# The Housemaid (하녀) (2010 film)
**The Housemaid** (하녀) is a 2010 South Korean erotic thriller directed and written by Im Sang-soo, a remake of Kim Ki-young's 1960 film of the same name. It follows Euny, a young woman hired as a housemaid in a wealthy family's mansion, who enters into a sexual relationship with the master of the house, Hoon, setting off a chain of events that destroys the household[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/00051407). The film competed for the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/the-housemaid/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and screenwriter | Im Sang-soo[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/00051407) |
| Basis | Remake of Kim Ki-young's 1960 film *Hanyo* (The Housemaid)[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/00051407) |
| Cast | Jeon Do-yeon (Euny), Lee Jung-jae (Hoon), Youn Yuh-jung (Byung-shik), Seo Woo (Hera), Ahn Seo-hyun (Nami), Park Ji-young (mother-in-law)[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/the-housemaid/) |
| Genre | Thriller, melodrama; described by the Korean Film Archive as an erotic suspense film[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/00051407) |
| Production | Mirovision and Cider FNH, 2010; 106 minutes[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/00051407) |
| Festival | In Competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/the-housemaid/) |
| Korean release | May 13, 2010, timed to the film's Cannes press screening[3](https://www.screendaily.com/the-housemaid-hanyo/5013857.article) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Euny ([Jeon Do-yeon](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeon-do-yeon)), a divorced woman who has worked in a restaurant and studied early childhood education, takes a job as a housemaid in a vast upper-class mansion[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/00051407). The household consists of the seemingly perfect master Hoon ([Lee Jung-jae](https://www.edgepedia.org/lee-jung-jae)), his wife Hera (Seo Woo), who is pregnant with twins, their six-year-old daughter Nami (Ahn Seo-hyun), who clings to Euny like a mother, and the older housemaid Byung-shik ([Youn Yuh-jung](https://www.edgepedia.org/youn-yuh-jung)), who manages the household work[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/00051407).
While accompanying the family on a trip to their villa, Euny is seduced by Hoon and begins a sexual relationship with him, continuing it secretly behind Hera's back[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/00051407). When Byung-shik discovers the affair, tension begins to spread through the previously calm mansion[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/00051407). Euny becomes pregnant, and the women of the family, including the mother-in-law (Park Ji-young), move against her; the film closes with a suicide scene that the French classification board cited, together with the film's oppressive atmosphere, when rating it unsuitable for viewers under 12[4](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/126732).
## Production and festival reception
Im Sang-soo, whose earlier films *Girls' Night Out* and *[The President's Last Bang](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-presidents-last-bang)* had examined bourgeois hypocrisy, took on the remake of Kim Ki-young's 1960 classic[5](https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20100504008500005). At a press screening he said he had not thought of the project as a remake and had tried to forget the original[6](https://v.daum.net/v/20100509151903794?s=print_news).
The film was one of two South Korean entries in [Competition](https://www.edgepedia.org/competition) at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, alongside [Lee Chang-dong](https://www.edgepedia.org/lee-chang-dong)'s *Poetry*, and was the forty-sixth Korean film screened at Cannes since the festival began in 1946[7](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2010/the-housemaid-by-im-sang-soo-in-competition/). Its official screening at the Grand Théâtre Lumière drew a three-minute standing ovation[8](https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20100515023900005). It also played at the [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival) and Fantastic Fest[9](https://www.independentfilmco.com/films/the-housemaid).
## Relation to the 1960 original
Kim Ki-young's *Hanyeo* (1960) is regarded as a landmark of Korean cinema; the Korean Film Archive's 2014 poll of 62 film professionals ranked it first on the Korean Film 100 list[10](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0079048). The original had been digitally restored with support from the [World Cinema Project](https://www.edgepedia.org/world-cinema-project), the foundation founded by Martin Scorsese, and screened in the Cannes Classics section in 2008[11](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/upload/webzine/9c667400-ca26-4cde-a4e1-6970bb89fa98.pdf). The restored version was re-released in Korean cinemas in June 2010, riding interest in Im's remake[12](https://weekly.khan.co.kr/article/201006091113031).
The two films share a skeleton, a newly hired maid whose involvement with the husband produces a child and unleashes catastrophe, but they reverse the power dynamic. In Kim's film a sexually assertive maid with social ambitions seduces the struggling middle-class husband and destabilizes a nascent middle-class family; in Im's version a passive working-class maid is seduced by her arrogant rich master and is punished by his wife and mother-in-law[13](https://www.cineaste.com/summer2011/webtakes-the-housemaid). The setting also shifts from a cramped two-story house, whose stairwell symbolized class division, to a palatial marble estate, moving the story from 1960s industrialization anxieties to a satire of contemporary chaebol-style wealth[14](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-housemaid/) • [15](https://www.artinsight.co.kr/news/view.php?no=26927).
