Baroque Music as a Quotation in a South Korean Film: Semantic and Conceptual Aspects

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to examine the use of Baroque music in the film Parasite by South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, to determine the role of musical quotations in the dramaturgy and semantic content of the film, and to convey the director’s vision. Research methodology is based on an analysis of the film’s audiovisual series. A contextual approach is also used to outline the possible connotations of the quoted material. The conceptual basis of the study is based on terms and concepts developed in the works of Ukrainian and foreign researchers of film music. Scientific novelty. The musical component of the film ‘Parasite’ is analysed, and the role of quotations in the film’s dramaturgy is determined. To outline the sociocultural context of the film, the works of foreign researchers, including South Korean researchers, are used. Conclusions. Rodelinda’s aria ‘Mio Caro Bene’ from G.F. Handel’s opera in South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s film is the only Baroque music quotation in the film’s soundtrack. The director places the aria’s music in the pre-climax zone, creating a contrast to the bloody drama unfolding on screen. Performed in the frame as diegetic, Western European Baroque music, as an attribute of the leisure time of South Korean upper class, acquires symbolic meaning along with other symbolic objects in the film (food, weather, spatial organisation, smell), whose task is to show the striking, historically conditioned isolation of the social strata of Korean society and the impossibility of overcoming this gap. The key role of Baroque music in the ‘Parasite’ film music is confirmed by the introduction of pseudo-Baroque music (allusions to the first part of Vivaldi’s ‘Winter’ from ‘The Four Seasons’) into the original soundtrack, created by composer Jung Jaeil: the music imitates the work of a Baroque composer, as the poor family members pretend to be someone they are not in order to get closer to their hosts.