In the 60's in Korea, the piano teacher Mr. Kim works in a factory giving music classes to the workers. When he receives a love letter from the student Miss Kwak, he delivers the letter to the supervisor and the worker is suspended for three days.
Mr. Kim is a family man, married with two children, the girl Aw-Soon and the boy Chang-Soon, and he has just built and moved to a bigger house of his own. His wife Mrs. Kim also works too much at a sewing machine and they need a housemaid to help her in the housework. Mr. Kim asks Kwak's best friend, Miss Kyung Hee Cho, who is his private student of piano, to help him to find a housemaid. Miss Cho invites an unstable and unbalanced young woman to work for Mr. and Mrs. Kim and she introduces the housemaid to the family. Mr. Kim hires the youth and brings her to the household. But soon she behaves in a strange way, snooping Mr. Kim's private classes until the night that she seduces Mr. Kim and they have intercourse. The housemaid gets pregnant and uses her condition to press Mr. Kim. When she provokes a miscarriage, she blackmails Mr. Kim leading to the family's destruction.
"Hanyo" is a masterpiece of obsession in a weird culture, i.e., in a culture absolutely different from the westerns. The melodramatic story is absolutely unpredictable, has wonderful performances, but I can not even imagine a western being submitted by the outrageous situation that Mr. Kim and his family have to live due to the blackmail of their housemaid. The devotion to family is part of the Confucianism but after the death of the boy, it is inadmissible even to think a family man allowing the killer to stay in the household and to have sex with her. The conclusion is totally unexpected and it is funny to hear that this sort of thing may happen to any man. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Hanyo, A Empregada" ("Hanyo, the Housemaid")
Mr. Kim is a family man, married with two children, the girl Aw-Soon and the boy Chang-Soon, and he has just built and moved to a bigger house of his own. His wife Mrs. Kim also works too much at a sewing machine and they need a housemaid to help her in the housework. Mr. Kim asks Kwak's best friend, Miss Kyung Hee Cho, who is his private student of piano, to help him to find a housemaid. Miss Cho invites an unstable and unbalanced young woman to work for Mr. and Mrs. Kim and she introduces the housemaid to the family. Mr. Kim hires the youth and brings her to the household. But soon she behaves in a strange way, snooping Mr. Kim's private classes until the night that she seduces Mr. Kim and they have intercourse. The housemaid gets pregnant and uses her condition to press Mr. Kim. When she provokes a miscarriage, she blackmails Mr. Kim leading to the family's destruction.
"Hanyo" is a masterpiece of obsession in a weird culture, i.e., in a culture absolutely different from the westerns. The melodramatic story is absolutely unpredictable, has wonderful performances, but I can not even imagine a western being submitted by the outrageous situation that Mr. Kim and his family have to live due to the blackmail of their housemaid. The devotion to family is part of the Confucianism but after the death of the boy, it is inadmissible even to think a family man allowing the killer to stay in the household and to have sex with her. The conclusion is totally unexpected and it is funny to hear that this sort of thing may happen to any man. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Hanyo, A Empregada" ("Hanyo, the Housemaid")