Film For Thought

I don't go to the movie theater anymore because it's too expensive, popcorn & all, and everything has been made so it can come out in 3-D!!! No story lines that make you think, nothing. And for a film student like me this is annoying. And for a person with motion sickness 3-D sucks! And if I see one more vampire/wizard/letterstojohn type movies I'm going to scream. What happened to the days when a movie came out and they were good? When actors were more than just a pretty face, they had split personalities and could actually act? What happened to movie tickets costing $7 at night?!!!
I've shunned the young media of today and I'm sticking to my classics. And right now my new favorite film...although the ending kinda kills it, is Hanyo aka The Housemaid. Hanyo is a korean film from 1960 and has been labeled as one of the top 10 best korean films ever. And is also a film classic. I found out about this film because I heard they were doing a remake. Which I would think is going to have more blood & sex (woohoo 21st century).

Here's a quick summary of the film: A music teacher at a factory is really good looking and has all the girls wanting to get with him. He gets a love letter from a student which results in her getting suspended. The roommate of the suspended girl takes music lessons from the teacher. The teachers wife becomes overwhelmed with work after moving into a bigger home and the teacher gets a housemaid for her. The housemaid is a little off but she gets the work done. The wife is pregnant, everyone goes on vacation, the husband comes back. He finds out the suspended girl died. He and the roommate go to the funeral, they return to the house. The roommate confesses that she was actually in love with the teacher and he rejects her. She shouts out rape and plans on destroying the teacher for not loving her, and the entire time the housemaid is watching. When the girl leaves, the housemaid seduces the teacher, she becomes preggers and all hell breaks loose when the wife finds out.

There were no special lighting effects in the film, the story line was (in my opinion) good and had a very strong "1960's don't sleep around" message to it haha. The sound was off and the voices were so cliche for the 60's. However the film was inspirational in it's own way. I really love how the wife was always in traditional clothes with her hair up 24/7 even when they were asleep and all she cared about was building a better home. Where as the housemaid wore pants, short dresses, wore her hair down, and only cared about getting down with the husband. They were opposites but their greed was the destruction of both of them and the husbands desires was the destruction of everyone.

You can watch the film for free here
















If you pay attention at the very end before the credits roll, when the husband walks out on the patio, you can see the directors reflection in the window and the lighting guy and the sound guy all hanging outside hahaha.

The scene where the maid is on the stairs reminds me of a photo shoot I did some years ago.