About This Film
Kim Ki-young is considered one of the greatest Korean directors, particularly due to the 1960 film, “The Housemaid – 1960”, which is considered by many the greatest achievement of Korean cinema. In “Woman of Fire”, the second part of his “Housemaid Trilogy”, Kim revisits the theme of the first film, adding a number of elements and a contemporary visual style, in an effort that earned him a Best Director Award from Blue Dragon.
Synopsis
The story begins with the police finding Dong-sik and Myeong-ja dead in a house next to a poultry farm, stabbed to death. Due to massive damage in the house, the police initially consider the crime a robbery case, but as more evidence come to the fore regarding Dong-sik's wife, Jeong-sook, the truth begins to surface. The film then unfolds in two axes, with the first and major one dealing with the story of the three until the events, and the second in the present.
In that fashion, we are first introduced to Myeong-ja, a country bumpkin that has been the victim of a rape attack, in a series of events that ended up with her killing one of her attackers, and her subsequent self-exile from the area. Through a job broker, she is hired by Jeong-sook, who runs a poultry farm and is also in charge of her household, which includes her composer husband, Dong-sik, her children and the servants. Myeong-ja even states that she will work for free as long as Jeong-sook finsd her a good husband.
Dong-sik is a good man who has never cheated on his wife, but under a lot of pressure due to his lack of success on his profession, and after a series of events that involve Hye-suk, a wannabe singer who does not hide her passion for him, he ends up extremely drunk, raping Myeong-ja in the house, even leaving her pregnant. As a surprisingly understanding Jeong-sook forces her maid to have an abortion, she unleashes a true femme fatale in her household, with terrible consequences for the trio.
