Hanyo (2010)

A man's affair with his family's housemaid leads to dark consequences.

Director:

Sang-soo Im

Writers:

Ki-young Kim (based on the film by), Sang-soo Im

Stars:

Do-yeon Jeon, Jung-jae Lee, Yuh Jung Youn

15 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Do-yeon Jeon	...	Eun-yi Li
Jung-jae Lee	...	Hoon Goh
Yuh Jung Youn	...	Byung-sik (as Yuh-jung Youn)
Woo Seo	...	Hae-ra
Ji-Young Park	...	Hae-ra's Mother
Seo-hyun Ahn	...	Na-mi
Jung-min Hwang	...	Eun-yi's Friend
So-Ri Moon	...	Obstetrician
Jin-ah Kim	...	Doctor
Yi-yeong Shim	...	Doctor (as Jin-ah Kim)
Tae-back Chae	...	Herbal Medicine Shop Doctor
Sin-hwan Jeon	...	Chief Secretary
Sang-min Noh	...	Driver
Soon-kyu Jang	...	Security
Yong-jae Cho	...	Security 2

Storyline

Eun-yi is a playful young woman, a good match for a job as nanny to a precocious child, Nami, the daughter of a wealthy couple, Hae-ra and Hoon. Hae-ra will soon have twins as well. The majordomo, Mrs. Cho, is the household's cold stone center. Before long, Hoon seduces Eun-yi, and when Mrs. Cho tells Hae-ra's mother about the affair, Eun-yi is up against women with wealth, power, and no conscience. Can Eun-yi maintain her dignity and perhaps even put the family in their place?

---

Plot Keywords:

mother in law son in law relationship | power of money | abuse of power | jealous wife | twins | 

---

Taglines:

Sometimes innocence becomes a menace.

---

Genres:

Drama | Thriller

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

IFC Films [United States] Official site [France]

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean English

Release Date:

26 January 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Housemaid

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$16,670, 23 January 2011, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$149,757

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sidus FNH-Benex Cinema Fund 1,Michigan Venture Capital,CJ Venture Investment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

An early draft of the screenplay was written by Soo-Hyun Kim, but after director Sang-soo Im had edited the script so heavily that Kim considered it to be entirely Im's own work, she decided to leave the project and publicly expressed her dissatisfaction.

---

Goofs

The body harness is visible during the hanging.

---

Connections

Followed by Don-eui mat (2012)

---

Soundtracks

La Mamma Morta
from Opera Andrea Chinier
Performed by Maria Callas
Composed by Umberto Giordano
Courtesy of EMI Records Ltd.
By arrangement with Warner Music Korea, a Warner Music Group Company

User Reviews

The Housemaid

A remake of a classic masterpiece is always been a thankless task, but since half a century has passed since 1960, when Ki-young Kim's original version came out, it is a considerable and understandable timing to do it against all odds. With the A-list actress Do-young Kim on board, at least, tedium has been successfully blocked entirely through its 106 minute running time, plus I am plain oblivious to Ki-young's version, so no prejudice by preconceived ideas will hobble my judgment.

The karma has its default value from the beginning, which startles its audience with a young girl's suicidal jump, prefigures the ominous fate of our protagonist, whose standpoint has been intentionally set as more of an aroused innocent (suggesting by the tantalizing finger foreplay from the male part and a waiting-naked seduction from the female part) than an adultery victim thanks to a modern metabolism which signifies female is not always the submissive counterpart of the male-dominant society. But the comprehensive tone is much or less conflicts with this setting, with would cause some ambiguous reading of the abruptly dark ending (the final birthday scenery has a moderately sidestepping deviation which cannot gratify an sublimating closing.

The film strives to distill the trite storyline (with some patent slips, e.g. the medicine swapping is cursorily done, at least taking away some original potions to keep the amount even) and saves more spatial elasticity to its actors, and the most profitable beneficiaries are Do-yeon and Yeo- jeong, both shoulder the film's strength against banality elsewhere. Do-yeon also outshines in the graphically daring sex scenes with the over-beefy Jung-Jae Lee; while Yeo-jeong is the thunder-stealer here, endowing a supporting role with a show-stopper weightiness.

I have quite a few storage of South Korean DVDs (mostly recent ones) which I am pretty eager to watch, THE HOUSEMAID is not in the top-tier, but one thing is certain, I am hunting the original version now.