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felix
Friday 19 November 2010
The Housemaid
Director Sang-soo Im
Screenwriter Sang-soo Im, Kiyoung
Kim
Cast Do-yeon Jeon, Jung-Jae Lee,
Seo-Hyeon Ahn
John Park
The London Korean Film Festival is
here and brings with it a wide range of
extraordinary films that prove that South
Korean cinema is churning out some
of the best films internationally. The
Housemaid, a taut, intricately-plotted
erotic thriller, is the perfect example of
a suspenseful rollercoaster ride that creates
its thrills with a central plot full of
twists, outstanding performances, sharp
dialogue, evocative cinematography
and, quiet but sensual atmosphere.
Eun-yi (Do-yeon Jeon) is a sweet,
innocent and vulnerable woman who
moves into the home of an incredibly
wealthy, upper class family to work as
their housemaid. As soon as she enters
their marble-floored mansion, she
realises that they are living in a whole
another universe. Expensive bottles of
wine and selection of cheeses are their
midnight snack, their wardrobes are a
sight to behold and they listen to classical
music on their lavish, state-of-theart
stereo. Their extravagance goes on
and on. Her bosses are Hoon (Jung-jae
Lee) and his heavily pregnant young
wife Haera (Woo Seo). Eun-yi also has
a mentor in the know-it-all, cold-faced
Byung-sik (Yeo-jong Yun), a prying old
We Are What We Are
Director Jorge Michel Grau
Screenwriter Jorge Michel Grau
Cast Adrián Aguirre, Miriam
Balderas, Francisco Barreiro
Jake Lea-Wilson
In 2004 I was travelling in Australia
when someone dared me to go to the
cinema. The idea was to go to see Super
Size Me, the Morgan Spurlock documentary,
whilst eating two super-sized
McDonald’s Big Mac meals. I succeeded
in the challenge although it put
me off McDonald’s for the duration of
university. I extend that dare to anyone,
anywhere, to eat anything even remotely
meaty whilst watching the new Mexican
horror film based on a family of cannibals,
We Are What We Are.
The film starts off with an old dying
man in a mall, gazing open-mouthed at
some partially naked mannequins. It
lady who has been serving the family for
years.
Perhaps it’s because his sex life with
his pregnant wife is proving to be too
challenging and unfulfilling, Eun-yi is
lured into an affair with her boss. One
steamy and noisy night attracts the attention
of Byung-sik and this of course
leads to complications, which draw the
women surrounding the handsome, narcissistic
boss into a game of power play.
Haera is furious with her husband
and wants revenge, but her chilling,
manipulative mother (Ji-yeong Park) is
more interested in how much Hoon has
to offer. Haera needs to stay married to
him, not just for money, but for power,
turns out the man has a “whore problem”
but unfortunately the problem
isn’t of the blatantly obvious variety –
an autopsy reveals a partially-digested
woman’s finger in the man’s stomach
after he dies. This seals the fate of the
family who are dependent on his “hunting”
skills. What follows is a rite of
passage film that promotes the son of
the family to the new “leader”. Shocking
as it is the film will eventually have
you rooting for Alfredo to catch his first
victim, whether that be a whore (like his
father’s tactics) or a homosexual, who
Alfredo finds much easier to seduce before
dinner.
The real genius of the film, however, is
not in the raw flesh and shock-goretastic
violence, like most of the horror films
out this time of year, but it’s in the questions
posed by the narrative. As you’re
watching, you slowly begin to learn
why someone would be eating someone
else in the first place. It’s pretty slow
moving but that gives you time to ask
and so should look the other way. It’s a
woman’s duty, the scary lady explains.
For these rich people, money is the answer
to everything. Haera’s mother tries
to pay Eun-yi off with quite a sum, but
the pure-hearted girl cannot accept.
Byung-sik is the one caught in the middle,
and although she sympathises with
Eun-yi, she cannot do anything to help
her. It doesn’t matter that Byung-sik
has a long-standing connection with the
family: she is the servant and dares not
to speak out against her employers. As
Haera and her mother’s methods of trying
to get rid of Eun-yi turn more and
more violent, Byung-sik can only stand
aside and watch with pain and guilt, as
“
You will ask yourself
”
questions like: “Can
I ever eat meat
again?”
She’s not looking forwards to getting those stains out...
31
FILM
South Korea’s sharp, suspenseful thriller
Suspicious-looking lamps are only the beginning of her problems
Eun-yi’s well-being is threatened.
The lavish set-design of the marvelous
mansion, as well as the graceful cinematography
that further amplifies the delicate
and beautiful home further adds to
the tension. This is one fragile house,
gleaming with perfection. Quite often,
it’s too perfect, and many dark secrets
are hiding behind the perfectly hung
pictures, chandeliers and expensive furniture.
When there is so much passion,
jealousy, lust, anger and devious backstabbing,
the house won’t be able to take
it for long.
But it is the truly outstanding actresses
that dominate the screen and portray
their complex emotions exceptionally
well. Jeon is fascinating in the central
role, her doe-eyed, gentle nature remaining
uncorrupted by the evil around her.
She does get in the middle of a marriage,
but never in the vindictive sense. Even
when the affair is stopped abruptly,
Eun-yi is not at all angry, just slightly
confused as she goes back to her work,
carrying on with her life as normally as
possible. Jeon is utterly convincing as
the victim, and as her character goes
through major changes, everything that
she portrays – ranging from vulnerability,
to sexy, seductive energy to vengeful
fury – is impeccable. Rich supporting
roles are also anchored by the three
terrific actresses (Yun, Park and Seo).
The one who stands out is Yun, whose
initial bitter personality is simply a cunning
mask for surviving under the rich,
pretentious family whom she secretly
resents. Park’s blunt words spoken in
such self-righteous tones rounds off the
excellent cast.
Complicated twists and exciting revelations
keep this film going and the
build-up to the melodramatic finale is
undeniably gripping. The ending will
not satisfy everyone, since there is no
murderous, bloody rampage that gives
the feeling of fulfillment of revenge, but
as far as Eun-yi’s character goes, what
she does makes perfect sense. The subtle
twists in camera angles, uncomfortable
shades of dark colours and intense
looks from the characters don’t cost a
lot of money, but are certainly more than
enough to get the pulses racing.
Cannibals and modern family dysfunction
yourself plenty of questions like “can I
ever eat meat again?” or “why does the
family have 500 clocks in their living
room?” Although you don’t actually see
any human-sandwiches being consumed
we do get treated to the visible and audible
feast of “the ritual”. I can tell you
now that the Foley artists would have
had a great day when they got to make
these sound effects.
Heralded as a social satire, the film
examines many issues in Mexico and
worldwide. It touches upon corruption,
poverty, violence and centres on
modern day family dysfunction. Using
food, albeit people food, is an interesting
way to highlight these points. (Isn’t
our government always saying we don’t
eat enough meals as a family?) This is
one film that is definitely worth a view-
ing, though watch out for the daughter
in the family. Don’t be fooled by her
looks and sense of family loyalty, she’s
hiding a nasty homosapien hunger under
her cute white dress.