The Housemaid (1960): A Social Analysis on Post-war South Korea
A 60s classic by Kim Ki-young explores the topic of infidelity, social structure and the cultural invasion of Korean society.
Length: 108 mins | Director: Kim Ki-young | Original title: 하녀
Once compared to Luis Buñuel by critics, South Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-young has been a cult figure in Korean cinema. A number of well-acclaimed Korean directors today such as Park Chan-wook, Im Sang-soo, Kim Ki-duk and Bong Joon-ho often cite Kim Ki-young as their inspiration. And this is not hard to see why: his most acclaimed work The Housemaid exemplifies why so many cinephiles hold him in such high regard.
Set in 1960s South Korea, the film features a sexually predatory femme fatale who works for a middle-class family as a housemaid. She seduces the husband of the household who teaches music in a factory and subsequently becomes pregnant. After discovering the husband’s unfaithfulness, the wife lures the housemaid into inducing a miscarriage, which she reluctantly obeys. But then, the table turns when the housemaid decides to blackmail the whole family by threatening to expose her forced abortion to the public. This movie eventually culminates in a horrific family tragedy.
When The Housemaid was made in 1960, director Kim Ki-young was inspired by a news article at the time titled, “Housemaid suicided because of her pregnancy by his master”. In fact, it is the context that makes this film so interesting. At the time when this film was made, the cultural and socio-economic structure in South Korea was undergoing a massive overhaul. Such new-old/East-West transitions are represented in the characters’ attires (the mother of the household wears the traditional Korean Hanbok, whereas the husband and their kids always wear modern Western clothing) and also the city’s landscape. It successfully displays a wonderful snapshot of South Korean society in 1960 when new ideas (mostly Western) were penetrating a comparatively conservative country.
It therefore comes as no surprise when the husband is discovered having an affair with the housemaid, it isn’t a hypothetical moral dilemma, nor an uncommon or insignificant social issue that just so happened to be dramatized. Rather, there was a topical interest within the film itself. Kim Ki-young created this film as a response to the drastic social change at the time: the class struggle, rural-urban disparity, and cultural confrontation, these are all showcased within the house and between the family members and the housemaid.
The characters are well-designed to elucidate the conflicts. The husband, as a music teacher and pianist, seems to be well-educated and westernized, deep down is a conservative family man. He does his best to stay away from the housemaid and resist her temptation yet fails terribly. Meanwhile, the wife plays a traditional Asian maternal role in the family. No matter how much she despises her husband’s infidelity, she is still being mindful and selfless in that she does not want the affair to ruin the reputation of his husband. However, it is certainly not the case for the other central female character in this film: Even though the housemaid used to be a factory worker, she has not been portrayed as an innocent female worker. Quite the contrary, she smokes a lot, acts strange, and even is extremely flirtatious. From the view of the director, she is the representation of the Western culture having a detrimental effect on the core Korean social and family values. The demise of the family also says a lot about how Kim Ki-young perceived modern western culture.
You might not agree with the director’s attempt to defend the traditional (or rather conservative) values in Korean society, but the sensual imagery and unsettling mood of the film certainly grant itself the legendary status of being one of the best Korean films ever made. It also pioneered the Korean thriller and erotic cinema that influenced the next generation of Korean directors. The Housemaid is inarguably a monumental cinematic achievement that no cinephile should overlook.
