Comparative analysis: Parasite – Marriage Story

For this comparative analysis I chose the movies Parasite and Marriage Story. I decided to
compare these two movies because they are both featuring families that seem to be going
through some things. The reason why I chose an American movie like Marriage Story instead
of a Dutch movie, is because I am more passionate about American movies. The way all the
families and their ‘issues’ are portrayed in both movies, makes it perfect for a comparative
analysis.

The frame of reference for this comparative analysis will be class and film style, since in both
movies the families come from different classes and because I discovered some similarities
and differences in the film styles.

The first similarity I will discuss is the following. When the characters in both films are
talking about something (which could be anything) while the camera is focused on the
characters (or their voices) who are talking at that moment, that certain something is shown
on the screen a few seconds later. In Marriage Story for example, Charlie is talking about
how Nicole always makes tea for herself that she never ends up drinking. As he is saying this,
a few seconds later some teacups are shown that are scattered around different places in the
house, with Charlie’s voice in the background.
In Parasite they did something similar when ‘Jessica’ was having a talk with Madame
in the kitchen about her son Da-song’s paintings. Jessica was showing Madame a painting
that Da-song had just drawn during his lesson with Jessica. In that painting, Jessica pointed to
a dark spot in the corner of the painting. Jessica was explaining what that dark spot could
mean, and then Madame suddenly said that it looked familiar to her. Madame tells Jessica
that the exact dark spot was also on Da-song’s painting that was on the wall next to the
family pictures. After Madame told Jessica about this, the camera focused on this dark spot of
the painting that was on the wall.
I don’t believe that this similarity necessarily tells something about the US or Korea,
because I feel that this is a commonly used filming style. It’s a filming style that I have seen
in several movies, both Korean and American.

The first difference I will talk about is the following. The major difference that I found
between the two movies, are the ‘colors/tints’ of the movies. What I mean by this, is that
Parasite has a ‘realistic’ overall color/tint throughout the movie, looking at the year which it
is set in. The colors/tints in the movie look like they are the actual colors/tints of the things
(like furniture and buildings) that are in the movie. It’s known that Parasite is set in 2018 and
the overall color/tint of the movie makes it clear that the story is actually set in 2018.
Marriage Story on the other hand, is completely different. Had I not noticed the fairly new
iPhones in the movie, I would have thought that the movie was set in the early 2000s or the
90s. The reason for this, is that the movie has a yellow overall tint in most scenes, which
gives the feeling as if it’s set in the past and thus not in the present, like Parasite is. The
models of the iPhones make me believe that Marriage Story is set somewhere around
2017/2018, just like Parasite. Yet, they give off very different vibes. Another reason for this,
is that the ‘screen’ of Parasite has crystal clear quality, while the ‘screen’ for Marriage Story
sometimes has these miniscule ‘specks’ which remind me of very old movies. It’s hard to put
in words what the ‘screen’ looks like when watching Marriage Story; I would not say that it’s
blurry, but it’s definitely not crystal clear like that of Parasite.
This difference, specifically the yellow tint that Marriage Story has in some scenes,
reminds me of how the Middle East is always portrayed as this yellow and dessert like
looking place in American movies. This is obviously not realistic at all, just like how it’s not
realistic that a movie that is set in 2018 has this yellow-ish tint throughout the movie. I would
say that American movies don’t shy away from making a certain country or group of people
look a certain way, but I don’t quite understand why the director chose to do this for Marriage
Story. Nonetheless, I don’t think this difference in the case of these two movies says anything
about the US or Korea. It could just be that this is a filming style that the director of Marriage
Story likes.

The second difference, which is related to the first difference, are the appearances of the
characters, buildings, streets and lots of other things. The appearance of the characters,
buildings and streets in Parasite really look like they belong to 2018. As a viewer I can tell by
how the characters are dressed (both poor and rich) that the movie is really set in 2018.
However, I can’t say the same for Marriage Story. To start with the clothing styles; the
clothing styles in Marriage Story really remind me of when I was younger. Most characters in
Marriage Story, even side characters, dress like how people used to dress 20 years ago. Of
course, clothing styles from 10-20 years ago are quite popular nowadays. Nonetheless, to me
it does not look like the characters’ outfits were inspired by the 2000s, but it rather looks like
they are characters from the 2000s. I am not saying that people from the 21 st century have a
certain style, but it is still something that is easily spotted (even when they appear to be
wearing clothing styles from 20 years ago), just like how outfits from the 90s and 80s are
easily spotted.
The same goes for the furniture in the movie. Several houses were shown in Marriage
Story and almost all of them had ‘old-looking’ furniture. Obviously, ‘old-looking’ furniture
can also be a style that people prefer, however in this movie it does not look like a style, but
rather like it’s actually furniture that could be from 20-30 years ago. This is another reason
why Marriage Story gives off 2000/90s vibes. While in Parasite, I feel that all the furniture
that was shown does actually look like furniture from the year that the movie is set in. Even
the old, dirty semi-basement flat of the Kim family looks like it belongs to the year 2018
because of the way it was filmed and portrayed.
I found this an interesting difference between the two movies, since the movies are
basically set in the same year. I don’t believe that this difference says something about the
US or Korea, because ‘modern’ (by which I mean furniture that is from the ‘present’, and not
necessarily luxurious furniture) looking furniture is not something that is specific to Korea or
Korean movies. There are plenty of American movies where they have the same style of
furniture as in Parasite. I believe this difference is more related to how the director wanted
the movie to turn out.

The relationship between the two films became clear to me when I realized why the movie
Parasite is called Parasite. The Kim family in Parasite are considered parasites since they
‘invaded’ the Park family (without them knowing) and took advantage of that family. It all
went downhill for the Park family after the Kim family infiltrated their house. Yet, the rich
Park family could also be considered parasites, looking at how they cannot even do the
simplest tasks and leech off poor families doing labor for them.
Charlie and Nicole from Marriage Story could also be seen as parasites. They could
be considered parasites because they both ‘drained’ their marriage by refusing to listen to
each other and by not taking care of their emotional connection. Because of their
stubbornness, their child Henry has to endure all this stress. Their parasite behavior only
causes damage to themselves but also to their child.