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Subtitles Can’t Capture the Full Class Critique in ‘Parasite’
Bong Joon-ho’s film is even more nuanced and incisive than closed captioning would suggest
The first time I watched Parasite was with my boyfriend and our good friend J, both of whom are white. I jokingly hoped that the Korean dialogue would be easy for me to follow, otherwise I’d have to read the subtitles, just like them. What I didn’t say was that I was afraid of this movie because a version of my private life was being displayed on the big screen for all of America to see. I felt protective. I reserve Korean for conversations with my family, my fluency standing as a skill that has somehow evaded this country’s constant pressure to Americanize. Something about watching Parasite unfold before me—in a language I associate with my immediate family and available for mass consumption—filled me with terror.
At first, I couldn’t decide whether to watch the film’s dialogue or read it. But then I caught it: the peculiarity of translating Korean into English text. I noticed that “늑대” is subtitled as “frat boys,” when it really means “wolves.” The subtitles are not for me, I realized; they’re for American audiences. But this was fun. When the characters refer to the free instant messaging application Kakao Talk, it’s translated onto the screen as “WhatsApp.” “코딱지”…
