The Housemaid

Eun-yi (Do-yeon Jeon), a young divorcée with a rough past, becomes a housemaid for a rich family in which the mother, Hae-ra (Seo Woo), is expecting twins. The husband, Hoon (Jung-Jae Lee), begins fooling around with Eun-yi, taking advantage of her vulnerability toward men—and everything goes to hell when Eun-yi becomes pregnant. The women of the house try to buy Eun-yi into getting an abortion, but she refuses—and that’s when shit gets really messed up. While the film tries to lull its audience into slight boredom and then surprise everyone with a shocker ending, à la Takashi Miike’s Audition, it’s not so much the ending that is shocking; it’s the brutal way in which the women of the household gang up against the battered housemaid. This is one horrific soap opera. It’s definitely not a fun film, but it’s certainly interesting to watch, especially considering how wonderfully shot and beautifully made it is.