The Housemaid, a Remarkable Movie, reviews and Thoughts
Introduction
The Housemaid is a remarkably powerful movie which combines elements of horror, family ethics, and criticism of social reality. Watching this unique movie made me think about the development of family narrative as it pays attention to numerous Korean social issues prevalent in the past times. From the colonial period to rapid economic growth after the Korean war, from a patriarchal society to democratic society (in spite of gender or distinctive roles of family members), I realized that prestige is the unchangeable core in forming a normative modern family.
Characters
The setting of characters in the movie The housemaid, is apparent from the beginning and each person plays a unique and significant role. The straightforwardness of every character represents an element which links them with each other to make compounds; one to one relationships and conflicts; in order to create a mixture that reflects a microcosm of a basic normative type of modern family in Korea. Rather than using a side to introduce each person at this two-storey house, the director shares a detailed view of Kyung-hee Cho, a factory worker to walk audiences into this family. The younger brother is eating snacks alone on the stairs meanwhile trying to piss off his disabled sister. Dong-Sik Kim, the father, tells him not to bully his sister. The little brother, Chang-soon, lies to his sister, Ae-soon, that there is a rat behind her after which she falls down the stairs. When Chang-soon was punished by his father, he gets ‘always obey your father’ by asking for help from his mother. This brief scene can allow the audience to understand that Chang-soon is an annoying, uncultured kid. On the other hand, Ae-soon suffers from inferiority complex but possesses high self-esteem. Dong-Sik Kim seems like a kind and soft obedient wife yet secretly manipulates her husband to satisfy her middle-class fantasies such as a two-storey house, helpmate, and television. The husband teaches music lessons at the factory and also renders services as a private piano instructor to keep his middle-class family running. This family structure already shows shortcomings at the beginning of the film. Dong-Sik wants to be a good father, respected teacher, and thoughtful husband. Unfortunately, things do not turn out the way he wants. His raw desires fail him ultimately leading to tragic circumstances.
Social Status of Women
In the 1960s, an important transition in Korean society occurred whereby it transformed from a Confucian society to a modern society reflecting “intersections of patriarchy, colonialism, nationalism, and western modernity” (Choi 22). Before, the men were considered inviolable. On the other hand, women were compelled to play the subordinate role. In the process of transition, the social status of women increased gradually whereas the men began to face a dilemma ultimately becoming confused and lost. In the beginning of the 1960s, the new modern family structure started shifting to the wife-centered nuclear family. Dong-Sik Kim has always been a ‘mute’ in The Housemaid even though he is the main breadwinner of the family. This soft and powerless character does not make any decisions at all. In the film, women are the influencers in charging of plots development such as the maid finding out about her pregnancy, the housewife poisoning the maid, two female workers expressing their love, and even the disabled daughter starting the fight back.
Prestige, Theme of The Housemaid
This is a typically paranoid and hypocrite middle class which is caused by the insecure feelings of ‘Are we going to return to the war situation?’ and directly linked with the Korean War. People finally distracted their attention from the whole nation to the individual after the Korean War. At the end of the colonial period, the phenomenon of class distinction increased rapidly. Almost 83% of the population defined themselves as middle class. How do people distinguish classes and what kind of standards people have to meet in order to be a part of modern social status? Here comes the ultimate answer: prestige.
Plot of the Movie
At the beginning of the film The Housemaid, the husband received a love letter from one of his students in the piano class. He handed in this letter directly leading to the death of the worker. As a musician, he does not express any benevolent emotions at this point. There might be rumors by a rare chance to influence his reputation in his workplace and affect family relationships. Even though Dong-Sik cried out loud after the funeral, his confession and his guilty feelings originate from fear of losing his job and his gentle figuration. The maintenance of the respect as a middle-class individual is the most important thing to him. When the maid threatens him that she is going to tell everyone what he did, Dong-Sik even choked her almost to the death so as to keep his elegant prestige – under the Beethoven’s sculpture. The relationship between Kyung-hee Cho and Dong-Sik is more twisted to reach to a higher level. Their connection is indeed due to the money. Even emotionally and morally unwilling to do so, the husband has to maintain this teacher-student relationship because of the financial benefits. Piano and music did not matter as they just symbolized the elegant modernism lifestyle of the middle class. The music teacher is also the high-fashioned figure of the fantasy to the women worker. Learning piano is just a way to transfer the love into the action in order to satisfy her desire to gain the prestige of being a member of the middle class. Learning and teaching the piano becomes an excuse which has nothing to do with the music itself.
The maid Myung-sook
The maid Myung-sook is a country girl who is introduced by Kyung-hee in The Housemaid and comes to this seemingly stable middle-class home. Like the falling of the factory which represents the lowest class level back at that time period, the maid raises her desire of the brand new reputation — to become a middle-class housewife. I think the significant symbol of rat represents the maid. The way she always sticks out her tongue and licks her lips and the flashy eyes clearly suggest that she is the big rat that will end the peace. Ironically, the rat poison has become the weapon of the maid that she uses as a shield. She uses poison to threaten kids for the ravages of her own missing kids. The maid is afraid that the wife will kill so changes the bitterness to sweetness to taste out difference of the soup. The ‘rat’ manipulates the whole family and uses the inversion of the rat poison as a perfect match to her ambition. This character has her little habits such as smoking, rubbing her fingers, and sticking out her tongue signifying her distinguished personality. She does not want to earn prestige from the outside world. When she loses her unborn baby, the revenge pushes her to gain the prestige from the mentioned family.
Role of the Maid
The maid does not seduce the husband by showing off her beauty. The success of the maid is that she knew the weakness of the couple– the prestige that they already fight about and worked on for years. She played on their most vulnerable point — losing the nonexistent reputation. Why did the maid show such an obsession with her unborn baby? “The desire of the few early Korean feminists to pursue selfhood as a sacred domain sharply contrasted the feminine virtue of “good wife and wise mother” in the modern family that the majority of “new women” endorsed as a safe haven” (Choi 22) made them unique. She knew that the offspring could bring her the prestige of this family making it possible for her to replace the housewife and own kinship connection with this family which she considered as the higher class. Repetition of calling Dong-Sik as husband is also an unconscious way to enhance the prestige in this family.
Role of the Wife
In my opinion, both the wife and the maid are same in character. Once the wife has successfully lived in the upper class, she will pay any cost to defend her dream. In the film, the director shows the western-style doll several times, new decoration of the house, and the needs of a maid. He also highlights the purchase of the TV set at home even if she never watched it. The wife does not matter if she is a servant. She must keep her family perfect and together. She can lend her husband to the maid and her son can die without a name. This family has no family ethics. Family ethics and social morality are just external public opinions. Under the struggle of inner desires, people have already broken through the restriction layer. A bottle of rat poison – everyone has the motivation to use it. When the identity cannot be reversed and the desire of prestige cannot be satisfied, there is only one way to choose — the death; instead of returning to the original living state of the lower class. The society not only kills the poor but also forces the rich to die.
End of the Housemaid
No one gets what he/she wants. At the end of the scene, the daughter is the only survivor of this family. When considered, the entire family demonstrated dysfunctional attitude instead of the disabled daughter who always adhere to her principles and has the courage to fight back. In the film the Housemaid, she was daring enough to rebel and steals the rat poison (hidden by the maid). Finally, in the background of her father’s fall, she sleeps peacefully with a bright future. She is a real middle class member when she was born.
Reference
Choi, Hyaeweol. “”Wise Mother, Good Wife”: A Transcultural Discursive Construct in Modern Korea.” Journal of Korean Studies, vol. 14 no. 1, 2009, pp. 1-33.