A man's affair with his family's housemaid leads to dark consequences.A man's affair with his family's housemaid leads to dark consequences.A man's affair with his family's housemaid leads to dark consequences.
- Awards
- 15 wins & 11 nominations total
Jeon Do-yeon
- Eun-yi Li
- (as Do-youn Jeon)
Youn Yuh-jung
- Byung-sik
- (as Yuh-jung Youn)
Ahn Seo-hyun
- Na-mi
- (as Seo-hyun Ahn)
Kim Jin-ah
- Doctor
- (as Jin-ah Kim)
Hyeon-kyeong Lim
- Yoga Instructor
- (as Hyun-kyung Lim)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAround 1 hr 9 min, when Eun-yi is sitting on a bed, in the background is a large piece of art with English words faintly visible on it. The words are a quotation from Nathanael West's novel Miss Lonleyhearts, a work with many themes that mirror those in this movie such as depression, lonliness, drinking, adultery, and physical abuse.
- GoofsThe body harness is visible during the hanging.
- Quotes
Hae-ra's Mother: With a rich husband, cheating is just part of the package.
- ConnectionsFeatured in At the Movies: Cannes Film Festival 2010 (2010)
- SoundtracksLa Mamma Morta
from the opera, "Andrea Chinier"
Performed by Maria Callas
Composed by Umberto Giordano
Courtesy of EMI Records Ltd.
By arrangement with Warner Music Korea, a Warner Music Group Company
Featured review
The original South Korean film from the 1960s called The Housemaid is both classist and misogynistic. The poor widdle rich people are the victims in the original flick, and the husband who is but a boy in a man's body is seduced by a wicked witch of a servant....yeah, its pretty bad in terms of glad handing traditional conservative patriarchal values. So refreshingly, the 2010 remake - also from South Korea - turns that nauseating narrative on its head.
Instead, kind but not very bright and recently divorced Eun-yi is humanized by an introduction to her cramped working class life which she shares with a very close but platonic female friend, before she is thrust into the wealthy family that sees her as nothing but an animal. She's overjoyed to have such a cushy position in a big house, and loves the daughter of the spoiled married couple almost like her own child.
The wife is pregnant and utterly horrible (she makes Eun-yi hand wash her dirty panties), and naturally due to her being so close to delivery while carrying twins, she's not particularly interested in having more sex with her entitled, snobbish husband. So he imposes himself upon the young maid and rewards her with extra pay to service his "needs."
The only person in the entire film who seems to have a bit of sense is the elder maid servant, Byung-shik, who helps herself to oysters and wine and sees her lowly position for what it actually is. A petty betrayal of Eun-yi (which she later thoroughly regrets and recants upon) leads to murderous drama, revealing what soulless people the ultra-wealthy family really are.
A beautiful but less satisfying predecessor to class war South Korean film, Parasite.
Instead, kind but not very bright and recently divorced Eun-yi is humanized by an introduction to her cramped working class life which she shares with a very close but platonic female friend, before she is thrust into the wealthy family that sees her as nothing but an animal. She's overjoyed to have such a cushy position in a big house, and loves the daughter of the spoiled married couple almost like her own child.
The wife is pregnant and utterly horrible (she makes Eun-yi hand wash her dirty panties), and naturally due to her being so close to delivery while carrying twins, she's not particularly interested in having more sex with her entitled, snobbish husband. So he imposes himself upon the young maid and rewards her with extra pay to service his "needs."
The only person in the entire film who seems to have a bit of sense is the elder maid servant, Byung-shik, who helps herself to oysters and wine and sees her lowly position for what it actually is. A petty betrayal of Eun-yi (which she later thoroughly regrets and recants upon) leads to murderous drama, revealing what soulless people the ultra-wealthy family really are.
A beautiful but less satisfying predecessor to class war South Korean film, Parasite.
- thalassafischer
- Jun 3, 2023
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Người Hầu Gái
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $157,961
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $16,670
- Jan 23, 2011
- Gross worldwide
- $15,038,301
- Runtime1 hour 47 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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