**The Housemaid (2010)** by director **Sang-Soo Im** is a remake of **Ki-Young Kim**'s 1960 film. Ki-Young has gained much deserved international notices (and hopefully recognitions) from **Yuh-jung Youn**'s moving tribute on her Oscar win for **Minari**. Coincidentally, Yuh-Jung plays a major supporting role in this film, who starred in Ki-Young's **Woman of Fire** (1971), a sequel to 1960 film.

Film connections aside, this remake makes some notable changes. It predates **Parasite** by injecting social commentaries on South Korea's class system. In this remake, another Korean legendary actress **Do-yeon Jeon** (won Cannes for **Secret Sunshine**) plays the lead role. Unlike the original, she is not a femme fatale, but a symbol of South Korea's working class. **Jung-Jae Lee** is the master of the house where she works as au pair. He symbolizes chaebols, Korean mega-conglomerates (e.g., Samsung) that control majority of the country's economy. His very pregnant wife (**Seo Woo**) and his mother-in-law (**Ji-Young Park**) are complicit and enable his entitlement behaviors.

Aforementioned Yuh-Jung plays a live-in housemaid who sees and knows everything. Although this role is smaller than others, Yuh-Jung plays multiple facets of this very complex character.

This film has all the recipes of a great film. Who's who in Korean cinema industry. Stylish cinematography and set. And at least on the surface, very compelling story. Unfortunately, all of these elements do not add up to one cohesively packaged experience. Every characters except You-Jung's character are one dimensional archetype. The final act is both forced and rushed, erasing nearly all impacts.