Colour Reflections: A study of colour in cinema using the example of Bong Joon-ho‘s Parasite

Abstract

In this text I seek to connect the perception (aisthesis) of colour as a phenomenon of our mind with the design (aesthetics) of colour in cinema. In a methodological excursus, I relate the complexity of the formal-aesthetic device ‘colour’ to a taxonomy of film research developed by myself, which I call the KinematoGramm. The model of the KinematoGramm constitutes the starting point of an extensive publication project and is presented here for discussion for the first time in English in combination with an analysis of the lighting and colour dramaturgy as well as the visual aesthetics of Parasite. Parasite is a 2019 film by South Korean director Bong Joon-ho which was not only internationally acclaimed but also won four Academy Awards in 2020 (Best Film, Best International Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay). Based on the carefully created, nuanced green-primed colour palette of Joon-ho’s socio-critical parable, the intermingling of two incompatible milieus unfolds as a differential quality of colours, textures, and materials. The consequences of this transgression of social and economic boundaries are fatal.

Keywords: film studies, kinematogramm, colour and light, cultural context, production studies, technical analyses, Parasite