A piano and music teacher (Kim Jin-Kyu) and his seamstress wife (Ju Jeung-Ryu) are busy being middle-class and upwardly mobile, renovating a second home and buying all the new material goods (including a TV set). Enter into this already somewhat dysfunctional setting a simple-minded housemaid (Lee Eun-Shim) with her eyes on him. One act of infidelity and a myriad stupid reactions to it fueled by desperate, stifling adherence to social conventions results in a bizarre, absurdist psychodrama that must have packed quite a punch at the time. Thanks to a restored DVD print remastered by the World Cinema Foundation (thanks Martin Scorsese), modern audiences can now enjoy this unique cult gem (and do double-takes at the fourth-wall-breaking coda). With Um Aing-Ran and Seong Ei-Ahn (later a very famous actor) as the young boy. The great b/w photography is by Kim Deok-Jin. Director Kim (apparently quite the auteur, and here's hoping for more of his works are re-released soon) more-or-less remade the same story twice (in 1970 and 1982), and 2010 saw an official remake.Movie reviews at: spinegrinderweb.com

This movie was a real surprise. I knew nothing about this director, or 'old' Korean cinema, so I had no idea what to expect from this movie. I was really surprised at how incredibly well and professionally it got directed and the story got written, as if it all got done by some big Hollywood names involved, with years of experience in the business under their belt. Everything about this movie got basically done extremely well. Asian cinema is not often known to feature the fastest pace but this movie has a very pleasant quick pace to it and still manages to build up its characters and drama as powerful and effective as any other old and much slower Asian genre attempt. This is of course for most part due to the directing approach of Ki-young Kim, that is nothing short of brilliant to be honest. There are some amazingly well set up moments in the movie, that get brought beautifully and at times even artistically to the screen. But it's also due to the fine written story, by Ki-young Kim as well, that makes this movie such an extremely good one. It's a quite simple movie, in terms of that it doesn't feature that many characters in it and it is being set for most part at only two different locations; an house and a factory. What I foremost liked about the story was that all of the characters within it interact differently with each other and each of them have a different feeling and opinion about the other. It lets the story and all of its emotions and tension work out so very well. And this is all despite the fact that the movie just doesn't really have the most likely and convincing story in it. Or perhaps this is more due to the fact that's its about an entirely different culture, so all of the character motivations and their actions often seem like odd ones, through modern Western eyes. The movie is being a (melo)drama but with definitely a thriller overtone to it. The movie features some classic, effective genre elements, such as a great sense of claustrophobia, a constant sense of danger and unpredictability to it all, overall desperateness and even a femme fatale. It's also being a very well cast movie. Not only do all of the actors really let their characters work out well but they also all seem to have the right looks for their part. They are also all very distinctive looking, so you never have to worry about mixing one or two different South-Koreans up with each other, like perhaps sometimes is the case in other black & white Asian movies, in which all of the characters look alike with the same costumes and hairstyles. One surprisingly great movie, that got beautifully and fully restored by Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation. 9/10

Hilariously over the top domestic thriller melodrama and yet so wonderfully directed. I couldn't get over the richness of light, the perfect camera angles, the way the camera stalked around the scenes, the profound sense of claustrophobia, the shocking twists (well, first you're shocked, then you just laugh... I mean it's pretty ridiculous). But just as an exorcise in film-making it's absolutely perfect. Some of the performances are outstanding as well. Featuring some really gorgeous actresses turning in pretty emotionally resonant performances. The lead femme fatale is particularly affecting. This movie also has what must be the most dangerous staircase in cinema history! And the last shot of the film is a wonderful piece of dated Korean moral propagandizing. Really entertaining. I chuckled through the whole thing.

Allow me to add to the hype: this film is as delirious as they come. Starting out as a typical realist glance into 1960's South Korea as centered on a upwardly-mobile family, after the plot gets settled, becomes a hysterical and expressionistic tale of corrosive sin and deception. The transformation of one night's flirtation into a grandiose moral eradication is the one of the most stunning turns of atmosphere I've ever seen in a film. Also amazing is how your view of the characters changes dramatically as they are faced with this living hell. While researching about the director, I found out that the actress who played the housemaid, Eun-shim Lee, fulfilled the part so well that she couldn't find work after this movie. Audience members were literally screaming for her death at the original showings! See this film just for her, you won't regret it! I can't say enough great things about the director Kim Ki-young, too bad most of his films aren't available in English!