The Housemaid (2010 film)
| The Housemaid | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Im Sang-soo |
| Produced by | Jason Chae |
| Screenplay by | Im Sang-soo |
| Based on | The Housemaid by Kim Ki-young |
| Starring | Jeon Do-yeon Lee Jung-jae |
| Music by | Kim Hong-jip |
| Cinematography | Lee Hyung-deok |
| Editing by | Lee Eun-soo |
| Studio | Mirovision |
| Distributed by | Sidus FNH |
| Release date(s) | May 13, 2010 |
| Running time | 107 minutes |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean |
| Box office | 17 billion won (South Korea) |
The Housemaid (Hangul: 하녀; Hanja: 下女; RR: Hanyeo; MR: Hanyŏ) is a 2010 South Korean melodramatic thriller film directed by Im Sang-soo. The story focuses on Eun-yi, played by Jeon Do-yeon, who becomes involved in a destructive love triangle while working as a housemaid for an upper-class family. Other cast members include Lee Jung-jae, Seo Woo and Yoon Yeo-jeong. The film is a remake of Kim Ki-young's 1960 film The Housemaid. It competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
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[edit] Plot
Eun-yi is hired as an au pair for Hae Ra (pregnant with twins) and her rich husband Hoon. Eun-yi's primary task is watching the couple's young daughter, Nami. Eun-yi is eager to connect to Nami, who gradually warms to her. Hoon begins to secretly flirt with Eun-yi, enticing her with glasses of wine and his piano playing, and they eventually begin a sexual relationship. Despite the affair, Eun-yi is still warm and friendly to Hoon's oblivious wife, Hae Ra; she even expresses enthusiasm and delight at the progress of Hae Ra's pregnancy.
Byeong-sik, aka "Miss Cho" (the other live-in maid, originally Hae Ra's childhood maid) witnesses Eun-yi and Hoon having sex. She tries to subtly pry details from Eun-yi, but Eun-yi brushes her off casually. Later, Miss Cho reveals her suspicion to Hae Ra's mother that Eun-yi is pregnant. Hae Ra's mother then visits the family and stages an "accident," resulting in Eun-yi falling from a ladder positioned at the top of a set of stairs. Dangling from a chandelier, Eun-yi begs Hae Ra's mother to pull her over the railing. Hae Ra's mother doesn't oblige, and Eun-yi falls. Suffering only a concussion, Eun-yi spends the night in the hospital. During her stay, she learns that she is pregnant and contemplates abortion. Meanwhile, the secret affair is revealed to Hae Ra.
Hae Ra's mother, Mi-hee, instructs Hae Ra to ignore the affair; she insists that all wealthy husbands will eventually cheat, but that if Hae Ra ignores it she can "live like a queen." Later that night, Hae Ra stands over Eun-yi's bed with a golf club but is unable to strike the sleeping woman. The next day, Hae Ra and her mother confront Eun-yi, offering her $100,000 to have an abortion and leave. Hae Ra knows that Eun-yi wouldn't abort her child "for all the money in the world," so she takes matters into her own hands by poisoning the herbal medicine packets Eun-yi drinks everyday. Hae Ra goes to the hospital and delivers her twin sons. Hoon visits the hospital, where Hae Ra makes her ill-will towards him known. Furious, he returns home alone and finds Eun-yi in his bathtub. She reveals that she is pregnant and plans on keeping the baby.
Eun-yi succumbs to the effects of the poison, and Mi-hee arranges an abortion without Eun-yi's consent. After the abortion, Miss Cho reveals that she told Mi-hee about Eun-yi's pregnancy. Eun-yi is angry, but forgives Miss Cho and vows to get revenge on the family. After recovering from her abortion, Eun-yi sneaks into the house with Miss Cho's assistance. Hoon finds her breastfeeding one of the newborn babies. Hae Ra insists that Miss Cho chase Eun-yi out of the house, but Miss Cho refuses and quits her job on the spot. Eun-yi then confronts the entire family (Hae Ra, Mi-hee, Hoon, and Nami), hanging herself from the same chandelier she once clung to, then lighting her body on fire as the family watches in horror.
