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Having only recently come into the limelight of international cinema, Korean filmmaking has moved into various genres from the truly bizarre western The Good the Bad and the Weird, to creature features like Host. With its classics only just being discovered in the West, and an ever-growing film industry, Korea looks set to be a cinematic powerhouse in years to come.
Director: Ki-Young Kim
The Housemaid is one of the great hidden gems of world cinema, coming from a time long before Korean cinema came to international prominence; it tells a rich and highly disturbing tale of adultery, guilt and its consequences. It’s a brilliant dark drama that moves at times closer to horror, while thanks to the skill of writer-director Ki-Young Kim provides a fascinating commentary on contemporary Korea.
When a composer and his family move into a vast new home, they hire a housemaid and things begin to go very wrong. After sleeping with the husband she begins to exert pressure and power of her own, resulting in dark myriad passions and anger that inevitably lead the film into the horror genre. The movie develops a brilliantly tense atmosphere brought about by some wonderful performances and some striking black and white cinematography. Yet the film is far more than this, since the director takes care to reference factors of the then dramatically changing Korea, taking time to watch the family sit in front of the warm glow of a television. Throughout the film it is as much the characters’ desire for material goods that leads them into destruction as well as family jealousy.
Overall The Housemaid is a highly effective and provocative drama, creating tension at every opportunity and featuring the sort of script that would never have been made in English language cinema of the time.
Director: Park Chan-Wook
In 2003 Park Chan-Wook released Oldboy, the second instalment of The Vengeance Trilogy, and little did this director know that in doing so he unleashed a film that would quickly become a cult classic as well as the ultimate example of revenge epic.
One day, without any warning or overt provocation, Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-Sik) finds himself imprisoned for 15 years in complete isolation. Upon his release, his singular obsession becomes the uncovering of the plot that lead to his captivity, especially the reasons that would provoke someone to go to such great lengths to ruin his life. The further the plot progresses, the more the complexities of this elaborate web of revenge are revealed. Alongside these revelations are scenes of unremitting sex, violence, mutilation and other cinematic curiosities that have since become iconic.
There is not a lot left to say about Oldboy that has not already been said by critics and viewers around the world. The fact that this film has displayed the uncanny ability to traverse the gap between world cinema oddity and the mainstream is of great credit to the performances of the ensemble and the inspired direction. Where else would you find a film depicting a man eating a live octopus in a sushi bar out of a desire to consume something living as recompense for 15 years of isolation? It’s the unique features like that which makes Oldboy strange yet essential viewing.
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