back in october, the los angeles times published an article about parasite, though it only showed up on my twitter feed yesterday. the writer talks about chapaguri, which was weirdly translated as “ram-don” in the film — yes, i’ve read why the translator chose to call it “ram-don;” no, i don’t agree with this thinking and believe he should have just called it chapaguri, like he should have also just kept ka-talk instead of using “whatsapp.” leave it to the audience to figure out what these korean terms are instead of catering to the laziest viewer, i say.
anyway, in the article, the writer says that the chapaguri with sirloin in parasite was a way for bong joon-ho to highlight class tensions in his film. it’s true, but that’s an obvious take — of course, the addition of sirloin, a nice cut of meat, to chapaguri, a cheap, instant ramyeon dish, would be a way for a super wealthy family to “elevate” a “common” dish.
the thing, though, is that chapaguri is a much more interesting dish than the article bothers to explore.
gender roles may be softening now in korea, but korean culture is one that has stuck pretty intensely to gender roles until recent years. it’s a very patriarchal culture, one in which men are heads of households, women are expected to defer to men, and children are to remain quiet. even when my father was a child, no one at the table started eating until his father ate first and women ate last.
fathers are the breadwinners who work and support the family, while mothers stay at home and do everything else — they care for the children, clean the house, make sure there is dinner on the table for their husbands. they focus on their children’s education, enrolling them in the proper hakwons and ensuring that their children’s future success is secured. of course, there is a certain level of class involved, but i’m not getting into that here. gender roles and expectations don’t necessarily disappear between the classes.
within the last decade, though, we’ve been seeing more studies about the negative effects this has had on fathers’ relationships with their children. fathers work long hours and don’t often have the time or energy to bond with their children, which leads to distant, tense relationships. 기러기 아빠s, or goose fathers, are common as fathers send their wives and children off to the states, to canada, to other english-speaking, western countries so their children can learn english and have access to a western education and opportunities.
also, the birth rate in korea has been declining steadily, which i believe is the underlying reason people started thinking about the role of fathers in families to begin with.
korea has responded to the crisis in different ways, including classes where fathers learn to be more open with their emotions and physical with their affection (don’t be scandalous; we’re talking about something as basic as learning how to hug your kid). another way korea has responded has been through television, namely through variety shows.
아빠 어디가? (appa, eodiga?, appa, where are you going?) debuted in january 2013. it cast five fathers across the entertainment spectrum, from a news anchor to two actors to a singer to a former soccer player, and their young children (the oldest was ten). these father-child pairs would go on trips together, just them and the production team, no mothers, no help, no assistance of any kind. the fathers were responsible for looking after their kids, which involved getting them washed up, dressed, changed, fed, everything their mothers would do. because 아빠 어디가? was a variety show, there were also various challenges and games that were designed for the father-child pairs to bond, as well as for friendships to spring up between the fathers and the children.
some of the children from the show are still friends today.
maybe it’s the obvious thing to state: the most heartwarming thing from the show was seeing how the father-child relationships changed.
the show cast a variety of father-child pairs — song jong-kuk (the former soccer player) was known as a 딸바보 (ddahl-babo, dummy for daughter) because he doted on jia, his daughter, so much. on the other hand, sung dong-il (a well-known veteran actor) had had children later in life and thus had the biggest distance (age-wise and emotionally) from joon, his son, who was quiet and visibly not very comfortable around his dad without his mom as emotional buffer. on the other other hand, yoon min-soo (singer) had had his son, hoo, when he was young, and they were almost like buddies instead.
as we followed these father-children pairs around for weeks on different trips around korea, we saw how all these relationships changed. the show didn’t shy away from showing us the uncomfortable moments, like how kim sung-joo (news announcer) would often default to lecturing min-guk, his son, making him feel nervous and bringing out his sensitive side, which sung-joo, in turn, would wonder about. or how joon started off uncomfortable around his dad, who often didn’t know how to talk to his young son.
luckily, the show worked because the fathers all grew over the course of the season. of course, they weren’t perfect fathers at the end of it, but we could see the efforts they were making, the ways they were trying to be more patient, more communicative, more affectionate. we could see that they could see the value of a show like this, a slower variety show than korean variety shows are wont to be. you wouldn’t watch 아빠 어디가? for boisterous games necessarily because the episodes could be slow and kind of boring, but you’d watch for the sweet, often hilarious moments that came naturally as these fathers and children were forced to spend time together, often in intensely close quarters.