[edit] Cast
- Jeon Do-yeon as Eun-yi
- Lee Jung-jae as Hoon
- Seo Woo as Hae Ra
- Yoon Yeo-jeong as Byeong-sik
- Ahn Seo-hyeon as Nami
- Park Ji-young as mother-in-law
[edit] Production
A first screenplay for the film was written by Kim Soo-hyun, but after director Im Sang-soo had edited the script so heavily that Kim considered it to be entirely Im's own work, she decided to leave the project and publicly expressed her dissatisfaction.[1] Although the film includes some key elements of the original, Kim Ki-young's The Housemaid from 1960, Im has said that he tried to never think of it during the production in order to come up with a modern and original work. One major difference between the versions is that the original film took place in the middle class, while the remake is set in an extreme upper-class environment. Im explains this with South Korea's social structure around 1960, which was a time when the country's middle class started to form and many poor people moved from the countryside to work in the cities: "women became housemaids who served not only for the rich but also the middle class and that issue had served as the basis to Kim Ki-young's work. What I realized upon reworking The Housemaid in 50 years was that there are much more wealthy people now, people who are millionaires. ... I wanted to depict the reality in which housewives from normal families have to undertake hard work too".[2] The film was produced by the Seoul-based company Mirovision.[3]
[edit] Release
The film premiered in South Korea on 13 May 2010. Released by Sidus FNH, it opened on 679 screens and topped the box office chart for the first weekend with a revenue corresponding to around 5.7 million US dollars.[4] The number of screens had been reduced to 520 after week two, and The Housemaid dropped to second place on the chart, having been overtaken by How to Train Your Dragon.[5] Box Office Mojo reported a total revenue of 14,075,390 dollars (17,036,289,040 won) in the film's domestic market.[6] The international premiere took place on 14 May in competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.[7] American distribution rights were acquired by IFC Films, who released it in 2011.[8]
[edit] Reception
Following the screening in Cannes, Maggie Lee of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "a flamingly sexy soap opera whose satire on high society is sometimes as savage as Claude Chabrol's La Cérémonie." However, Lee also found the film to have several prominent flaws: "plot developments are glaringly melodramatic" and "even with Jeon's calibrated performance, Eun-yi's characterization is problematic. ... [T]he absence in motivation of her behavior does not really convince."[9]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Lee, Hyo-won (2009-11-02). "Jeon Do-yeon Cast in 'The Housemaid'". The Korea Times. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2009/11/178_54726.html. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
- ^ Lee, Ji-hye (2010-05-04). "Im Sang-soo says Jeon Do-youn is 'full-fledged artist'". 10Asia. http://10.asiae.co.kr/Articles/new_view.htm?sec=ent0&a_id=2010050417141002833. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
- ^ "The Housemaid". festival-cannes.com. Cannes Film Festival. http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/11022736/year/2010.html. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
- ^ Han, Sunhee (2010-05-17). "Cannes' 'Housemaid' cleans up in Korea". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118019482.html?categoryid=19&cs=1. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
- ^ "South Korea Box Office, May 21–23, 2010". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/korea/?yr=2010&wk=21&p=.htm. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
- ^ "South Korea Box Office, June 25–27, 2010". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/korea/?yr=2010&wk=26&p=.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-20.
- ^ "The screenings guide". festival-cannes.com. Cannes Film Festival. http://www.festival-cannes.fr/assets/File/Web/HORAIRES%202010/Horaire%20Projections.pdf. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
- ^ "IFC Films books 'The Housemaid'". The Hollywood Reporter. 2010-07-19. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3ic2e2d16144df098a7902f1d436813ec8. Retrieved 2010-07-20.[dead link]
- ^ Lee, Maggie (2010-05-14). "The Housemaid -- Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/the-housemaid-film-review-1004091210.story. Retrieved 2010-06-08.[dead link]
[edit] External links
- Official website (Korean)
- The Housemaid at the Internet Movie Database
- The Housemaid at AllRovi
- The Housemaid at Box Office Mojo
- The Housemaid at Metacritic
- The Housemaid at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Housemaid at HanCinema
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