In
the abyss of passion
The housemaid (1960) by Kim Ki-young
Korean
cinema achieved resounding success in the West lately. Directors like Lee
Chang-dong (이창동, 李滄東), Park Chan-wook (박찬욱, 朴贊郁) and above all Kim
Ki-duk (김기덕, 金基德) have been awarded in many film
festivals.
Especially Kim Ki-duk
is maybe the most famous Korean director in the world even though he is not
well appreciated just in Korea since his style is very different from Koean
sensitivity and sometimes it follows the eccentricities often empty of Western contemporary cinema up to exasperation.
Nevertheless in the past we can
find a great master of Korean cinema almost unknown, a profound innovator: Kim
Ki-young (김기영, 金綺泳, 1922-1998).
His interest in cinema and drama started during his stay in Japan before
Second World war and he devoted himself to
cinema since early 50's.
His masterpiece is The
housemaid (하녀, 下女, Hanyeo, 1960) inspired by a real occurrence which happened in Korea
and written in newspapers. Dong-shik (Kim Jin-kyu, 김진규, 金振奎, 1922-1998) is a piano master who lives a
quite life together with his wife (Ju Jeung-ryu, 주증녀, 侏曾女, 1926 - 1980) and their two children (the son
is the famous actor Ahn Sung-ki, 안성기, 安聖基, at that time 8 years old). When the pregnant wife feels faint, one of
his piano student (Um Aing-ran, 엄앵란, 嚴鶯蘭) introduces a young housemaid to him (Lee Eun-shim, 이은심) to help his family do housework. From then on nothing will be the same
and the presence of housemaid will pierce inch by inch the heart of family deeply
like a frightful blade. The young housemaid acts
in a disquieting way: she grabs rats with her bare hands, eavesdrops all the speeches and
springs up from every angle of the apartment altering
rhythms and affections of family. She seduces the
piano master and she becomes pregnant. When his wife discovers that fact, she
persuades the housemaid to have an abortion by falling down from the flight of
stairs. 
Little by little breaks apart one by one and all the relatives fall
into the abyss where the housemaid herself pushes them. Finally the housemaid
leads the piano master to ingest rat
poison and kill himself. The end is like another
movie in the movie: we discover that the piano
master imagined all the happening after reading an incident on newspaper and exhorts
the spectators to be careful since the same event of the film could occur to everybody.
Highlights
of movie are all focused on the housemaid: while she makes the dead mouse
dangle hung down by its tail from her hand in the kitchen; the housemaid’s passionate
play of eyes during the courting of the piano master; she while eavesdrops the
familiar discussion from the terrace of her room in the rain; her act of
seduction by putting her bare feet on the shoes of the piano master; while she
makes drink the glass of water to master’s son who suspects it has been
poisoned. In this movie innovative fact is the very
mobile camera.
Kim
Ki-young outlines the female personages of movie highlighting different characters
and psyches: the faithful wife who suffers the adultery of her husband and she
worries about the good reputation of her family, the young pupil in love with
her master and above all the housemaid - real protagonist of the movie – personage
of devil woman who dismembers little by little all the prearranged order of the
family which is the bearing pillar of society in
a nation profoundly Confucian like Korea. The
house where the event takes place becomes the grip by which are clutched all
the family members with no way of escape. The male is the unaware victim of the cruel female trick. The excellent
interpretation of housemaid by Lee Eun-shim and her leer made the film almost
“real” for the spectators at that time, so much that during the show Korean
audience yelled angrily at the big screen “kill
the bitch!” against the housemaid. Lee Eun-shim
will never be casted again in Korea: because of her admirable interpretation of
housemaid, all the spectators hated her look itself since they connected her
and the housemaid. That’s why Korean directors will never choose her again.
The
character of devilish and cruel woman who uses sex to subvert the family order will
be the main theme of further movies of Korean director: Insect Woman (충녀, Chungnyeo, 1972) and Iodo
(이어도, Iodo,
1977). However no one film will be as successful, meaningful and outstanding as
The housemaid. In 2010 director Im
Sang-soo (임상수, 林常樹) shot a remake of The housemaid with Jeon Do-yeon (전도연, 全度妍) playing the part of
housemaid. Nevertheless this movie has not the same dark atmosphere of the masterpiece
by Kim Ki-young.
The work of Kim Ki-young is deeply original and the only director who can be compared to Kim Ki-young is the Japanese director Imamura Shōhei (今村 昌平, 1926 – 2006) who in his movies brings up very similar subjects with the woman as the utmost protagonist of male’s dreams and above all nightmares.
Floriano Terrano