The Housemaid

Written by Jonathan Jacobs

The Housemaid presents an erotic love-triangle with multiple sinews and undulations. As the film begins in Seoul, South Korea, we are privy to video arcades, shopping malls, brilliantly illuminated nightscapes, and in the midst of so much glamour, an anonymous young woman commits suicide. She jumps off a ledge as passers-by witness the full glory of her bloody, disfigured body. The image of her virtual dismemberment is deliberately nauseating as Director Im Sang-Soo generates symbolism. The woman is discarded like yesterday’s news and is just an annoying insect. This is the flare-filled beginning of the tragically aphrodisiacal film The Housemaid.

Another young woman, our soon to be housemaid Lee Eun-yi (Jeon Do-yeon) witnessed the tragic fatality. At first, Eun-yi lives with her mother and sleeps on a petite mattress with few amenities. Immediately she interviews for the position of nanny with the fabulously affluent Goh Hoon (Lee Jung-jae) and his pregnant wife Hae Ra (Seo Woo). Hae is pregnant with twins and is incapable of having intercourse to completion. She relies heavily on her skills with fellatio. The elder housemaid Miss Cho implies that Eun-yi is not the first young woman to hold the position of the family’s caretaker. Eun-yi’s responsibilities include hand washing Hae Ra’s underwear, looking after their daughter Nami (Ahn Seo-hyeon), and pampering the family in every way humanly feasible.

After a painstaking wait in which my level of curiosity piqued, the limitlessly wealthy Mr. Hoon arrives and begins feeling out the new help. From the first instant the husband lays eyes on the housemaid he feels attracted to her. Having witnessed the suicide and then acknowledging his unethical attitude, one gets the sense it is par for the course for the help to offer their services no matter what that entails.

The household is breathtaking. The staircase is elegant, the marble floors are impressive, the private piano room is classic, and the list is endless. Having an abundance of money allows Hae Ra to be spoiled. She enjoys daily manicures and pedicures, private sponge baths in a modernistic bathtub, and she has the luxury of acting oblivious to her husband’s indiscretions.

The sleaze does not crystallize until Hoon watches the maid scrubbing the bathtub on her hands and knees. When the family travels to their winter retreat, he watches Eun-yi swim with Nami in the heated outdoor pool while snowflakes fall desultorily into the water. While everyone goes to bed, Hoon screws his wife effortlessly. She is trying to orgasm while he is drinking wine and staring aimlessly at the ceiling. Hae Ra may be pregnant but she is still stunningly beautiful. She finishes him off with her mouth, but this does not satiate his deeper craving. Within minutes Hoon meanders downstairs and seduces Eun-yi by feeding her wine and demanding she undress. He slowly plays with her breasts and her camel-toed vagina. He then innocently requests what any good employer would, a blow-job! She declares her love for the smell of his testicles. Got muenster cheese anyone? Back at their primary house, he sneaks into Eun-yi’s room which is adjacent to his daughter’s room and climbs on top of her spider-monkey style (look it up) and orgasms inside of her despite her misgivings about receiving a steaming hot cumshot while not on birth-control pills or any other means of contraception. Feeling overconfident, she begins wearing inviting red lipstick. What does all of this result in? More money in her paycheck! Having more affection, even if strictly secretive and sexual in nature, Eun-yi becomes the favorite nanny and doubles her efforts. She may be morally unscrupulous but whether she is a victim of circumstance or the architect of a family’s disintegration is anyone’s interpretation.

Miss Cho catches the husband and their maid having intercourse but maintains her silence. When she does briefly confront Eun-yi she is mildly reproachful and expresses caution, but her warning falls on deaf ears. Eun-yi is pregnant and doesn’t even realize that is why her breasts are swollen and her cravings have been intensified. Catching wind of this, Hae Ra and her mother accidentally push Eun-yi off the staircase. The helpless maid winds up dangling from the chandelier but nobody will assist her in returning to safety. They have no shame and fear no consequences. At the hospital an MRI reveals that miraculously, Eun-yi has no broken limbs and she has not miscarried as the wife and her mother had hoped she would. While starting to recover Eun-yi receives a “consolidation” payment from Hae Ra to permanently disappear from her family’s life.

This is where the summarist must play David Copperfield and the movie pundit must make an appearance. The Housemaid is a sexually-charged erotic melodrama that slowly plays itself out in the most suspenseful of ways. It is a brilliant film filled with incredible scenery, cogent acting, and an agonizing plot guaranteed to stir your emotions like Iron Chef Morimoto working a fish stew! The Housemaid caused me to question whether or not wealthy men always act infidelitous because they are fearless of facing any consequences. Or perhaps, it takes two to sexually tango, and the mistresses are always at fault for forcing temptation on libidinous men that need constant attention, gratification, and to feel dominant. Either way, the end result is usually severe and heartbreaking. Jeon Do-yeon as Eun-yi is superb. She is as fine an actress as Noomi Rapace, or Kate Winslet. She is artfully seductive and plays the role with flare. I highly recommend this picture regardless of your genre(s) of preference. The Housemaid transcends genre-ization.