The Housemaid

Hilariously over the top domestic thriller melodrama and yet so wonderfully directed. I couldn't get over the richness of light, the perfect camera angles, the way the camera stalked around the scenes, the profound sense of claustrophobia, the shocking twists (well, first you're shocked, then you just laugh... I mean it's pretty ridiculous). But just as an exorcise in film-making it's absolutely perfect. Some of the performances are outstanding as well. Featuring some really gorgeous actresses turning in pretty emotionally resonant performances. The lead femme fatale is particularly affecting. This movie also has what must be the most dangerous staircase in cinema history! And the last shot of the film is a wonderful piece of dated Korean moral propagandizing. Really entertaining. I chuckled through the whole thing.

The original version of the Housemaid is a classic black and white and colder than the remake of 2010; two vastly different styles with basically the same plot line. The director has learned a Hitchcock type of film making and the result is fairly good. A pianist and composer whose pregnant wife is overwhelmed by their two small children and is exhausted from sewing clothes around the clock, hires a cute young housemaid to help with chores; big mistake. The sexy lass quickly seduces the music man and becomes pregnant with his future bastard child. Wifey finds out and attempts an abortion by accident with the temptress. More chaos happens to this lovely family, all caused by an evil woman. Check out both the 1960 and the 2010 movie, as they are both good.