Seoul · shot May to September 2018Palme d’Or 2019
The film opens here: a half-basement window at pavement height, and the street goes on above it. Up the hill, down the stairs, home in the rain: the real Seoul of Bong Joon-ho’s film.
Seongbuk-dong · the top of the slope
Ki-woo walks up a quiet lane of big houses to his first lesson. The lane is real, in Seongbuk-dong. The house at the top never was: it was built for the film, far from Seoul, and built for the sun.
18 Seonjam-ro 8-gil, Seongbuk-dong, Seongbuk-gu
Ki-woo walks this lane to the Parks’ for his first tutoring lesson. Seongbuk-dong is an old, wealthy village of large houses on quiet lanes, with cafés and galleries. There is no Park house at the top: it was a set, built elsewhere.
Quiet residential lanes. About 30 minutes’ walk from Hansung University station, or the Seongbuk 09 bus to the Seongbuk village stop.
2.35 : 1 · wide, not tall
Our sketch, not the set’s plan.
Jeonju, North Jeolla Province
The Park house was a set in Jeonju. Its ground floor and garden stood on an empty outdoor lot; the basement and first floor were built on a stage; everything above was added by computer. The lot was chosen by watching the sun. The windows were sized and placed for where the sun would be during the shoot. The house was designed wide and deep rather than tall, to suit the 2.35:1 frame.
Demolished after filming; no exact site published. Nothing stands to visit.
Down the slope, Bong points out, a half-basement gets perhaps 15 to 30 minutes of direct light a day. The film opens on that light.
Semi-basement homes get very little daylight, perhaps 15 to 30 minutes a day, and the film opens on it; the Kim home was also built on an outdoor lot and lit by natural light.
No Film School: how Parasite director Bong Joon Ho built that amazing house
Sincheon-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul
The film’s opposite end. Lotte World Tower is 555 metres and 123 storeys, the tallest building in Korea, and Signiel, the tallest hotel and residence in the country, fills floors 42 to 101. Not a filming location.
Check roomsThe night of the storm · top to bottom
Bong calls Parasite a stairway film. On the night of the storm the Kims go home the only way water goes: down. Send the rain after them. It stops at each real place on the way, and ends where it always ends.
Our drawing. The real streets are miles apart; the order follows the water, not a map.
Clouds over Seongbuk-dong. Nothing has fallen yet.
On the way down
Seoul
Live marketplace results for guided walks to the film’s Seoul locations. Check which stops each one covers: few reach both Buam-dong and Mapo.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursBong has called Parasite a stairway movie, with staircases showing where each family stands.
The rain route as reported: the family runs down the stairs at the Jahamun Tunnel’s northern end, and the scene continues at a Mapo stairway.
Korea JoongAng Daily: Where Parasite comes to life (Esther Chung, 17 February 2020)
The Kims’ walk home in the storm also used a stairway in Changsin-dong.
VisitKorea (Korea Tourism Organization): “Parasite” filming location tour (17 October 2023)
짜파구리 · jjapaguri
Two cheap instant noodles cooked together, black-bean Chapagetti and spicy Neoguri. The English subtitles called it ram-don. Here every black-bean packet is a place low on the slope and every spicy one a place up high. Cook one of each.
An empty pan. Take one black-bean packet and one spicy packet.
The subtitler Darcy Paquet made up ram-don, ramen plus udon, because he found nothing for it on Google. After the film people posted jjapaguri videos, and Nongshim, which makes both noodles, began selling the two as one product. In 2020 the corner shop kept the two packets side by side.
Paquet’s translation of jjapaguri as ram-don, his search, and Nongshim’s single Chapaguri product.
A sirloin steak served on top of instant noodles is one of the film’s objects.
Dazed: Bong Joon Ho discusses the making and meaning of Parasite
Chapagetti and Neoguri displayed together in the supermarket.
Korea JoongAng Daily: Where Parasite comes to life (Esther Chung, 17 February 2020)
86 Noryangjin-ro 6-gil, Dongjak-gu
It plays the family’s pizza place, where they fold boxes for piecework and gather to plan. The shop gave the production a stack of pizza boxes. A photograph of the owner with Bong Joon-ho hangs on the wall. Eom Hang-ki and Kang Yang-hee had run it for 17 years by 2020, after closing their bakery. The best seller is the sweet potato pizza.
