[Lee Jong-gil's Autumn Return] Smell, Would We Have Coexisted If That Line Had Not Been Crossed?

'The World of Bong Joon-ho as Told by Lee Dong-jin' and 'Orwell's Nose'

"So then, do we each have to use different soaps? (Gitaek)"

"Father, shouldn't we also use laundry detergents with different scents? And fabric softeners too? (Giwoo)"

"Are you saying we have to do laundry separately for each person? Seriously? (Chungsook)"

"No, it's the smell of the semi-basement. We have to leave this house for the smell to go away. (Gijeong)"

This is a conversation among the Gitaek family during a company dinner in the movie Parasite. After the whole family succeeds in getting employed, they grill beef ribs at home and drink beer. The topic at the drinking table is the smell. Just before leaving work, Dasong says something that sticks in their minds: "Oh! It's the same. Both of them smell the same. Jessica (Gijeong) also has a similar smell."

Director Bong Joon-ho smoothly connects the scene where Dasong sniffs Gitaek and Chungsook with a steadicam shot. This emphasizes that the two are connected by smell. Dasong’s keen sense of smell is because she has been confined by the walls of class and has only lived in the upper class. Her parents, Dongik and Yeongyo, had fewer opportunities to detect such smells.

Physical proximity can be somewhat separated by strictly drawing boundaries and pressure. But chemical approaches are different. No matter how careful you are, smells eventually cross the line. If they had worked or lived apart, the tragedy in Parasite might not have happened. But in modern society, such separation is impossible. The catastrophe that appears at the climax is almost a foregone conclusion.

Film critic Lee Dong-jin’s book Lee Dong-jin Talks About the World of Bong Joon-ho discusses Bong’s seven feature films from various perspectives. For Parasite, it provides detailed commentary on 189 scenes. It also offers in-depth interviews that reveal both Bong’s human charm and his artistic world. Regarding the conflicts in Parasite, the book describes them as follows:

"Not only physically, but in the modern situation where the upper class’s enjoyment and way of life are fully exposed, mental friction is also considerable. The conflict that arises when three families coexist in Dongik and Yeongyo’s mansion seems to metaphorically condense the hysteria and madness inherently embedded in the class coexistence of modern people into a single space."

Hysteria and madness explode because of the smell. Gitaek is pointed out three times by Dongik, Dasong, and Yeongyo for his smell. Each time, he smells his own body and sinks into miserable thoughts. The same happens when he witnesses Dongik pulling out the car key from under Geunse’s body. The moment Dongik blatantly pinches his nose, Gitaek grabs a kitchen knife. Gitaek’s smell is not the same as Geunse’s stench. But he faced his bare face at the source of the bad smell. He could not draw a line to distinguish them.

"Geunse’s smell is a scent soaked from living underground for a long time, mixed with the bloody smell of blood flowing from a skewer stuck in his side. In other words, it is the total smell of the class of underground dwellers’ life and death. The moment that is despised, the anger of another underground dweller who has just awakened to class consciousness cannot be avoided."

The tragic worldview mediated by smell becomes clearer in an interview with Director Bong.

"‘You have bad breath.’ If you say that, it leads to catastrophe. (Lee Dong-jin)"

"It’s the rudest thing, so it’s hard to mention. (Bong Joon-ho)"

"In that situation, Dongik didn’t say it to deliberately insult his employee. But as a result, that phrase became a brutal remark that hit the other’s most basic pride. (Lee Dong-jin)"

"Not only the employee, but later the words expand, right? ‘People who take the subway have a unique smell.’ If you say that in an official setting, it would be a huge problem. If it were a public official, they might be fired from their position. It’s comparable to the ‘dog and pig’ remark. Fortunately, he thought he was muttering it in a private space, but unfortunately, someone heard it. The seed of tragedy is sown from there. (Bong Joon-ho)"

The clean will not ignore the smelly era, which also appears in the literature of British novelist George Orwell (1903?1950). His reportage The Road to Wigan Pier, which vividly depicts the life of the working class, is a representative example. With his unique humor and sharp insight, he enumerates scenes of cheap boarding houses, the inside of coal mines, miners’ wages, and reconstruction issues.

British literary critic John Sutherland’s book Orwell’s Nose focuses on this from the perspective of smell obsession. The most notable part is the smell of workers.

"This consists of four terrible words that people nowadays are afraid to utter. In my childhood, it was a phrase often mentioned by many people. ‘Lower-class people smell bad.’ …There is no room for curiosity. Bathing early in the morning before rushing to work when the factory whistle blows is not a pleasant thing, and heavy labor rarely produces a fragrant smell."

Orwell’s Nose applies Orwell’s experiences in Myanmar. At that time, Orwell did not find the eerie smell from the Burmese repulsive. Those he found disgusting were British soldiers of different classes, women rushing to the scent of progress, sandal wearers, and those with beards drinking fruit juice.

Orwell accurately understood the serious difficulties of the lower class while facing the secret of Western class differences. For him, class was a matter of smell, just like Director Bong. Perhaps he had already thought of tragedies like Parasite. He sufficiently warned through The Road to Wigan Pier.

"At least in this island nation, socialism no longer smells of revolution and the overthrow of dictators. It smells of crankiness, worship of machines, and foolish fanatical devotion to Russia. If that smell is not quickly removed, fascism may win."