The Housemaid

A South Korean soap opera, The Housemaid is a combination of Fatal Attraction, In the Mood for Love, and myriad other adultery thrillers. Its sensual sheen and quiet sexuality underpin a grim war between servants and the ruling class with no one winning.

Adapted from an earlier Korean version by director Sang-soo Im, it tells of naïve Eun-yi (Jeon Do-yuon) being hired as a maid in a wealthy household, whose head, Hoon (Jung-Jae-Lee), takes her as a love interest while his pregnant wife comes to term and the other ladies gradually find out that Eun-yi is pregnant as well. While the house is meticulously modern and opulent, an undercurrent of evil runs through it as if it were a Poe tale.

Although at times Housemaid moves slowly, especially in the mid section, no audience could be indifferent to the haughty treatment of the servants by the rich, who treat them as you might think Thomas Jefferson treated his own slaves, with decorum but decidedly selfish and cruel. Eun-yi is not totally innocent, for she enjoys the master's attention, and Hoon can be partially forgiven because of the harpies like his wife and mother-in-law, who treat him like a child, or in the case of his wife, ignore his sexual needs except to create children. That he plays a mean classical piano and drinks wine like an aristocrat used to the fineness of wealth, Hoon is partially an animal of the lowest order, giving in to his appetites protected by his wealth and his ladies.

The final moments are the payoff as most everyone in not spared humiliation or violence. Although the connection between the opening and closing is a bit too much of a figurative and literal connection, The Housemaid holds up admirably as Gothic horror in a modern Asian setting replaying the themes of class conflict and revenge.

In this remake of a popular 1960 Korean film of the same name, Jeon Do-Yeon plays the titular character, Eun-yi, who is hired as an upper class family housemaid, tasked to take care of the family's small daughter and her pregnant mother, Hae-ra (Seo Woo). Overseeing her efforts is Byung-sik (Yun Yeo-jung), an older housemaid who has been with the family for a long time and holds many secrets. Hoon (Lee Jung Jae), the master of the house, takes advantage of his social position and begins a secret affair with Eun-yi. Once it is discovered Eun-yi may be pregnant, Mi-hee, Hae-ra's mother, plots a way to get rid of Eun-yi's unborn baby despite Eun-yi's wish to keep it and leave the house.

While the original film was a suspense thriller, this one isn't quite as easy to pinpoint. While there are aspects of an erotic thriller, this film is partly a character study and a satire about class struggle. The film starts off with a random suicide as a girl jumps off a roof onto the busy street. This event isn't really related to the main plot, unfortunately (which I admit would have been more interesting to follow up on). The scene portrays a cold, apathetic society as kids pull out their cell-phones to take a picture. Thus, the film starts off with a bit of a dark, off-kilter, cynical feel.

One of director Im Sang-soo's previous films, The President's Last Bang, was a satire focusing on the assassination of the dictatorial Korean president Park Chung Hee. While this film isn't particularly comedic as that film, it has elements which seem heavy-handed and too outrageous to take seriously. As a thriller, it isn't very convincing. One of the obvious problems is the portrayal of Eun-yi, who is shown here as sympathetic, naïve, and more of a victim, the opposite of the original. Unlike the rich folks, who eventually take advantage of her, she is likable and kind.

Jeon Do-Yeon does well with the role that is written for her. As good and fine as she is in almost every role she plays, it truly would have been something special to see her play a really mean, nasty character—there is no doubt it would have been a wonderful departure and a suitable challenge for this talented actress. Then again, I suppose it's like asking Natalie Portman to play Annie Wilkes from Misery. It's just unimaginable. Would it have been cool to see? Of course. The real villain role is given to Hae-ra's mother, Mi-hee. She plays the all-too-familiar "evil stepmother" role that appears to frequent Korean TV dramas as of late. Yun Yeo-jung is memorable as the older housemaid, Byung-sik, who remains constantly interesting and complex. Lee Jung Jae plays the rich master role with aplomb and brings subtlety to what is relatively a simplified and underused character. Advertisement

The film has some great visuals, particularly the interiors of the mansion, full of deep reds and whites. The camera work is hand-held and rougher near the beginning, particularly in the street scenes, and becomes more static and calculated as the film focuses more on the rich family. The film is sexually-charged and the seedy nature of the relationship between Eun-yi and Hoon, along with their motives, is never quite explained.

The story is overly simple, I felt, and I expected more twists, more believable characterization, more thrills, or something. The problem with satire is that it often pulls the audience away from fully engaging with the story or the characters, an issue that doesn't particularly work in a thriller. Perhaps it might have been better if this had not been a remake. I would guess that the fear of comparison with the original could bring a director to go the complete opposite direction in the newer film or try to turn what may be a simple story into high art (and appear intelligent). I just wish they'd just make it better by changing the name, the plot, and…well, simply being a whole new film. I suppose on the positive side, a remake does introduce a new generation of audiences to check out the original. In this particular case, I'd love to see the original just to see how much better it is than this film.

You'd better watch the original movie, 'The Housemaid' directed by Ki-Young Kim in 1960, which is one of the first and finest Korean movie I've seen so far. Compared to the original version, The Housemaid (2010) is really deceiving.

The first hour is OK, but then it gets really boring, even though the acting isn't that bad. It's just a pity that such good actors' talent was wasted (see Do-Yeon Jeon in 'Sunshine (2007)' and Jung-Jae Lee in 'New World (2013)').

Not to mention the ending, which reminded me Brian De Palma's 'The Fury', deceiving too.

This reminded me of Ki-duk Kim films and the visual style of Park Chan-wook films. It's basically a remake of the 1960's movie, that basically has to do with the downfall of a housemaid from working in some rich guy's house. Although the 2010 version differs from the original in many aspects, but that doesn't necessarily mean a bad thing because it has it's own style to hold it's own. Jeon Do-Yeon plays a sweethearted and kind housemaid that grew up in a harsh environment and tries to make a living by becoming a housemaid. Her performance was amazing and Seo Woo did a decent job of playing the spoiled brat as always. And later gets tormented by the wife and the wife's mother of the house, in a very vicious manner. In fact the whole family is crazy except the daughter. This is a dark movie with a handful of sex scenes and graphic parts. There are few foreshadowing in this, but the end irritated me, because karma does not come into play. But it just shows the dark side to reality.

7.9/10

The original South Korean film from the 1960s called The Housemaid is both classist and misogynistic. The poor widdle rich people are the victims in the original flick, and the husband who is but a boy in a man's body is seduced by a wicked witch of a servant....yeah, its pretty bad in terms of glad handing traditional conservative patriarchal values. So refreshingly, the 2010 remake - also from South Korea - turns that nauseating narrative on its head.

Instead, kind but not very bright and recently divorced Eun-yi is humanized by an introduction to her cramped working class life which she shares with a very close but platonic female friend, before she is thrust into the wealthy family that sees her as nothing but an animal. She's overjoyed to have such a cushy position in a big house, and loves the daughter of the spoiled married couple almost like her own child.

The wife is pregnant and utterly horrible (she makes Eun-yi hand wash her dirty panties), and naturally due to her being so close to delivery while carrying twins, she's not particularly interested in having more sex with her entitled, snobbish husband. So he imposes himself upon the young maid and rewards her with extra pay to service his "needs."

The only person in the entire film who seems to have a bit of sense is the elder maid servant, Byung-shik, who helps herself to oysters and wine and sees her lowly position for what it actually is. A petty betrayal of Eun-yi (which she later thoroughly regrets and recants upon) leads to murderous drama, revealing what soulless people the ultra-wealthy family really are.

A beautiful but less satisfying predecessor to class war South Korean film, Parasite.