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A Deliciously Perverse Thriller

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Housemaid    Director: Im Sang-soo (2010)    Call Number: DVD-V LD10-0660

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Image: Courtesy of Sidus FNH

Based on Kim Ki-young's 1960 film The Housemaid, the film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Although the story could make an endless a soap opera, housemaid gets pregnant by her boss on, the film dives into David Lynchian territory. Until those moments, the film “generates intrigue partly by making you guess which movie it is going to become: the cruel psychological thriller, the comedy of upper-crust manners, the feminist fable, the erotic romp” (Scott, 2011).

Reminding Chabrol’s La Cérémonie, the film is no doubt about  working class women's exploitation and repression. “The three female leads' high voltage chemistry, the sumptuous mis en scene (the biggest set in Korean film history), stylish symmetric compositions and lilting (perhaps Wong Kar-wai influenced) string score offers such sensory pleasure while pacing is so smooth that two hours seem to glide by imperceptibly” (Lee, 2010).

Print posted @ Tuesday, January 10, 2012 9:53 AM