i only watched season one, and the show ended after season two, but it’s maybe one of my favorite things i’ve ever seen on television.
so, chapaguri.
the fathers and children are camping. in winter. like, tents and sleeping bags on what i want to remember is a frozen lake. i could very much be wrong about the frozen lake, so don’t quote me on that, but it is winter, and they are camping. in snow. in korea. the fathers have all been given a challenge — cook a dish for their kids. the most popular dish wins.
the fathers get hilariously into it, trying their hardest to cook something that their kids will love — all the fathers, that is, except for kim sung-joo. he’s strolling around the camp, peeking in on what the other fathers are cooking, and they’re shaking their heads at him but also wondering what he’s up to, how is he so confident, he’s proven to be no better a cook than any of them. min-guk, his son, even asks what’s up, which is when sung-joo shows him his dinner plan: a box of chapagetti and neoguri and a giant copper pot. min-guk is skeptical. sung-joo starts boiling water, makes the ramyeon, gives min-guk a taste. min-guk loves it.
if you’re unfamiliar, chapagetti and neoguri are two flavors of instant ramyeon produced by nongshim, which also makes shin ramyeon. chapagetti is an instant jjajangmyeon, the korean-ified version of black bean noodles (which came to korea via china), and neoguri is described as a “spicy seafood soup.” the noodles in both are the same; they just have different powdered mixes that give them their individual flavors.
to make chapagetti, you bring water to a boil and add the noodles and packet of dehydrated carrots and meat. once the noodles are cooked, drain the water from the pot, leaving enough to wet the noodles. bring the pot with noodles back to the stove on low, low heat. add the powdered black bean sauce and the little packet of oil. i personally like to add an egg because it makes the sauce creamier and slightly thicker. mix everything together.
you use the same method to make chapaguri. boil enough water for two packets of ramyeon. add both noodles and dehydrated ingredients (the one for neoguri includes seaweed). once the noodles are cooked, drain the water, leaving enough to wet the noodles and create a sauce. bring the pot with noodles back to the stove on low, low eat. add both powdered sauce packets along with the little packet of oil and an egg. mix everything together.
ramyeon is a cheap, common dish, but it’s also a universal one that’s a part of korean food culture. everyone eats ramyeon. some people opt for the kind that hasn’t been fried, and some people just stick to the classics like shin ramyeon, and some people dress up their rameyon, adding onions and mushrooms and other healthy crap. some people add cheese or milk (it’s supposed to help reduce the inevitable bloat that follows). everyone should add an egg.
adding sirloin to chapaguri is obviously a sign of wealth and privilege, so i don’t have much to comment on that. it’s also a really weird choice because i personally don’t think sirloin goes with chapaguri, but, hey, i’m not fantastically loaded and don’t feel inclined to add pricey cuts of meat to an instant dish that’s meant to be enjoyed for its very cheapness.
bong joon-ho’s choice of chapaguri, though, is a more interesting choice because chapaguri went viral after kim made it on 아빠 어디가? everyone was eating it and loving it. everyone was talking about it because everyone was talking about this variety show. and i don’t know how you can write an article on this dish and not dig into the history, where it came from, because bong could have chosen any ramyeon and made it bougie, but he chose chapaguri, which had a huge moment in korean culture and has become a staple since.
in parasite, class is the obvious thing bong wants to comment on, but family is also a theme. bong plays up farcical details of the wealthy family as he also pokes at the gender roles clearly demarcated in it — the father goes to work and earns the money. the mother cares for the children and is responsible for their education. the father, though, tries to be more involved with his family, taking his family camping, indulging his wife’s plans for an over the top birthday party for their son, generally making attempts to connect and present as best he can.
i’m not saying there’s any kind of connection between the film and the context in which chapaguri became a thing in korea. and i think it still remains to be seen what kind of effect shows like 아빠 어디가? and 슈퍼멘이 돌아왔다 ( superman has returned) have had on culture in korea at-large. there are articles claiming that, at the least, the shows have raised awareness about the parental imbalance and begun conversations about how men can be more involved with their families. at the same time, korea’s birth rate continues to decline, so …