Cast:
Namkoong Won (Dong-shik), Youn Yuh-jung (Myeong-ja), Jeon Gye-hyeon (Jeong-suk), and Choi Mu-ryong (Detective Jo) Written and Directed by Kim Ki-young (#1596 - The Housemaid)
Review:
"A carpenter builds homes relying on his talent and insight. A carpenter who is talented in handling wood builds a wooden house; one who’s good with bricks builds a brick house. It’s the same with me. Starting with ‘The Housemaid,’ and going through ‘Woman of Fire’ and ‘Insect Woman,’ the films that saw success were those about demon-like femme fatales who, for their own reasonings, destroy domestic peace. What is success? People flock to theaters because the films are well-made. So my calculation is that I’m proficient in this kind of genre."
I'm sure that those familiar enough with world cinema remember The Housemaid (1960), often called one of the best films made in the 20th century in the country of South Korea. Kim Ki-young directed/wrote/produced the film, but did you know that he returned to the subject matter? Let alone twice? Well, let's start with the basics, the original film involved a family that suffers upheaval with the arrival of a new lady (a femme fatale, if you will) into their domain that has a mutual pact for its climax after attempts to rid the woman's illicit child (miscarriage in the original, abortion in the remakes) prove fruitful. The wraparound aspect of the story is the one big change for this film (well, that, and being in color), which plays around with time for its depiction of the story, where the older film started on a discussion of a newspaper story involving a man falling in love with his maid and this film starting out in a police station with a dead husband and a dead woman. Eleven years after the release of this film (which is also referred to as Hwanyeo), he would direct Woman of Fire '82. It has been argued (and cited by Kim himself in the quote mentioned above) that Insect Woman (1972) touched upon similar themes with the aforementioned Housemaid, and it perhaps seems apt that it had its own similar feature with Beasts of Prey (1985). At any rate, by the time of his untimely death, he was a cult figure among filmgoers that saw a detailing of just who he was a filmmaker with what survived from his output and the directors that took influence from what they saw into their own films; Youn Yuh-jung, who made her debut in this film, cited Kim when accepting an Academy Award in 2021 as a "very genius director". The fact that his 1960 film was remade again in 2010 probably speaks truth to his enduring status more than anything.
This was released in the 1970s, which was actually a troubling time for the film industry in South Korea due to censorship pushes under the military regime that went for censorship and propaganda. It probably won't rank as being better than the original feature for those who find themselves trying to compare, but the fact that it is a lurid way to remake a film without retaining every little aspect probably makes it more of an achievement than what is on the surface. One has to let the film sift on its own without thinking of it as going from points A to B all the time, because it is more dedicated to showing unease in all of the ways that matter in desire. The dark and shadowy angles in the noir-like features of the original film are still fairly present in the colorful look of the manic and depraved feature displayed here that is never starved in hysteria. Namkoong serves as an ideal lead when it comes to being the one male among the disposables that are seen among the certain level of middle-class people that only like to get certain parts of their hands dirty, and this includes the hands that are restless towards pants. Youn is naturally the best part of the film as, well, the title character involving fiery womanhood that is always watchable in part because it isn't merely a film with clear-cut heroes, since that pool is muddled by all the dark desires shown by each of the key three (incidentally, each of them would appear in Insect Woman), as to see coming from people that must live with the memory of what they did and saw in Jeon. As a whole, the 100-minute runtime does prove satisfying in showing why Kim felt the need to look upon the world of domestic invasion through the lens of women from time to time, and it shows the need for understanding just what matters most in treading familiar ground without becoming just another ground to step over. Enjoying the lurid show and looking upon its tricks is what matters most here, which works out pretty well in the long run.
Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.
Next up: A normal time in Belgium with Man Bites Dog.
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