(SEOUL, South Korea) — Kim Da-hye, a 29-year-old South Korean, said that moving into a semi-basement apartment was her least-preferred option when she was looking for a new place to live. But after a rigorous search and a close examination of her finances, she was forced to settle for a “banjiha,” the Korean word for a cramped basement flat. South Korean director Bong Joon-ho‘s Oscar-winning film Parasite has brought banjiha dwellers like Kim to worldwide attention, thanks to its depiction of two families — one living in a semi-basement apartment and the other in an airy mansion — and the differences in their social status. In 2015, around 1.9% of South Koreans lived in semi-basement apartments, according to data from Statistics Korea.