FilmCriticLalitRao South Korean director Kim Ki Young's film 'Hanyo'/ The Housemaid is a serious family film which needs to be watched by all members of any family. As this film is absolutely pertinent due to its brutal yet frank treatment of what makes or breaks a family, it is expected that both husbands and wives would make efforts to watch it. Director Kim's film impressed viewers to such an extent that even assistance came in the form of American director Martin Scorcese's World Cinema Foundation. As a film which chose to describe marital relations and their consequences on a married couple, Hanyo is a bold film of its times. One must bear in mind that it was made at a time when revolutionary ideas were in the air. The emotions found in contemporary South Korean films are all reflections of a nation's psyche. From that point of view, it can be said that Hanyo is no exception to the rule. It has its own fair share of controversial elements including neurotic persons. All characters have mean qualities including the couple's two children who are constantly bullying each other. Lastly, no particular group or person is favored as director Kim Ki Young depicted how everybody has reasons to do anything for safeguarding the family's interests.

Polaris_DiB So this maid totally blackmails this man into sleeping with her, kills one of his children, and then incarcerates him and his wife in their own house, right? The moral of the story: apparently, the wife should have never wanted to own her own house, and all men when they grow older are pigs. YUP. Beautiful.Ki-young Kim's modern parable starts in with the social commentary right from the get-go, but after a while devolves into a nonsense horror movie where a completely insane woman holds an entire family hostage with their guilt and fear. None of the family members at any point have the guts to stand up for themselves, so for almost about two hours you get to see a murderer, narcissist, and blackmailer hold sway over weak people with no cajones with poison and threats of the police, while she kills off the family one-by-one.Not to say that the family is completely devoid of their own responsibility, but half the problem is that they won't just chop off her head with a shovel like the snake that she is. There's only so far I buy the "Oh noes, we'll lose our jobs and people won't respect us" after the body count begins. The main problem is that it's incredibly hard to have sympathy for these people. Pretty much nobody acts in any way to improve their situation, and all of them become subject to this woman's desires for happiness that are just impossibly met. It sucks worse because the movie takes place over a relatively long period of time, and you'd think these people'd think it through a bit. But instead it's all moping and shrinking while the maid just goes gradually insane.Not a very enjoyable movie. Shameless moralizing that is not backed up by the motivations OF the characters. Way too little common sense IN the characters. What interest you can get out of the film-making and the cinematography will be forgotten quickly in the painfulness of the plot. Best just to steer clear.--PolarisDiB

Lina (backfisch) Allow me to add to the hype: this film is as delirious as they come. Starting out as a typical realist glance into 1960's South Korea as centered on a upwardly-mobile family, after the plot gets settled, becomes a hysterical and expressionistic tale of corrosive sin and deception. The transformation of one night's flirtation into a grandiose moral eradication is the one of the most stunning turns of atmosphere I've ever seen in a film. Also amazing is how your view of the characters changes dramatically as they are faced with this living hell. While researching about the director, I found out that the actress who played the housemaid, Eun-shim Lee, fulfilled the part so well that she couldn't find work after this movie. Audience members were literally screaming for her death at the original showings! See this film just for her, you won't regret it! I can't say enough great things about the director Kim Ki-young, too bad most of his films aren't available in English!

Alonso Duralde Suicides, attempted suicides, blackmail, murder, attempted murder, adultery, paranoia -- the goings-on in this bizarre and fascinating melodrama put even MANJI to shame.No wonder one critic calls director Kim "Douglas Sirk on acid" -- while Western audiences may laugh at some of the overheated melodrama, this potboiler nonetheless is pretty wild for 1960, and manages to be both lurid and unforgettable. (It's also got one of the great death scenes *ever* -- see for yourself!)