Trailer for Im Sang-soo’s The Housemaid

I’ll be terribly disappointed if Im Sang-soo’s pristine looking remake of Kim Ki-young’s classic doesn’t find its way to Cannes. The chances that Sang-soo’s version of The Housemaid doesn’t make it on the Croisette are extremely low – Jeon Do-yeon won for Best Actress at the festival for Secret Sunshine, Sang-soo has been an invited guest on several occasions, and the film is receiving its domestic release in the same month and by the looks of this trailer, it’s got Midnight screening stamped all over it.

The film’s trailer labels itself as an erotic thriller, but I’d call this psychological erotica turf. The selection of scenes are visual proof that Do-yeon’s character strips away her former choir-orientated self to metamorphosize into something we might associate with a Sharon Stone character, and while I’m less in awe of a how Lee Jung-jae seduces with the piano keys, I appreciate how his life gets misconstrued with a brilliant split field of vision shot. We don’t get much of the wife role played by Seo Woo (see noir pic above), but I think she’ll receive more than just a jilted lover supporting player.