Im Sang-soo can't improve on Kim Ki-young's 1960 original, a jaIm Sang-soo can't improve on Kim Ki-young's 1960 original, a jarring and operatic cult favorite. Still, he does tweak the themes in intriguing fashion.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 12, 2016

The situation continues to fester, the balance of power shifts back and forth among some wonderfully defined characters.

| Dec 13, 2011

Exudes a surreal sense of deranged domestic privilege.

| Original Score: B | Apr 17, 2011

The movie kowtows to the old truism that the rich are different - but it does it with a sardonic smile.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 4, 2011

Writer-director Im Sang-Soo injects a certain sense of otherworldliness in the proceedings -- the final scene is straight from David Lynchland --- which may not make things mesmerizing, but does deliver a consistently odd angle.

| Original Score: B- | Feb 25, 2011

But nothing could prepare me for what does indeed transpire, the final scenes having a grotesque opulence that is both entrancing and disgusting all at the same time.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 18, 2011

You can grin all the way through, but the satisfaction turns to ashes by the end.

| Original Score: B- | Feb 18, 2011

"The Housemaid" glitters coldly, with its marble surfaces and scheming eyes, as it builds to its dramatic, unexpected climax.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 17, 2011

While the film grows increasingly preposterous in its final act, the enigmatic performances of Youn and Jeon carry the day.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 17, 2011

The secret weapon of "The Housemaid'' - the reason it works at all - is Jeon in the title role.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 17, 2011

Sang-soo does with "The Housemaid" what many filmmakers do with remakes of influential genre films. He amps up the sex and smoothes down the stylistic edges of the original.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 3, 2011

This story is told by writer-director Im Sang-soo with cool, elegant cinematography and sinuous visual movements.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 3, 2011

It's a deliciously perverse melodrama.

| Original Score: A- | Jan 29, 2011

Even with the piece wobbling between dark psychology and campy soap, the cast is compelling as it navigates the uncertainty.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 27, 2011

The elevation of the family from middle-class strivers to stratospherically wealthy jerks removes any trace of political specificity, but also elevates it to the chilly realm of the fairy tale.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 22, 2011

It is beautifully shot, with impeccable acting and visual detail. Now, if someone will just explain the brief, head-scratching coda.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 21, 2011

Mr. Im's voluptuous visual palette combined with the dexterity of his cast is enough to hold your interest and, at times, to make you hold your breath.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 20, 2011

The Housemaid remains compelling mostly for Yun's performance, which is just as inscrutable, but ever-shifting-at times vaguely sinister, at others full of wisdom and quiet resolve.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 20, 2011

Im has a flair for highly controlled melodrama, and his visuals show a knife-edge precision: You could cut yourself on all these crisp shadows.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jan 20, 2011

There's something nicely kinky in this lusciously photographed erotic Korean thriller by Im Sang-soo - at least for those who don't compare it to the far kinkier, out-there 1960 original by Kim Ki-young.

| Original Score: B | Jan 20, 2011