I know about South Korea because I studied Tae Kwan Do back in the day when I was a little guy. I think I could still break brittle little pieces of wood using only the power of the entire weight of my body. The BBC knows more about South Korea than I do. It is currently the 13th largest economy in the world and growing.
The level of swag displayed in The Housemaid was on a level I have not seen in a long time. I was blown away with the lives of the rich South Koreans depicted in this film.
The protagonist is a working class girl (Jeon Do-yeon,) who is hired to work for a wealthy family. They live in a palace. The servants, wife and child, line up every morning to see the man of the house (Lee Jung-jae) off to work. He plays classical piano and drinks fine wine. The elegance of this man’s hair is surpassed only by his wardrobe. Swag.
The guy has everything anyone could ever want. His family is gorgeous, his wife is hot and puts out, and he is crazy rich. Why would he want to risk it all to play doctor with the nanny? Why not? This man was born getting everything he wants.
The sex scenes in this film are really stylish and intense. There is a really funny sequence that reminds me of a scene in American Psycho, where the rich dude drops a classic sex move. While receiving oral pleasure, he puts his hands up and starts flexing his biceps in front of a window. Hilarious.
Men are pathetic in that they can’t help but work out power issues in bed. I’m sorry that women have to be on the other side of that.
The plot in The Housemaid is very simple, as the working-class girl gets in way over her head. Park Ji-young provides a memorable performance as the evil mother-in-law. “With a rich husband, cheating is part of the package,” she says to her daughter. Soon after, she is plotting murder.
The climax takes the crazy to full Ron Artest Malice at the Palace levels. The final act of revenge is shocking, but definitely set up well by the story.
This movie works not because it has a complex plot, but because writer/director Im Sang-soo has great attention to detail. There is also worthwhile social commentary in the film, covering class divisions, sex and the modern family. I give The Housemaid an A-.
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