A real pizza shop in a quiet residential street, open 10am to 8.30pm. Four tables; go early.
86 Noryangjin-ro 6-gil, Dongjak-gu
The family’s pizza place in the film, whose owners gave the crew its boxes. Open 10am to 8.30pm; the sweet potato pizza is the best seller. Phone +82 2 822 3082.
See the guide수석 · suseok
Min-hyuk brings the Kims a scholar’s stone, meant to promise wealth. Bong says a stone can turn into all sorts of things. Turn it and see.
Turn 1 of 4: A mountain.
A mountain
Suseok are stones that look like landscapes. Some weigh hundreds of kilos; some fit in a hand.
Suseok are stones that look like landscapes. Some weigh hundreds of kilos; some fit in a hand.
And now: the stone from the film sits in a glass case in Los Angeles.
6067 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles
Director’s Inspiration: Bong Joon Ho, the museum’s first exhibition on the director, runs from 23 March 2025 to 24 October 2027 in the Wanda Gallery. It shows more than 100 original objects: storyboards, research, posters, concept art, props and photographs from the sets. The scholar’s stone from Parasite was photographed on display there in June 2025.
Open 10am to 6pm, closed Tuesdays. The Bong Joon Ho exhibition is on Level 2, free with museum admission, until 24 October 2027.
Min-hyuk gives the Kims a scholar’s rock meant to promise wealth.
Bong on stones and their way of turning into different things; his father’s collection.
Dazed: Bong Joon Ho discusses the making and meaning of Parasite
Jeonju and Goyang · demolished after the shoot
Neither home was in Seoul. Both were sets in other cities, and both came down when filming ended. Bong first imagined the story as a play, with the two houses on one revolving stage that would rise near the end to show what lay beneath.
Two houses on one stage, the way Bong first pictured them.
Named, never pinned
Jeonju, North Jeolla Province
The Park house was a set in Jeonju. Its ground floor and garden stood on an empty outdoor lot; the basement and first floor were built on a stage; everything above was added by computer. The lot was chosen by watching the sun. The windows were sized and placed for where the sun would be during the shoot. The house was designed wide and deep rather than tall, to suit the 2.35:1 frame.
Demolished after filming; no exact site published. Nothing stands to visit.
Named, never pinned
Goyang Aqua Special Shooting Studio, Goyang, Gyeonggi Province
The Kims’ semi-basement flat and its street were built as a set, partly so they could be flooded. The designer, Lee Ha-jun, photographed villages due to be torn down, and gave each neighbour on the street a story of their own. The sets were demolished after the shoot. In February 2020 Goyang said it was working to rebuild the half-basement and its neighbourhood, perhaps by 2026.
Demolished after filming. A working studio, not open to visitors; nothing to see yet.
Bong pictured the story as a stage play: the rich house and the poor house on a rotating stage, both rising near the end to leave room beneath.
Dazed: Bong Joon Ho discusses the making and meaning of Parasite
The sets for the Park and Kim homes, and the Kims’ alleys, were demolished when filming finished.
Korea JoongAng Daily: Where Parasite comes to life (Esther Chung, 17 February 2020)
Seoul · Cannes · Hollywood
Bong Joon-hoDirector and co-writer
Song Kang-hoKim Ki-taek
Choi Woo-shikKim Ki-woo
Park So-damKim Ki-jung
Cho Yeo-jeongChoi Yeon-gyo, Mrs Park
In his early twenties Bong tutored for a well-off family in Seoul, and lost the job after two months. Parasite had its premiere at Cannes in May 2019 and won the Palme d’Or, the first for a Korean director.
Nine months later, at the Dolby Theatre, it won four Oscars, among them Best Picture: the first film not in English to win it.
6801 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles
The 92nd Academy Awards were held here on 9 February 2020. Parasite won four, including Best Picture: the first film not in English to win it. The theatre has hosted the Oscars since it opened on 9 November 2001. It stands in the Ovation Hollywood complex, beside the TCL Chinese Theatre.
In the Ovation Hollywood complex on Hollywood Boulevard, next to the TCL Chinese Theatre. Stand at the entrance; the auditorium opens for shows.
Bong tutored for a posh family in Seoul in his early twenties and was let go after two months.
