Sky Pizza

Walking through narrow, winding alleys of the Noryangjin district of Seoul, you may be reminded of grimy scenes from the Bong Joon-Ho film Parasite, a milestone in Korean cinema that took the 2020 Oscars by storm.

While much of the filming took place at several locations in Seoul, the neighborhood is not especially featured in the film—except for a small, unassuming pizzeria called Sky Pizza. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, just a run-of-the-mill place with the usual menu. But on its façade and interior are autographs of Bong Joon-Ho, as well as the logo and delivery boxes of the fictional “Pizza Generation” restaurant from the film.

Parasite follows the tragicomedic lives of the poverty-stricken Kim family as they struggle to make ends meet, each member gradually infiltrating into the wealthier Park family, only for chaos to ensue. In one of the numerous low-income side jobs that the Kim family takes up, they fold delivery boxes for a local eatery: Pizza Generation. Later, the pizza place makes another appearance where the Kims are seen scheming on how to kick the housemaid out of the Park household.

In real life, Sky Pizza is a quiet family-run pizza joint. The owner will proudly offer visiting cinephiles a chance to take pictures with the Pizza Generation boxes, and bring you sketchbooks full of signatures and messages from Parasite-loving visitors from around the world, so that you can leave your own mark as well. Flipping through these pages, you'll see what a huge influence the film has had on a small local business like Sky Pizza.