Photo : Neon

[Note: This article discusses plot details from the film version of Parasite.]

Of the various exciting improbabilities surrounding Bong Joon ho’s cross-cultural class warfare hit Parasite, few have been odder than its potential future status as a prestige HBO TV show. News of the adaptation of Bong’s Oscar nominee broke two weeks ago (back before it had achieved the aforementioned Oscar nominee status, in fact) . B ut at the time, all we had to go on were a few scant details: I t would be on HBO. Adam McKay was attached to produce alongside Bong. A nd it would be vaguely, somehow Parasite- based. (Whether that inspiration was merely metaphorical, or if the series would be a more direct reboot, was still up in the air.)


Now, though, Bong has spilled some information about the Parasite series, telling The Wrap that he’s currently thinking of it as a “six-hour-long film” that will, as previously reported, expand on unused ideas from his original script. And while it’s still not clear if, for instance, the series will use the film’s original cast or language, or whether Americans would be substituted in their place, Bong is now apparently willing to dangle at least a few potential plot threads he’s interested in exploring :

F or example when the original housekeeper Mun Gwang (Lee Jung Eun) comes back in the late-night, something happened to her face. Even her husband asked about it but she never answered. I know why she had the bruises on her face. I have a story for that. A nd aside from that why does she know the existence of this bunker? What relationship does she have with that architect to know of this bunker? So I have all these hidden stories that I have stored.


Which does sound pretty intriguing—we’d always assumed the bruises had something to do with the loan sharks seeking Mun Gwang’s husband, but hey, who knows?— even if it’s probably going to rile up the “Is a short TV show the same thing as a long movie?” crowd all over again . Meanwhile, the Parasite series itself isn’t a done deal; Bong is still in talks with HBO about getting the TV show off the ground, and could only offer up a joking “2027?” when asked when it might emerge from the darkness and see the light of day.