Dazed: Bong Joon Ho discusses the making and meaning of Parasite
Cannes ran from 14 to 25 May 2019; Bong won the Palme d’Or for Parasite, the first Korean to win it.
The 92nd Academy Awards, 9 February 2020, Dolby Theatre: four awards for Parasite, including Best Picture.
8 places you can walk to, from the Jahamun Tunnel to a Hollywood theatre. The two houses were sets in Jeonju and Goyang: named, never pinned.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working corner shop: buy something if you take a photo. Buses 600 or 7013 to Ahyeondong Furniture Store Complex, a few minutes’ walk.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Public steps between homes, right beside the shop. Keep your voice down.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A real pizza shop in a quiet residential street, open 10am to 8.30pm. Four tables; go early.
32 Songijeong-ro, Ahyeon-dong, Mapo-gu
It plays Woori Supermarket. Ki-woo drinks soju under its parasol while his friend Min-hyuk talks him into taking over his tutoring job.
A working corner shop: buy something if you take a photo. Buses 600 or 7013 to Ahyeondong Furniture Store Complex, a few minutes’ walk.
3 Songijeong-ro 6-gil, Mapo-gu
Ki-jung climbs these stairs with a bag of peaches.
Public steps between homes, right beside the shop. Keep your voice down.
86 Noryangjin-ro 6-gil, Dongjak-gu
It plays the family’s pizza place, where they fold boxes for piecework and gather to plan.
A real pizza shop in a quiet residential street, open 10am to 8.30pm. Four tables; go early.
Stay
A night in Korea’s tallest building, the far end of the film’s slope.
Sincheon-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul
The film’s opposite end. Lotte World Tower is 555 metres and 123 storeys, the tallest building in Korea, and Signiel, the tallest hotel and residence in the country, fills floors 42 to 101. Not a filming location.
Check roomsGo there
Sky Pizza, and marketplace walks to the locations and the food.
86 Noryangjin-ro 6-gil, Dongjak-gu
The family’s pizza place in the film, whose owners gave the crew its boxes. Open 10am to 8.30pm; the sweet potato pizza is the best seller. Phone +82 2 822 3082.
See the guideSeoul
Live marketplace results for guided walks to the film’s Seoul locations. Check which stops each one covers: few reach both Buam-dong and Mapo.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursSeoul
Live marketplace results for night-market and street-food walks. None follows the film; they are about the food.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursSeoul
Live marketplace results for walking tours of Seoul’s old hillside neighbourhoods. Check the route before you book.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
The Academy Museum’s Bong Joon Ho exhibition, until 24 October 2027.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
Two original UK quads from our store, Bong’s storyboard book and Jung Jae-il’s score.
An original 2019 UK quad, 40 × 30 inches, designed by La Boca, rolled. Near mint.
Sold out · archive reference
View posterAn original 2020 UK quad, 40 × 30 inches, rolled. Mint.
Sold out · archive reference
View posterBong Joon Ho · Grand Central Publishing
Bong’s storyboards for the film, published as a graphic novel.
Find the bookJung Jae-il · Digital release, Genie Music, 2019
Jung Jae-il’s score, released on 30 May 2019. Search for a physical copy.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
10 of 10 places · 10 of 10 Moments
32 Songijeong-ro, Ahyeon-dong, Mapo-gu
Min-hyuk talks Ki-woo into taking over his tutoring job over a drink outside the shop.
3 Songijeong-ro 6-gil, Mapo-gu
Ki-jung climbs the stairs with peaches.
86 Noryangjin-ro 6-gil, Dongjak-gu
The family folds pizza boxes for piecework.
219 Jahamun-ro, Buam-dong, Jongno-gu
Soaked, the family runs down the stairs at the tunnel’s northern end.
38 Jibong-ro 11-gil, Changsin-dong, Jongno-gu
The walk home in the storm, down a narrow stairway.
18 Seonjam-ro 8-gil, Seongbuk-dong, Seongbuk-gu
Ki-woo walks up to the Park house for his first lesson.
6067 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles
The stone Min-hyuk gives the Kims, on show in Los Angeles.
6801 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles
Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and International Feature.
Goyang Aqua Special Shooting Studio, Goyang, Gyeonggi Province
The Kims’ flat and street, built on a set partly so they could be flooded.
Jeonju, North Jeolla Province
The Parks’ house: an outdoor lot, a stage and computer-made upper floors.
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