The Housemaid (2010 film)
Encyclopedia
The Housemaid 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
.
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.
'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". The film was produced by the Seoul-based company Mirovision.
. Box Office Mojo
reported a total revenue of 14,075,390 dollars (17,036,289,040 won
) in the film's domestic market. The international premiere took place on 14 May in competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival
. American distribution rights were acquired by IFC Films
who plan to release it in the beginning of 2011.
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."
Im Sang-soo
Im Sang-soo is an award-winning South Korean film director and screenwriter.-Early life and film career:Im was born in Seoul. He studied sociology at Seoul's Yonsei University before making a move to The Korean Academy of Film Arts in 1989...
. The story focuses on Eun-yi, played by Jeon Do-yeon
Jeon Do-yeon
Jeon Do-yeon is a highly-acclaimed South Korean actress who has won many awards including best actress at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival...
, 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
Lee Jung-jae
Lee Jung-jae is a South Korean actor.- Career :Lee Jung-jae, apart from being a top star in film and TV, also works as a highly successful fashion model. One year after his debut on television in 1993, Lee was cast in his first film, a feature by Bae Chang-ho. His breakthrough would come in late...
, Seo Woo
Seo Woo
Seo Woo is a South Korean actress. After first drawing critical notice in the black comedy Crush and Blush, Seo Woo has since starred in in challenging arthouse films Paju and The Housemaid, while gaining popularity in the small screen through cult favorite Tamra the Island and melodrama Flames of...
and Yoon Yeo-jeong
Yoon Yeo-jeong
-Biography:When Yoon was a freshman at Hanyang University majoring in Korean literature, she was chosen as a TV actress in a public recruit by TBC TV. Yoon was cast in the lead role in Mister Bear one year after her debut, and gained popularity...
. The film is a remake of Kim Ki-young
Kim Ki-young
Kim Ki-young was a South Korean film director, known for his intensely psychosexual and melodramatic horror films, often focusing on the psychology of their female characters. Kim was born in Seoul during the Japanese occupation, raised in Pyongyang and spent time in Japan, where he became...
's 1960 film The Housemaid. It competed for the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival
2010 Cannes Film Festival
The 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 12 to May 23, 2010, in Cannes, France. The Cannes Film Festival, hailed as being one of the most recognized and prestigious film festivals worldwide, was founded in 1946. It consists of having films screened in and out of competition during the...
.
Plot
Eun-yi is hired as an au pairAu pair
An au pair is a domestic assistant from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family's responsibility for childcare as well as some housework, and receive a small monetary allowance for personal use...
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.
Cast
- Jeon Do-yeonJeon Do-yeonJeon Do-yeon is a highly-acclaimed South Korean actress who has won many awards including best actress at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival...
as Eun-yi - Lee Jung-jaeLee Jung-jaeLee Jung-jae is a South Korean actor.- Career :Lee Jung-jae, apart from being a top star in film and TV, also works as a highly successful fashion model. One year after his debut on television in 1993, Lee was cast in his first film, a feature by Bae Chang-ho. His breakthrough would come in late...
as Hoon - Seo WooSeo WooSeo Woo is a South Korean actress. After first drawing critical notice in the black comedy Crush and Blush, Seo Woo has since starred in in challenging arthouse films Paju and The Housemaid, while gaining popularity in the small screen through cult favorite Tamra the Island and melodrama Flames of...
as Hae Ra - Yoon Yeo-jeongYoon Yeo-jeong-Biography:When Yoon was a freshman at Hanyang University majoring in Korean literature, she was chosen as a TV actress in a public recruit by TBC TV. Yoon was cast in the lead role in Mister Bear one year after her debut, and gained popularity...
as Byeong-sik - Ahn Seo-hyeon as Nami
- Park Ji-young as mother-in-law
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. Although the film includes some key elements of the original, Kim Ki-youngKim Ki-young
Kim Ki-young was a South Korean film director, known for his intensely psychosexual and melodramatic horror films, often focusing on the psychology of their female characters. Kim was born in Seoul during the Japanese occupation, raised in Pyongyang and spent time in Japan, where he became...
'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". The film was produced by the Seoul-based company Mirovision.
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. 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 DragonHow to Train Your Dragon (film)
How to Train Your Dragon is a 2010 3D computer-animated action fantasy film by DreamWorks Animation loosely based on the 2003 book of the same name. The film stars the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, and Christopher...
. Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. Brandon Gray started the site in 1999. In 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and they grew the site to nearly two million readers when, in July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon.com through...
reported a total revenue of 14,075,390 dollars (17,036,289,040 won
South Korean won
The won is the currency of South Korea. A single won is divided into 100 jeon, the monetary subunit. The jeon is no longer used for everyday transactions, and appears only in foreign exchange rates...
) in the film's domestic market. The international premiere took place on 14 May in competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival
2010 Cannes Film Festival
The 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 12 to May 23, 2010, in Cannes, France. The Cannes Film Festival, hailed as being one of the most recognized and prestigious film festivals worldwide, was founded in 1946. It consists of having films screened in and out of competition during the...
. American distribution rights were acquired by IFC Films
IFC Films
IFC Films is an American film distribution company based in New York, owned by AMC Networks. It distributes independent films and documentaries under the IFC Films, Sundance Selects and IFC Midnight. It operates the IFC Center....
who plan to release it in the beginning of 2011.
Reception
Following the screening in Cannes, Maggie Lee of The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
called the film "a flamingly sexy soap opera whose satire on high society is sometimes as savage as Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol was a French film director, a member of the French New Wave group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s...
's La Cérémonie
La Cérémonie
La Cérémonie is a 1995 film by Claude Chabrol. It was adapted from the novel A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell.- Plot :La Cérémonie tells the story of an illiterate dyslexic young woman, Sophie Bonhomme , who is hired as a maid by the Lelièvre family. The Lelièvres live in an isolated mansion in...
." 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."