The Housemaid
ハウスメイド
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A maid, a master, a pregnancy and a household that closes ranks; wealth as a sexual weapon.
A young woman takes her own life in a crowded city street, and Eun-yi, who works in a restaurant and shares a tiny room with a friend, goes to look at the place where it happened. Soon after, she is hired as a live-in maid by a very rich family. The house is run by Byeong-sik, an older servant who has been with the wife's family for years. The master, Hoon, plays Beethoven on his grand piano; his young wife, Hae-ra, is pregnant with twins; their six-year-old daughter, Nami, quickly grows fond of Eun-yi.
One night Hoon comes to Eun-yi's room with wine, and she does what he asks. They begin a sexual relationship, and Eun-yi stays warm to Hae-ra and delights in her pregnancy. Byeong-sik has seen them, and when she suspects that Eun-yi is pregnant, she tells Hae-ra's mother, Mi-hee. Mi-hee stages an accident. Eun-yi slips from a ladder on the upper landing and begs for a hand; Mi-hee will not give it, and she falls. In hospital she learns that she is pregnant. Hae-ra, now knowing everything, slaps her, and with her mother offers her money to have an abortion and leave. Eun-yi will not. Hae-ra begins to poison the herbal tonic she drinks every day.
Hae-ra gives birth to twin sons. Hoon comes home to find Eun-yi in his bath; she tells him that she is carrying his child and means to keep it. Then the poison takes hold and she collapses, and while she is unconscious a doctor who serves Mi-hee ends the pregnancy without her consent. In hospital Byeong-sik confesses that she was the one who told, and Eun-yi swears revenge. With Byeong-sik's help she slips back into the house, where Hoon finds her holding one of the babies. Byeong-sik refuses to throw her out and quits on the spot. Then, with the whole family watching, Eun-yi takes her own life.
The film ends on Nami's birthday. In the snowy garden the family, twins and all, celebrate in English; Hoon hands his small daughter a glass of champagne, and the adults seem unmoored, while Nami looks on.
Starring
Jeon Do-yeonas Eun-yi
A young woman hired as a live-in maid by a rich family, who is drawn into an affair with the master and becomes pregnant.
Eun-yi’s story
Eun-yi is divorced, shares a tiny room with a friend and works in a restaurant, and she goes to look at the place where a stranger took her own life. In the rich house she wins over six-year-old Nami. When Hoon comes to her with wine, she does what he asks, and stays warm to his pregnant wife. After Mi-hee lets her fall from the ladder, she learns she is pregnant and refuses money to have an abortion. She tells Hoon she means to keep his child; then the poison in her tonic takes hold, and while she is unconscious the pregnancy is ended without her consent. When Byeong-sik confesses that she told, Eun-yi vows revenge. She slips back into the house, is found holding one of the twins, and takes her own life with the whole family watching.
Lee Jung-jaeas Hoon
The master of the house, rich and charming, who takes the new maid as his lover as if by right.
Hoon’s story
Hoon has everything. He plays Beethoven on his grand piano while his young wife carries twins. On a winter night at the family's villa he takes a glass of wine to the new maid's room, and afterwards he hands her a cheque. The affair goes on at home. When his wife gives birth and turns on him, he comes home angry and finds Eun-yi in his bath; she tells him she is carrying his child, and as the poison takes hold he tells her to have it. When his mother-in-law has the pregnancy ended, he rounds on her: is a child his only if her daughter bears it? When Eun-yi comes back, he finds her holding one of his sons. On Nami's birthday, in the snowy garden, he hands his small daughter a glass of champagne.
Seo Wooas Hae-ra
Hoon's young wife, pregnant with twins, who learns of the affair and sets out to be rid of Eun-yi and her child.
Youn Yuh-jungas Byeong-sik
The older maid who runs the household, has served the wife's family for years and sees everything.
Byeong-sik’s story
Byeong-sik has served Hae-ra's family since Hae-ra was a child and runs the house, and it is she who hires Eun-yi. She calls her work galling, dirty, sickening and petty, and does it anyway; even when her son is appointed a prosecutor, an event the family marks with a fat envelope of money, she stays on. She is the first to see what is happening between the master and the new maid, guesses the pregnancy before Eun-yi knows it herself, and tells Hae-ra's mother. In hospital, after the pregnancy has been ended, she confesses to Eun-yi that she was the one who told. Then she helps her slip back into the house, and when Hae-ra orders her to throw Eun-yi out, she refuses, quits on the spot and walks out.
Why it matters
Kim Ki-young's 1960 The Housemaid watched a family's respectability threatened by the woman it let into the house. Im Sang-soo, who said he wanted to take on class in contemporary Korea head-on, turned the fear round. Here the family is so rich that nothing reaches it, and the danger runs the other way. Eun-yi's body is treated as part of the household: used by the master, watched by the old maid, handled by the mother-in-law, relieved of a pregnancy without her consent. Even the women who might side with her serve the house; Hae-ra's mother tells her that rich husbands always stray and that a wife who looks away can live like a queen. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2010 and topped the Korean box office on its opening weekend. What stays is its ending: a woman whose last power is to make them watch, and a family that goes on celebrating.