Brainsbell
The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
Casey Duggan
It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
Marva
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Leofwine_draca
The South Korean thriller THE HOUSEMAID is a remake of a 1960 classic, although I have no experience with the original. What I can say is that this is a taut and compelling movie, made with a high quality by director Im Sang-soo (thankfully no relation to his namesake, Hong Sang-soo, a pet hate of mine).As with many Korean movies I've watched, there's plenty of subtext here as the plot reflects on Korean society and the inequalities inherent therein. A young housemaid comes to work at the home of a rich family, only to be quickly seduced by the womanising husband. There are some extraordinarily explicit sex scenes here, but far from being an erotic thriller this soon turns into something quite different.The plot takes many unexpected twists and turns, and at all times is kept more than watchable thanks to a literate script and the attentions of a professional cast. Jeon Do-yeon holds it all together as the sympathetic titular character, but Yoon Yeo-jeong also makes an impression as the older, more experienced housemaid. The climax has to be seen to be believed. While the recent Singaporean housemaid drama ILO ILO is even better, THE HOUSEMAID is still worth your while.
pc95
"The Housemaid", directed by San-Soo In and staring a gorgeous Do-yeon Jeon maintains a high level melodramatic atmosphere for much of it's runtime. The central character, Ms. Lee is in the middle of a tough blue- collar life, and she enters into a magnetic situation being a beautiful maid under the direction of a coarse hard-shelled Nanny. (spoiler)Yeo- Jong Yun does particularly well as the Nanny of the family. The theatrics and melodrama steam up and are at high-tide, but the filmmakers seem to waver on how to resolve the situation. That's when there's some trouble. The ending becomes obvious black-comedy flailing away from it's earnest earlier tone, the filmmakers run-away from what was making the movie so good earlier. The final shots are meant to be "tongue and cheek" but is a mild letdown. Still "The Housemaid" is entertaining.
jdesando
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.
dbborroughs
Off base remake of a classic Korean film concerns a young woman who gets a job working for a rich family and quickly ends up a mostly unwilling target for their games and in the case of the husband advances. Its soon a descent into depravity as she finds out that the rich aren't like other people.Since the original was made in 1960 I'm guessing that the film amps up the sex and violence- I'm pretty sure the ending isn't as graphic. I know the ending of this one left me kind of staring at the screen, and had me playing it again and again on my IFC in Theaters screening. It's one funky ending that seems to come from left field.As for the rest of the film I'm not sure what I make of it. The film is certainly crafted for effect- it's aiming to make us all feel uncomfortable- and it does from the WTF opening straight on until the ending. Is it any good? I don't know. It did have an effect on me but at the same time I felt manipulated. What happened- out side of the end- or the almost the end wasn't anything I couldn't figure out.The film is being promoted as rather sexy and it is, but to what effect. It seems more like a calculated move rather than something natural.Can you tell I'm mixed.I'm guessing that had the film not be so heavily promoted the last few months as a hot film in some circles I might have liked it more. As it stands now. Its okay, but nothing special.Your mileage will vary.
