The Housemaid

The Housemaid Review

The Housemaid Overview

A sensation at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, Korean director Im Soo-sang's remake of the classic 1960 film is the story of Eun-yi (Jeon Do-yeon, Cannes 2007 Best Actress Award winner for Secret Sunshine), a young innocent hired to care for a wealthy pregnant woman. Eun-yi's presence attracts the amorous attentions of Hoon, the master of the house, and he begins an affair with her. Igniting the jealousy of an older maid who knows many family secrets, Eun-yi quickly finds herself in the center of a familial power struggle. With THE HOUSEMAID Im Soo-sang brings both a keen eye for the dynamics of sex and power and a lush, luxurious sense of style.

The Housemaid Specifications

Taking equal inspiration from the art house and the grind house, The Housemaid is a gorgeous and deliciously perverse showcase of cool, classy Korean cinema. This blend of refined melodrama and tawdry erotica is based on an eponymous 1960 film that's generally regarded as a classic in Korean film history. Even though the term remake doesn't really fit, the plot elements are essentially the same: a young girl is hired to be nanny and maid to a rich, aristocratic couple and ends up leaving both the family and herself in ruins. But director Sang-soo Im skews the sociological fundamentals to make a more pointed commentary on class division by casting the elite employers as the evil corrupters of a blank-slated girl who knows only right and innocence--at first, that is.

Eun-yi (Jeon Do-yeon) joins the household of a slick, wealthy businessman and his very pregnant wife. Under the tutelage of an older housekeeper, Eun-yi performs her duties impeccably and considers herself lucky to have the job. As the elegant tone of the goings-on in these opulent surroundings grows more tense, the husband strays from his wife's bed to Eun-yi's quarters, where he asserts his dominion with masterful entitlement. Her bewilderment quickly melts, and she becomes addicted to his adulterous visitations. But nothing that goes on escapes the eyes of the older housekeeper, or the young wife's evil mother, who turns her daughter into a pawn in an increasingly complex sexual conspiracy. When Eun-yi gets pregnant herself, the simmering pot of melodramatic tension nearly bursts, held in check only by the skill of director Sang-soo Im and a cast that keeps the titillation at a gentle simmer. Because the cruelty and kinkiness are kept so coolly restrained, the Grand Guignol finale comes as that much more of a delirious shock. The film's visual style celebrates the gothic as well as the flamboyant aspects of the story, and is significantly bolstered by the lush production design and supple cinematography. Though couched in an age-old fable of upper-class power and sexual exploitation, The Housemaid makes room for much more in its many tawdry, dark corners. --Ted Fry