Welcome to ELLECanada.com’s official TIFF journal! This festival, Laura deCarufel and Jennifer Lee, the co-editors of
Hardly Magazine
have the high honour of reporting live from TIFF’S coolest events. Stay tuned for party coverage and behind-the-scenes scoop!
By Jennifer Lee I officially have the flu. Lucky for me, there’s nothing like a revenge film to perk the senses. The
Housemaid first shocked conservative audiences in 1960, when director
Kim Ki-young premiered the now classic South Korean story of lust fulfilled and vengeance plotted. 50 years later, it returns to theaters, reimagined in vibrant artistry for contemporary audiences by writer/director
Sang-soo Im. “The characters are really different, but the story is the same,” says actress
Jeon Do-yeon, who plays Eun-yi, the naïve-turned-embittered housemaid. Lovely in her delicate cream dress, hair pulled back with deep red lips, she would resemble a dainty ballerina, were it not for the sage intensity in her eyes. Winner of 2007’s Cannes Best Actress Award, Do-yeon’s conveyance of her characters psychological state as fueled by her emotional traumas is the nuance of the erotic thriller. After being used and cast out in a cold game of seduction, Eun-yi obsessively nurtures a nascent taste for retribution for the damages incurred by her seducer Hoon (
Jung-Jae Lee) and the family that has enabled his callous treatment of her.
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