The Housemaid

A music teacher who runs a choir at a factory hires a housemaid for the family's new house. Within a short time she has altered the balance inside it completely: first an affair with the man, then her pregnancy turned into a weapon, and the family held hostage in its own home. Kim Ki-young made it in 1960 and it is counted among the most influential films in Korean cinema. The house is nearly the only location, with stairs, glass doors and constant rain turning the space into a trap. Underneath it is the class anxiety of the period, how easily everything the new middle class has built can come apart. Long considered lost, it was later restored. Bong Joon Ho cites it frequently. Who it is for: viewers who like Korean classics and domestic thrillers. Who it is not for: anyone expecting realism, since this is deliberately heightened and theatrical.