South Korean directors have made some of the most exquisite horror films of recent years, and while The Housemaid can't be classified as horror, its subtle familiarity with the surreal and acknowledgment of human evil brings it into close proximity with the best of the genre.
Adapted by director Im Soo-sang from a 1960 movie, The Housemaid is a social problem story in theme—or a contemporary dress version of a dark old fairytale, if you prefer. Eun-yi, a naive girl of humble origins, is hired as nanny and housekeeper in the magnificent mansion of a super rich couple, the tycoon Hoon and his self-involved, malicious wife Hae-ra. A matronly servant of many years warns Eun-yi to be careful, even as she informs on her to Hae-re's bad witchy mother. “They're scary people—that's probably why they're so rich,” the older servant tells the young nanny.
But to no avail. Hoon, an imperious aesthete who plays Beethoven on the grand piano in his study, intrigues Eun-yi. Before long she's pregnant and the women of the household plot her downfall. Beautifully mounted and paced at an easy rhythm giving the eye opportunity to drink in every frame, The Housemaid is a superb, artfully told story of lordly entitlement run amok. The Cannes Film Festival favorite is out on DVD.
