Not to be confused with the Vietnamese 2016 film of the same name, this South Korean film was included in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the title made it obvious what it was about, but I didn't know about the concept or plot, I just watched and found out for myself. Basically set in the 1960s, music teacher and composer Dong-sik Kim (Jin Kyu Kim) reads a story to his wife Mrs. Kim (Jeung-nyeo Ju) about a man falling in love with his maid. The story then jumps to the composer working in a factory; he, his wife and their children have just moved into a two-story house. His wife is pregnant and becomes exhausted from working at a sewing machine to support the family. So, the composer hires a housemaid named Myung-sook (Eun-shim Lee) to help with the work around the house. The new housemaid behaves strangely, catching rats with her hands, spying on the composer and trying to seduce him, eventually she lures him and becomes pregnant with his child. The composer's wife discovers his infidelity and convinces the housemaid to induce a miscarriage by falling down a flight of stairs. After this incident, the housemaid's behaviour becomes more erratic, including threatening the life of the composer's newborn son. The housemaid tricks the composer's son Chang-soon (Sung-Ki Ahn) into believing that he has ingested poisoned water, and in a panic, he falls to his death down a flight of stairs. Myung-sook persuades the composer to commit suicide with her by swallowing rat poison. The film ends at the point it started, with the composer reading the newspaper to his wife, so the narrative has apparently been told by the composer, he smiles and warns the film audience that this sort of thing that could happen to anyone. Also starring Aeng-ran Eom as Kyung-hee Cho and Yoo-ri Lee as Ae-soon Kim. This black-and-white film has been described as a "domestic horror", it is a very simple story of a woman hired to do the house chores, ends up having an affair with the man of the house, and becomes a deadly femme fetale, but it has suspense and disturbing bits that keep you guessing where it will go, an interesting thriller. Good!
Review of The Housemaid
