Suicide and servility make for a timeless feast

South Korean director Im Sang-soo starts his sixth film, The Housemaid, on a ledge above a busy street in a big city in the evening. A young woman hovers over, about to commit suicide. At street level, Im takes us from steamy kitchen to steamy kitchen, restaurant to restaurant, until the girl jumps. Suicide and food are never far from his camera.

RFI

This drama is a remake of a 1963 film made by Kim Ki-young, based on a novel by Hwang Sok-young. Im’s version features an updated aesthetic, with its palette of greys and blues and its approach to interior design, but the story’s themes of servility, domination, greed and simplicity remain timeless.

Jeon Do-youn conveys a stubborn wilfulness and resistance in her titular role as the housemaid, the charming and naive Euny. Youn Yuh-jung portrays Euny’s elder, the housekeeper Byung-shik, in a performance ranging from submissive and sad to ultimately remorseful and rebellious.

Euny’s kindness and simple desires contrast with the cruelty and greed of the wealthy household that hires her. The wife, Hera, is pregnant with twins and wants more children, but will prevent Euny from having even one child. The husband, Hoon, takes Euny as his mistress.

In the midst of all this, eight-year-old Hami is a reassuring wunderkind who, despite her parents’ attempts to literally spoil her, remains untouchable.

All of the characters are as convincing as the story allows them to be: the husband suitably detached, the pregnant wife suitably jealous and dramatically vicious.

With Im and his director of photography, Lee Hyung-deok, creating dramatic tension with visual crispness, rising perspectives and Hitchcockian overhead shots, The Housemaid is a Cannes official selection with many opening and closing doors.