Dong-sik, a music teacher in a textile
factory becomes interested in a series
of murders in Geum-cheon. One day,
Dong-sik receives a love letter from
female factory worker, Gwak Seon-yeong. He reports the incident to the
dormitory supervisor of the factory
who forces Seon-yeong to leave her
job. Meanwhile, Gyeong-hui who encouraged Seon-yeong to write the letter begins visiting Dong-sik’s house under the pretext of having piano lessons.
When Dong-sik’s pregnant wife takes
ill from too much work Dong-sik asks
Gyeong-hui for recommendation for
a housemaid who he hires. When the
wife leaves to visit her family Gyeong-hui professes her love for Dong-sik but
is thrown out of the house. Witnessing everything the Housemaid seduces
Dong-ski only to find out a number of months later that she is pregnant. Unable to keep the news quiet Dong-sik’s
wife learns of the Housemaid’s secret
and convinces her to have an abortion.
Soon she starts to become unstable
and violent towards the family.

The Housemaid, remade by Im
Sangsoo in 2010 and based on actual
events, is one of the greatest Korean
films from master of cinema, Kim Ki-young. The film was the first in Housemaid Trilogy and is a prime example of
Kim Ki-young’s growing fascination of
young women’s desire to climb the social ladder, bourgeois families unsettled
by a shift in the class system and male
anxiety toward modern women.