FilmCriticLalitRao South Korean director Kim Ki Young's film 'Hanyo'/ The Housemaid is a serious family film which needs to be watched by all members of any family. As this film is absolutely pertinent due to its brutal yet frank treatment of what makes or breaks a family, it is expected that both husbands and wives would make efforts to watch it. Director Kim's film impressed viewers to such an extent that even assistance came in the form of American director Martin Scorcese's World Cinema Foundation. As a film which chose to describe marital relations and their consequences on a married couple, Hanyo is a bold film of its times. One must bear in mind that it was made at a time when revolutionary ideas were in the air. The emotions found in contemporary South Korean films are all reflections of a nation's psyche. From that point of view, it can be said that Hanyo is no exception to the rule. It has its own fair share of controversial elements including neurotic persons. All characters have mean qualities including the couple's two children who are constantly bullying each other. Lastly, no particular group or person is favored as director Kim Ki Young depicted how everybody has reasons to do anything for safeguarding the family's interests.

Claudio Carvalho In the 60's in Korea, the piano teacher Mr. Kim works in a factory giving music classes to the workers. When he receives a love letter from the student Miss Kwak, he delivers the letter to the supervisor and the worker is suspended for three days.Mr. Kim is a family man, married with two children, the girl Aw-Soon and the boy Chang-Soon, and he has just built and moved to a bigger house of his own. His wife Mrs. Kim also works too much at a sewing machine and they need a housemaid to help her in the housework. Mr. Kim asks Kwak's best friend, Miss Kyung Hee Cho, who is his private student of piano, to help him to find a housemaid. Miss Cho invites an unstable and unbalanced young woman to work for Mr. and Mrs. Kim and she introduces the housemaid to the family. Mr. Kim hires the youth and brings her to the household. But soon she behaves in a strange way, snooping Mr. Kim's private classes until the night that she seduces Mr. Kim and they have intercourse. The housemaid gets pregnant and uses her condition to press Mr. Kim. When she provokes a miscarriage, she blackmails Mr. Kim leading to the family's destruction. "Hanyo" is a masterpiece of obsession in a weird culture, i.e., in a culture absolutely different from the westerns. The melodramatic story is absolutely unpredictable, has wonderful performances, but I can not even imagine a western being submitted by the outrageous situation that Mr. Kim and his family have to live due to the blackmail of their housemaid. The devotion to family is part of the Confucianism but after the death of the boy, it is inadmissible even to think a family man allowing the killer to stay in the household and to have sex with her. The conclusion is totally unexpected and it is funny to hear that this sort of thing may happen to any man. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Hanyo, A Empregada" ("Hanyo, the Housemaid")

Yelisey A very intense psychological thriller, which could have received a higher rating from me, if not some of its drawbacks that somewhat belittle the overall impression. And the main of them is complete, at times even laughable silliness of the family members. E.g., why didn't the papa or the mama throw away that f***ing bottle of rat-poison, even after the death of their son? Were they so sure that their housemaid wouldn't use it again? What can I say, the father's actions in the second half were awfully and unbelievably idiotic, even if that gutlessness was undoubtedly intended by the director.Having said that, I must repeat that it's a very good film that has some excellent cinematography plus even the children characters are quite amusing and natural, especially their sonny.

Boba_Fett1138 This movie was a real surprise. I knew nothing about this director, or 'old' Korean cinema, so I had no idea what to expect from this movie. I was really surprised at how incredibly well and professionally it got directed and the story got written, as if it all got done by some big Hollywood names involved, with years of experience in the business under their belt. Everything about this movie got basically done extremely well. Asian cinema is not often known to feature the fastest pace but this movie has a very pleasant quick pace to it and still manages to build up its characters and drama as powerful and effective as any other old and much slower Asian genre attempt. This is of course for most part due to the directing approach of Ki-young Kim, that is nothing short of brilliant to be honest. There are some amazingly well set up moments in the movie, that get brought beautifully and at times even artistically to the screen. But it's also due to the fine written story, by Ki-young Kim as well, that makes this movie such an extremely good one. It's a quite simple movie, in terms of that it doesn't feature that many characters in it and it is being set for most part at only two different locations; an house and a factory. What I foremost liked about the story was that all of the characters within it interact differently with each other and each of them have a different feeling and opinion about the other. It lets the story and all of its emotions and tension work out so very well. And this is all despite the fact that the movie just doesn't really have the most likely and convincing story in it. Or perhaps this is more due to the fact that's its about an entirely different culture, so all of the character motivations and their actions often seem like odd ones, through modern Western eyes. The movie is being a (melo)drama but with definitely a thriller overtone to it. The movie features some classic, effective genre elements, such as a great sense of claustrophobia, a constant sense of danger and unpredictability to it all, overall desperateness and even a femme fatale. It's also being a very well cast movie. Not only do all of the actors really let their characters work out well but they also all seem to have the right looks for their part. They are also all very distinctive looking, so you never have to worry about mixing one or two different South-Koreans up with each other, like perhaps sometimes is the case in other black & white Asian movies, in which all of the characters look alike with the same costumes and hairstyles. One surprisingly great movie, that got beautifully and fully restored by Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation. 9/10