring one another.

We have an intercut of the family rehearsing their lie, with the lie actually being enacted. As they achieve desired results, we see them growing closer together and feeling more in control.

This thematic closeness and control are echoed by both the editing and cinematography. We see family members framed together instead of apart, and the editor mashes takes together and transitions to show them gaining the trust of the people they work for.

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The Peach

Where this movie kind of shocked me is how it can weaponize ordinary things.

In any other movie, a peach is just a snack. Here, through the lens of the montage, it becomes a bio-weapon.

The way the camera lingers on the peach fuzz makes the audience feel the itchiness in their own throats. The montage uses slow-motion shots of that fuzz falling like snow, turning a mundane allergy into a lethal threat.

It’s a perfect example of Bong’s "surgical" directing style. He takes the smallest possible detail and expands it until it fills the frame, ensuring that when the housekeeper finally coughs, the impact is visceral.

It's All About Blocking

Finally, let's consider the geography of this sequence.

The montage doesn't just move through time; it moves through space. We see the family transitioning from the cramped, cluttered confines of their semi-basement into the expansive, glass-walled sanctuary of the Park home.

The editing bridges these two worlds seamlessly. One moment, they are rehearsing lines in the dark; the next, they are delivering them in the sunlight.

This visual "leveling up" reinforces the theme of infiltration. By the time the montage ends, the Kims haven't just taken over the jobs; they’ve taken over the frame.

The Montage's End

But even as the montage finishes, the rest of the movie is about to dash that control against the rocks -- just when we come out of the montage, the doorbell rings and changes the story completely.

This montage, set to classical music, has seemingly lulled us into a false sense of security. Now, there's an opportunity to rip the rug out from under us. In this way, the montage has worked on three layers.

The first way to move the story along, the second was to lull us into a false sense of security, and the third was to trick us into thinking this movie was about one thing, so that when the doorbell rings, all bets are off.

What's next? Click here for 10 Kinds of Montages!

There's nothing quite like a montage. Think about it -- montages are wholly cinematic, born entirely from the womb of editing, and are able to elicit emotions from an audience simply by the way they're constructed.

What's next? Click here for 10 Kinds of Montages!

There's nothing quite like a montage. Think about it -- montages are wholly cinematic, born entirely from the womb of editing, and are able to elicit emotions from an audience simply by the way they're constructed.