Paper short abstract:

This presentation points out that the film Parasite(Bong Joon-ho,2019), which depicts social problems such as the gap between the haves and the have-nots and the gap in education in Korean society, is translated and adapted into a play(by Zainichi) in Japan.

Paper long abstract:

In addition, it is also significant that Lee Bong-woo, a Korean-Japanese who has imported and distributed many Korean films to Japan, and Jeong Eui-shin, a theater director, are involved in the translation from the film to the play. In translating the film Parasite into a play, Jeong changes the backdrop of Seoul to the Kansai area in Japan in the 1990s and the space of the semi-basement to a poor house with the tin roofs.

I pay attention to the adaptation and translation of the film into a play in the following elements; first, how the symbol of poverty in the semi-basement is translated into the play. The new subheading of Parasite was created in Japan as Parasite: Family in Semi-basement. The semi-basement is Korea’s unique housing structure that symbolizes the gap between the haves and the have-nots, and what can poverty be symbolized in the play with the backdrop of Kansai in Japan?

Second, many Korean residents in Japan, including Lee Bong-woo and Jung Eui-shin, are involved in the development and directing of the play and the script. In the film, the family living in the semi-basement is translated in the play into the Kanedas living under an embankment that does not have sunlight, and the Kanedas are Korean residents in Japan. It is also noteworthy what is different from the original with the appearance of the Korean Japanese and how the gap between the haves and the have-nots is pictured.

Third, as the film was translated into a play, the background of the times changed to the 1990s. In the 1990s, Japan experienced the prosperity of the bubble economy, the subsequent frustrations, and the lost decade. This article also probes into how Korean residents in Japan are involved in the gap between the haves and the have-nots during this period and how the subject material of Korean residents in Japan, which is not in the original film, can explain Japanese society in the 1990s.