The Basement Apartments of Seoul’s Urban Poor

The film "Parasite," winner of numerous Oscars earlier this year, highlighted the extreme economic inequality in South Korea and the plight of Seoul’s urban poor, including the housing challenges they face.

"The fictionalized story reflects the lives of Seoul’s so-called dirt spoons, the urban poor, many of whom live in semi-basements ​in the congested city​, ​ where living high and dry — in apartment towers and away from the honking, yelling and odoriferous squalor of down below — symbolizes the wealth and status of the gold-spoon class," writes Choe Sang-Hun.

The city’s richest residents are segregated not just geographically in wealthy neighborhoods, notes Choe. "In Seoul, wealth is measured by how high you live, said Kim Nam-sik, a real estate agent in Seoul’s quiet Seongbuk district, home to dozens of foreign ambassadors’ residences and where the rich family of 'Parasite' lives."

People living in the basement homes — called "banjihas" — contend with street-level noise and dirt and substandard living conditions. "They remain largely invisible unless you explore back alleys at night and see their lit windows below street level. Many live, literally, in the long shadows of shopping and apartment towers," says Choe.