I wanted to but couldn't!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This movie is about people who are so rich they can have what they want with little to no consequence. This includes people. They are entitled, pampered, selfish and heartless. This is a slow moving film and I keep waiting for the thriller aspect of this drama to ratchet up a notch but I never got what I was hoping for. The look of the film is cold. The house was lovely but the cold and almost museum-like quality really helped give the impression that it wasn't a very loving home. It didn't look as though life was happening within its walls.Let me just say that I don't care how much money you have, I would never let a man treat me like a ho. I also wouldn't allow a B**** who is married to a man like that, slap me around like that either. Pregnant or not, in that very moment I would've let her know she wouldn't be hiding behind those babies forever. As soon as that heifer dropped those babies I'd get hold of her A**!!!Was there anyone else who was expecting the head housemaid to come out and say that her son was fathered by the husband's dad? I was surprised they didn't take that route especially since she told the mother-in-law that her son wouldn't have been an attorney if not for the wealthy family.

You'd better watch the original movie, 'The Housemaid' directed by Ki-Young Kim in 1960, which is one of the first and finest Korean movie I've seen so far. Compared to the original version, The Housemaid (2010) is really deceiving.The first hour is OK, but then it gets really boring, even though the acting isn't that bad. It's just a pity that such good actors' talent was wasted (see Do-Yeon Jeon in 'Sunshine (2007)' and Jung-Jae Lee in 'New World (2013)').Not to mention the ending, which reminded me Brian De Palma's 'The Fury', deceiving too.

If I could describe Hanyo with just one word, I'd say it is personality. Indeed, both the film and its characters have so much of it that they evolve beyond the viewer's expectations, unfolding themselves at their own pace and rhythm, subtlety telling their story.The settings are amazing, such as the house in which most part of the story takes place. However, there is also where some inevitable frontal collisions with reality occur, since there's not too many people in the world who could afford a house like that, and in case they could, they would not possibly employ just two maids to take care of it. Still, such an unrealistic approach reduces the number of characters in the story and therefore makes the drama even more intense and stronger.The actors are all great, and some of the performances brought to my mind names like Bette Davis, while the overall line of direction seemed close to the very best of Park Chan-wook (that's to say, Oldboy).Hanyo is a poetic, artistic and extremely well written and conceived movie that can boast to be amongst the best films recently made, if not of all times.

The buzz on this film is ringing out loud. A remake of the original film by Kim Ki-young, widely considered one of the top Korean films of all time, this updated version by Im Sang- soo is a lot more revealing and explicit in nature for the modern audience probably sensitized to it, being one of the films selected for competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and its two limited screenings during our Korean Film Festival were one of the earliest to have sold out. Needless to say it makes good sense for a commercial release here.The premise is simple, where Eun-yi (Jeon Do-yeon) got invited by Byung-sik (Yun Yeo-Jong) to serve in an uber-rich household made up of three members - the master of the house Hoon (Lee Jung-jae), his very pregnant wife Haera (Seo Woo) expecting a pair of twins due anytime soon and hence the need for an extra help around the house, and their daughter Nami (Ahn Seo-hyeon) with whom Eun-yi forms a strong friendship with, since a child is non-judgemental on someone's background and social standing.As much as most would like Eun-yi, a divorcée, to enter the household and see an opportunity to seduce Hoon, this is not that movie, and neither was that the motivation at all. We see the fairly impoverished background that Eun-yi came from, and living amongst the rich and powerful provided a chance to live the high life, since the family is extremely wasteful. With Byung-sik showing her the ropes necessary to do her job, from the bowing to the serving, the cleaning and being at the beck and call of the household members, the hardship probably is well worth it for the perks that come with the job, ones that are beyond the reach of ordinary folks.So when things turn, you'll find yourself wondering the exact motivation she allowed herself to open up (pardon the pun) to the come hither of the master of the house, who has a penchant for alcohol and being brought up with a silver spoon, there's no such thing as a No to any of his request, although on the outside he may be that rich gentleman, it's not far- fetched to think that these folks would consider money as the basis for all things going their way, and money being the basis to bail themselves out of trouble, and to keep the mouth of others shut. Money as the root of all evil, probably couldn't be more true here if those with the means decide to abuse it, given the mindset of theirs that they can always get away from the blame game.But what's more engaging in the film is the power play amongst the characters, who are well, mostly female, fawning over the attention, the riches and the ability of what the man in their life can offer. There's Byung-sik being extremely envious with her protégé she introduced to the household, being the unjaded hard and younger worker who earns the trust of the family, and probably she had wanted to show the young upstart her place in the hierarchy established. And of course the main cusp of the problems Eun-yi will face stem from the child in her, threatening the balance of power especially that of mistresses and maid, with stuff that's what television melodramas get made of. To the audience, we don't feel that Eun- yi is of the scheming type, but to the other women, here's a chance of their objectives being detailed by something most unfortunate, a major threat that can come sooner or later in their lives that they have to act, and stop now.Jeon Do-yeon deserves all the acting accolades she has received thus far for her role, and we feel the pain she has to go through in having traumatic experiences forced upon her just because she's in no position to bargain, until the defining moment in the finale where she gains the upper hand but at what a price at scarring the family for life. I haven't seen Lee Jung-jae in action since Il Mare, and here he does an about turn in a negative role that portrays the caddish behaviour of someone who has it all, while the young Seo Woo portrays the wife that's quite reasonable to begin with, that typical tai-tai but with innocence, until hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.It is the power struggles and the changing of the household dynamics that makes The Housemaid an engaging watch as we witness an internal rot that was waiting to happen. While it may not reach the heights of Kim Ki-young's original, Im Sang-soo's version still keeps things tight and is a wonderful exploration of how perceived threats redefines relationships especially that amongst those with material benefits. Recommended!