Criticâs Choice: If you liked âParasite,â donât miss âThe Housemaidâ
âParasite,â the endlessly surprising new movie from South Korean director Bong Joon Ho, is a criticsâ darling and an art-house smash. It is also a class-conscious thriller with many classic influences, including Joseph Loseyâs âThe Servant,â Claude Chabrolâs âLa CĂ©rĂ©monieâ and, perhaps most of all, Kim Ki-youngâs ferociously entertaining 1960 drama, âThe Housemaid,â which will screen Sunday in 35-millimeter at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown.
Often regarded as one of the top two or three Korean movies of all time, âThe Housemaidâ follows a domestic liaison that blooms into a fatal attraction. (No bunnies are boiled, but watch out for rat poison.) Lee Eun-shim gives a startling performance â and forever branded herself as a villain in the eyes of the Korean moviegoing public â as a sexually rapacious young housemaid who has an affair with her employer (Kim Jin-kyu), a composer with a pregnant wife and two kids. Tense, elegant and rich in claustrophobic menace, âThe Housemaidâ proved endlessly influential and was even remade in 2010, to glossy but inferior effect. As the title character herself might have declared: Accept no substitutes.
'The Housemaid'
When: Oct. 20, 3 p.m.
Where: Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, 700 W. 7th St., Suite U240, Los Angeles
Info: drafthouse.com/los-angeles
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