Statue of Bong aside, those influences seem like they'll likely be temporary. But according to a report from the Korea Herald, Parasite could also inspire some larger-scale, longer-lasting social change. Remember the shabby, half-underground apartment where the Kim family lives, with its high risk of electrocution and projectile stream of black sludge from the toilet after it floods? Known as banjiha, those semi-basement apartments are real, and as of 2015, more than 360,000 households lived in them across South Korea, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times.

As the Herald wrote last week, the city government in Seoul has committed to improving the living conditions of 1,500 households living in semi-basement apartments like that of the Kims. In a partnership with the Korea Energy Foundation, the Seoul Metropolitan Government will offer the equivalent of around $2,600 to each household to use for improving heating systems and floors or installing temperature control, ventilation, or fire alarms.

Per the BBC, banjiha apartments were legalized during a housing crisis in the 1980s, and that problem has carried into recent years, with the UN reporting in 2018 that a lack of affordable housing remained a huge barrier for young and lower income people despite the country's otherwise booming economy. Aside from quality issues like vermin, darkness, and dampness, living in banjiha apartments still carries a stigma, too. "There’s also the fear that if you sink any lower, you may go completely underground," Bong said at Parasite's Cannes premiere last year.

While 1,500 homes is only a small fraction of the nation's many banjiha-dwelling households, the Herald also reported that these semi-basement apartments will be prioritized financially in the city's overall efforts to improve old housing.