## Critical reception
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film held a Tomatometer score of 69 percent, based on 50 fresh and 22 rotten reviews[16](https://tv.apple.com/kr/movie/%E1%84%92%E1%85%A1%E1%84%82%E1%85%A7/umc.cmc.3pj9dbuqyc1ohot2xnkwq1s3o). Reviewers praised its style and performances while faulting the story. Screen Daily called it a smart but shallow remake with an ending that seemed like a desperate afterthought[3](https://www.screendaily.com/the-housemaid-hanyo/5013857.article). Slant Magazine judged it a pallid remake of one of Korea's most respected films, though well shot, and noted that elevating the family from middle-class strivers to the stratospherically wealthy gave the film the feel of a fable[14](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-housemaid/). Roger Ebert called it extraordinary and further evidence that South Korea was producing many of the best films in the world[9](https://www.independentfilmco.com/films/the-housemaid).
Korean critics compared the remake's loss of tension against the original's grotesque atmosphere, noting that Im's version invested heavily in production design, a palace-like house of roughly 700 pyeong (Korean area unit, about 3.3 square meters) with marble floors, chandeliers, and art works worth tens of millions of won[6](https://v.daum.net/v/20100509151903794?s=print_news) • [17](https://www.donga.com/news/Culture/article/all/20100506/28129281/1).
## Release
The film was released in South Korea on May 13, 2010[3](https://www.screendaily.com/the-housemaid-hanyo/5013857.article). In France it received its visa on September 6, 2010, opened in cinemas on September 15, 2010, and was distributed by Pretty Pictures[4](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/126732). In the United States it was released by IFC Films[14](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-housemaid/). The Korean rating was Cheongsoyeon Gwanrambulga (restricted to adults), with content warnings for violence, sexual content, theme, imitation risk, horror, language, and drugs[16](https://tv.apple.com/kr/movie/%E1%84%92%E1%85%A1%E1%84%82%E1%85%A7/umc.cmc.3pj9dbuqyc1ohot2xnkwq1s3o).
## References
1. [하녀, 영상도서관 자료검색, 한국영상자료원 (KOFA)](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/00051407)
2. [THE HOUSEMAID, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/the-housemaid/)
3. [The Housemaid (Hanyo), Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/the-housemaid-hanyo/5013857.article)
4. [THE HOUSEMAID, Visas et Classification, CNC](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/126732)
5. [<새영화> 씁쓸한 현실 담은 '하녀', 연합뉴스](https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20100504008500005)
6. [임상수의 '하녀' VS 1960년 故 김기영 원작, 연합뉴스 via Daum](https://v.daum.net/v/20100509151903794?s=print_news)
7. [The Housemaid by Im Sang-soo in Competition, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2010/the-housemaid-by-im-sang-soo-in-competition/)
8. [<칸영화제> '하녀'에 3분간 기립박수, 연합뉴스](https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20100515023900005)
9. [The Housemaid, Independent Film Company](https://www.independentfilmco.com/films/the-housemaid)
10. [하녀, 한국민족문화대백과사전](https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0079048)
11. [CONTENTS I 2008·7~8, 한국영상자료원 웹진](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/upload/webzine/9c667400-ca26-4cde-a4e1-6970bb89fa98.pdf)
12. [「하녀」의 모진 운명, 주간경향](https://weekly.khan.co.kr/article/201006091113031)
13. [WEBTAKES: The Housemaid, Cineaste Magazine](https://www.cineaste.com/summer2011/webtakes-the-housemaid)
14. [Review: The Housemaid, Slant Magazine](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-housemaid/)
15. [하녀, 괴물이 되다, Art Insight](https://www.artinsight.co.kr/news/view.php?no=26927)
16. [하녀, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/kr/movie/%E1%84%92%E1%85%A1%E1%84%82%E1%85%A7/umc.cmc.3pj9dbuqyc1ohot2xnkwq1s3o)
17. [가족 이데올로기의 전복, '하녀'의 위대하고 불편한 도발, 동아일보](https://www.donga.com/news/Culture/article/all/20100506/28129281/1)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Shared-title version families › East Asian shared-title families*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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