The Housemaid 

Evincing once more his nation’s seemingly boundless capacity for delivering unnerving, startlingly unpredictable genre films, director Im Sang-soo is back with his fifth feature, a remake of the 1960 film of the same name.

A taut, bleakly humorous denunciation of patriarchy and the inherent hypocrisy of upper class social mores, The Housemaid simultaneously functions as a rollicking sex romp, dark psychological thriller and unrelenting melodrama, somehow combining these seemingly disparate elements into a cohesive and deeply engrossing whole.  In lesser hands the film might have wound up a confusing pot pourri of styles and influences, but under Im’s guidance the end product is a seductive blend of satire and drama, with plenty of sensuality thrown in for good measure. 

Like many recent Korean outings such as Bedevilled, Oldboy and I Saw the Devil, The Housemaid does have its own internal logic which inexorably escalates to perhaps illogical extremes, this seemingly being something of a national hallmark.  The film is so stunningly composed, however, that all the power struggles, caddish behaviour, witchlike mothers-in-law and self-immolation in the world couldn’t derail it. Korean Gothic never looked so good. 

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