IMDb RATING
7.2/10
5.7K
YOUR RATING
A composer and his wife are thrown into turmoil when a housemaid becomes more than they bargained for.A composer and his wife are thrown into turmoil when a housemaid becomes more than they bargained for.A composer and his wife are thrown into turmoil when a housemaid becomes more than they bargained for.
Kim Jin-kyu
- Dong-sik Kim
- (as Jin Kyu Kim)
Ahn Sung-ki
- Chang-soon Kim
- (as Sung-kee Ahn)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film was suppose to finish around 1:48:13. However, the shocking finale was considered to be too extreme for its time's public hence the unfitting cut after the original ending was added in post-production.
- GoofsAt c.89 minutes the girl, Ae-Soon, nimbly and athletically gets out of bed surprisingly quickly for a young lass needing crutches.
- Quotes
Dong-sik Kim: What does the law state about a man who cheats on his wife?
Lyu: [laughs] Sometimes he can get a lighter sentence than for a traffic violation. Once his wife forgives him, he's acquitted. Just as you wouldn't tell your son you're a murderer of a thief, even between couples some things should be kept secret.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Taste of Money (2012)
Featured review
A wild ride
An interesting mix of film noir, melodrama, and morality tale, which also does a good job of keeping the audience off-balance. There may also be some social commentary in here relative to class and making us wonder to what lengths someone will go to preserve their reputation and upward mobility, but I think these were in a minor key, even if the film does bring Parasite to mind. There is something mythical about how this woman manages to invert the whole order of this house, and yet it's also got moments that are intensely dramatic and real, and that was interesting. The threat always seems clear and present to us, because the housemaid (Lee Eun-shim) seems a little off, there are constant trips to the cupboard with rat poison, and the family has a couple of kids. The character actions never quite seem to make sense which worked against it for me, but that's a part of what works the audience up into a frenzy, and keeps it a wild ride.
The acting in the film is unfortunately not one of its highlights, but Lee Eun-shim certainly is striking in the shots of her glaring through the window, and sultry when she's getting intimate with her boss (Kim Jin-kyu). I liked the shot of her bare feet stepping up onto his shoes, followed by the one of his back as her arms circled around him, and in a later scene when her calf sinuously winding around his - they capture the seduction well. Less successful were the cliché, heavy-handed moments, like the lightning hitting a tree after the first infidelity (it made me think of the cliché opening to a novel, It was a dark and stormy night....). The cinematography is pretty nice, though I wish it hadn't been as confined and given a little more freedom.
At its bottom though, this is a conservative film about the importance of family and avoiding the female temptress, which is an age old and tired theme. And even if the man can't manage that, well, his wife should shoulder some blame, and in this case, she does, for having wanted a bigger house (ugh). It was for this reason and for the unevenness in the character motivations that I didn't rate the film higher, but it was certainly entertaining, and definitely had camp appeal.
Quote: "Where are you going?" "Your daddy is going to sleep with me tonight."
The acting in the film is unfortunately not one of its highlights, but Lee Eun-shim certainly is striking in the shots of her glaring through the window, and sultry when she's getting intimate with her boss (Kim Jin-kyu). I liked the shot of her bare feet stepping up onto his shoes, followed by the one of his back as her arms circled around him, and in a later scene when her calf sinuously winding around his - they capture the seduction well. Less successful were the cliché, heavy-handed moments, like the lightning hitting a tree after the first infidelity (it made me think of the cliché opening to a novel, It was a dark and stormy night....). The cinematography is pretty nice, though I wish it hadn't been as confined and given a little more freedom.
At its bottom though, this is a conservative film about the importance of family and avoiding the female temptress, which is an age old and tired theme. And even if the man can't manage that, well, his wife should shoulder some blame, and in this case, she does, for having wanted a bigger house (ugh). It was for this reason and for the unevenness in the character motivations that I didn't rate the film higher, but it was certainly entertaining, and definitely had camp appeal.
Quote: "Where are you going?" "Your daddy is going to sleep with me tonight."
helpful•43
- gbill-74877
- Jan 27, 2020
Details
- Runtime1 hour 49 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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