Why the 1960 version of "Lady" is better than the new one

The Housemaid

Comparing the social and cultural awareness of the two versions of <>, the feeling that the new is inferior to the old lingers. In the new version directed by Lin Changshu, Jeon Doyeon is the dazzling focus, but other aspects are bleak; Jin Qiyong's version in 1960 is like a pearl in the ocean, with its rich artistic techniques and themes that reflect the crisis of modern society, Constitute a classic psychological horror.

The background of the story of the 1960 version of <> is in modern Korea. Many rural girls go to factories to work as female workers to support the lives of urban people; the male protagonist is a factory piano teacher who is admired by female workers; his wife works hard at home. Sewing workers, earning money in exchange for the material life of the middle class: symbolized by TV sets and two-story houses. They have a son and a daughter, and hired workers who were originally mopping floors in factories as maids. Unexpectedly, the maid seduces the male protagonist and covets their life and the status of the mistress. They grind each other in the big house, and finally the family is destroyed. Perhaps in order to make it more acceptable to the society at the time, this violent erotic story was narrated as a newspaper news/fantasy story, with the addition of two paragraphs at the beginning and the end of the newspaper reading and talking scenes (by the original cast in the same set. performance), and finally the male narrator (male protagonist) even faced the camera and warned the audience. The ending of the enlightenment seems to be an anti-climax, but it does not damage the integrity of the main story. The role assignment of the narrator's family is the same as that of the main story, and the same actor plays both roles, expressing that all families may face the same type of crisis. The film is adapted from a real story, and has its social realistic background: in the 1960s, during the development of South Korea's industrialization, young women from the countryside went to factories or cities to work as domestic servants, and there were indeed female servants who had sex with their male masters. The phenomenon has become a social problem1.

Lin Changshu's version starts with a bustling night market, and then most of the pages are left in the super mansion of the male protagonist. It seems to continue the class contrast of the old work, but on the whole it has a sense of absurdity, but this is not the case. Deliberately created, but incompatible with the opening scene. Lee Eun Yi, played by Jeon Do Yeon, is highly educated and has expertise in caring for young children. In the beginning, he only works in a restaurant. Later, he became a domestic helper for the super-rich, taking care of the hostess who is pregnant with twins and her four or five-year-old daughters. . There is also an old maid in the mansion whose son has just become a prosecutor. The surreal thing is that the director made this rich family look like a palace movie in the feudal era. The male protagonist's family is not a hard worker but wants to climb to the upper middle class, but a very rich capitalist, and there are several assistants sent to the door when they return home. , Usually drinking red wine and listening to classical music is a natural upper-class life, and the youngest daughter has been fascinated by her since she was a child. The hostess does not have to work at all, and the relationship with her daughter is not close. The huge mansion is like a palace, the floor is reflective, the chandelier is shining, and the space is disproportionately large. In the old work, the maid took the initiative to seduce the man, and then competed for his body and mind; the man in the new work took the initiative to take the initiative to Enyi, but had no affection for her, and only regarded her as a sex doll, just like an emperor (Enyi). The scene where Yi gives him oral sex, he slowly raises his arms, puffs up his biceps, and shows a gesture of strength). When Enyi was pregnant, the hostess planned to deal with it as if she wanted to be the first to give birth to a "Dragon Child", and her deceitful mother was like an ancient "mother queen". In the end, the hostess poisoned Enyi to abort her, and Enyi committed suicide in front of their family as "revenge".

The richness of techniques and imagery used in the old works is far superior to the new ones.

The image of "rat" is the source of the horror of the old version of <>, and the image derived from it is "rat poison". The two-story house of the protagonist's family is a sign of success and a symbol of the middle class, but rats are a constant threat to the house. On the surface, rat poison can kill pests, but in fact it can kill itself. The mouse is mainly the metaphor of the maid. Her lip licking movements and her flickering eyes clearly tell the audience that she is the big mouse brought in by the protagonist, which will erode the peace of their family and make them move upward for many years. efforts were in vain. But rat poison has become the maid's weapon, and she knows how to use it more skillfully than others: for fear of poisoning by the hostess, she drops the bag with syrup, and when she drinks the sweetness of the soup, she knows that the hostess wants to poison her - true The rat poison has long been hidden. This kind of "rat" in turn uses the inversion of rat poison, which also matches her ambition to change from a servant's status to a "hostess". . Although the new version also has a poisonous plot, it does not have a contrasting effect with the characters, nor does it create a frightening atmosphere.

In terms of sexual awareness, the new version of the heroine is more passive than the old version, showing a retrogression from the modernization period to the consumer society. Film scholar Li Xiaoren pointed out that the sexuality of Jin Qiyong's films "can be an intermediary transaction method of collusion between classes." For a time, the hostess was served like a servant, and the position of power was completely changed. But Jin Qiyong did not take a feminist perspective, and even demonized the maid, but this role is the most powerful in the play, and it really hits the soft underbelly of middle-class families. It can be said that it is a social problem derived from the modernization period, and it can also be said that women, as an erotic subject, do everything possible to find a position. Relative to the male master's sanctimonious appearance at the beginning, to the completely incompetent state of being completely controlled, the remaining wife and maid barely fought, and he was just the object of competition. Then the gender awareness of the new version of <> has gone backwards. Enyi is like a child who has not grown up. He has desire but no scheming, lacks a sense of crisis, and is also fascinated by the master's skills and wealth. She has always been the object of his desires. At the end of the story, Enyi vowed revenge after knowing that the piece of meat in her belly poisoned her hostess for miscarriage, but she just committed suicide in front of their eyes, compromising the luxurious life of this wealthy family.

If Jin Qiyong's lens shows some kind of tragic class conflict, the new version is a victory for the capitalists, which is unbreakable like a feudal dynasty. The dominance of the male host is unshakable. Even if the hostess is annoyed with him, she cannot give up her wealthy life, but she hopes to consolidate her position after giving birth to a son. Through the old servant's repeated emphasis that his family has always been "despicable and shameless", and the hostess's mother instigating her to be patient, to imitate her mother-in-law, and to be able to live happily ever after after giving birth to a son, it is implied that the male host is probably from a corporate kingdom. Heir, and so morally corrupt in his father's generation. The director is still a little weak critical: even if the external relationship of the upper class family is maintained, there is no emotion in it. Enyi has a good relationship with the host's daughter, and the last "revenge" seems to be aimed at the next generation, dying in the most violent way in front of the child's eyes, and haunts like a ghost since then, so the little girl at the end is so dazed. But just as the previous generation was already "despicable and shameless", and the "mother-in-law" who never appeared on the scene also suggested that the family relationship had long since dissipated, it seemed that such a capitalist dynasty would continue.

The erotic subject of the old version of the heroine regressed into a lustful object in the new version. The role of a sexy weak girl is familiar to Jeon Do-yeon, and the innocent and silly girl's character is even more a temptation, causing men's conquest mentality----Lin Chang Shu made the audience an accomplice; he recruited the internationally-renowned actress Jeon Do-yeon was of course a market consideration, and it was the same for the audience and the male host, who regarded her as an object of lust, from the moment she was wearing a maid's skirt to wash the bathtub The stare begins (this image was made into a propaganda poster). The reproduction of luxurious life on the screen and the temptation of Jeon Doyeon's uniform satisfy the audience's desire, which is the victory of consumerism.

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1 Li Xiaoren, translated by Zhang Min: <>, Sanlian Publishing, 2006, p. 227.

2 Li Xiaoren: Ibid., p. 221. (Originally published in <> Issue 27, published in November 2010)

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