While remakes of classic Korean cinema are by no means something unprecedented, Im Sang-soo’s reworking of Kim Ki-Young’s 1960 THE HOUSEMAID is probably the most publicized foray into Korean film history by a current auteur. Recently restored by Martin Scorsese’s World Film Foundation, Kim Ki-Young’s original film has become the most recognized classic of the country’s cinematic history (it is available free on-line here). Thus, Im Sang-soo took on a formidable task in trying to make a contemporary melodrama from a film firmly entrenched in its time and place (post-war Korea) and directed by a filmmaker with a distinctive flair. The result is, in my opinion, just as successful on its own terms while also being a highly watchable and superbly paced genre vehicle. (WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD)

To begin, let’s detail the differences from the original. The 1960 version contains a reflexive framing device at the beginning and end that distances the audience from the story, including a direct address to the audience at the conclusion; the 2010 version has a opening, shot hand-held on location, that differs strikingly from the rest of the film, in which we witness a young woman commit suicide, an event that will be repeated at the conclusion. The 1960 version features a middle-class family who needs to hire a maid to ease the wife’s burden after buying a new modern home; the 2010 version has an ultra-rich family that already has an elderly servant (a new character) before hiring the working-class maid. Moreover, while the 1960 version retained a certain balance between the family and the housemaid, the 2010 version overwhelmingly falls on the side of the housemaid. Anecdotes about the 1960 version emphasize the hatred felt towards the maid by female audiences, who apparently yelled “kill the bitch” at the screen. This would be impossible in this version, since the maid doesn’t actually harm anyone but herself. Her “crime” is simply adultery, and she is not the one who is the primary seducer. Casting plays a key role here as well. When I first heard that Jeon Do-Yeon was playing the maid, I thought it impossible that she could portray the same decadent intensity of Lee Eun-Shim. Im rightly chose the change this character to one more naive and sympathetic, and in fact that actress most resembling the original maid is Seo Woo, who plays the wife. The whole family here is held by Im in clear contempt: you can almost feel the hate coming off the screen. The only sympathetic character is really the young daughter, who forms a close bond with the maid, quite unlike the original, where the children, especially the young son, are more unlikable than the parents. And perhaps the largest change comes at the conclusion, where instead of the maid causing the death of the young son and then forcing the husband into a murder-suicide in revenge for her forced abortion, she simply commits suicide by hanging and then immolating herself in the family’s living room.

As a result of these shifts, the 2010 HOUSEMAID is a far less subtle or complex movie. I would even argue that it verges on propaganda, albeit in a popular, entertaining form. The husband and wife of the 1960 version are complex characters, certainly flawed and even somewhat deserving of their fate, but never villainous and always partially identifiable. Here, they are broad caricatures of ultra-rich scum of the earth that would have made Sergei Eisenstein proud, and I have to say I had an immense amount of fun in reveling in all of this. If fan-boys can geek out on action blockbusters like IRON MAN 2, I don’t think I need to apologize for loving to hate these characters. Im effectively makes us despise these people and desire their destruction, even if he smartly denies us this satisfaction. There is also, as a friend of mine pointed, a certain anti-western strain at work here as well. The opening sequence features foreigners speaking in English, indifferently pointing out the girl’s suicide, while the bizarre final scene has the family speaking English as they assemble for a photo. Also, all of the signifiers of decadence displayed by the family, such as wine and classical music, are western in origin. Thus, the final gesture by the maid is not a typical act of revenge: it is an act of protest. The older maid breaks with the family at the end, but she simply walks away and asks the younger maid to do the same. She cannot, however, needing to make a final gesture, and the fact that she burns herself to death cannot help but recall the non-violent protests of Buddhist monks. It is important that she aims her gesture specifically at the couple’s young daughter, the only one in the family she likes. It may seem odd that she is deliberately traumatizing the young girl who is the only sympathetic family member, but ultimately it can be seen as an attempt to change the future, to break the cycle of this line by making the privileged daughter bear witness to her suffering. The final shot hints that she possibly succeeded, as the daughter is looking off-screen as the family gathers, perhaps at the memory of the maid, whose class the rest of the family has tried to erase.

Kim Ki-young’s 1960 version remains a creepier film, filled with bizarre, surrealist imagery and a complex balancing of social commentary and horror melodrama. Im Sang-soo creates a more conventional movie, faster paced and shot in a engaging, popular style. Because Im had already made a complex, realist examination of the Korean family with A GOOD LAWYER’S WIFE, perhaps he decided that there was no need to take that approach again. Instead, he created a radical critique of the ultra-rich and, while it can be argued that criticizing the rich is hardly revolutionary, I believe Im is going further. In condemning these characters and their lifestyle, which is a lifestyle many in Korean society are taught to worship, he is aiming his anger at a broader movement and tendency within the culture. Although not as overtly political and controversial as his earlier THE PRESIDENT’S LAST BANG, THE HOUSEMAID is consistent in its dark view of the power elite within Korean society.

THE HOUSEMAID is still playing at CGV theatres in Gangnam, Yongsan, Myungdong and Guro with English subtitles.

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