February 25, 2009

The Housemaid

Korea's Lost Classic

It's an overused cliche but seeing Kim Ki-Young's 1960 film, The Housemaid, truly is a revelatory experience. The thought that a film like this could have emerged from South Korea in the year that it did is pretty mind blowing. This remarkable film explores the chaos that ensues when a sexually forward housemaid is hired by a music teacher to help his wife around their newly built two story home. What follows is a horrific disintegration of one of the basic pillars of a Confucian society: the family.

The trouble begins when a music teacher hires a housemaid who soon begins making sexual advances toward him. The housemaid eventually gets her way and, in the process, ends up pregnant. All hell breaks loose when the teacher's wife finds out. Fearing embarrassment, she struggles to strike a balance between revenge and preserving the family's dignity in the eyes of the community. You don't air your family's dirty laundry in Korean society so instead the household begins to rot from the inside out.

For a film emerging from such a conservative culture, especially in 1960, The Housemaid is incredibly blunt in its depiction of sexuality and violence. A woman stripping, attempting to seduce, then forcing herself upon a man is one of the last things you'd expect to see going into an old Korean film (nowadays is a completely different story). Nevertheless, it's here and it's awkward as hell. The scenes of violence are no less shocking, even eliciting some gasps from the audience I saw it with.

A somewhat superficial but nevertheless accurate way to describe this film is as a Korean melodrama directed by Alfred Hitchcock (one IMDB commentor preferred to refer to the film as "Douglas Sirk on acid"). Tears are shed, there's plenty of yelling, and people keep making irrational decisions for inexplicable reasons: all hallmarks of Korean melodrama. But despite the contrived emotions and many hilarious moments, the tension that Kim manages to generate is almost unbearable. The film is both funny and frightening.

Much lauded contemporary filmmakers such as Bong Joon-Ho (Memories of Murder, The Host) and Park Chan-Wook (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy) have both named Kim as a major influence upon their work. Bong cites Kim as a mentor and favorite director while Park has stated that The Housemaid is one of the films that has had the greatest influence on his career. High praise from two of the country's best known filmmakers but the influence is so apparent that they really didn't need to say anything at all.

As in Bong's work, much of the brilliance of The Housemaid lies in its blending of different genres and the ability to effectively combine horror and humor. However, what really puts Bong's films in a league of their own are their razor sharp observations of Korean society and an ability to seamlessly weave Korea's often tumultuous political climate throughout the fabric of his films. The Housmaid is no different. As someone who lived during the period of Japanese occupation and the subsequent rapid transition from an agrarian to industrial society, Kim's film is rich with observations about the rapidly changing face of gender and class in Korean society.

The newfound economic prosperity in the latter half of the 20th century coupled with a strong American influence (a result of the Korean War that still lingers to this day) proves to be the most fertile source of the events that transpire in this film. Status symbols like a new two-story home and owning the first television on the block are presented as the objects of desire that result in the collapse of this family.

Kim's attitude toward modern amenities and the consumer culture they foster is clear but those feelings don't appear to extend to his filmmaking which is wholly original and as modern as they come. The stark black and white cinematography is suffocating while the well paced editing keeps you squirming with anxiety. Nothing about Kim's film feels old fashioned and I'd even be willing to go out on a limb and say that it could stand toe to toe with another masterpiece released that same year: Psycho.

The Housemaid is a fascinating film and one that deserves much more attention than the handful of paragraphs I've given it here (I didn't even mention the great ending). The film is a true masterpiece and it's criminal how difficult it is to see. Thankfully, that will soon change with it's anticipated DVD release later this year. Maybe then will the film finally be recognized as the classic of world cinema it always has been.