What is the relevance of the lady jumping off that building? Just foreshadowing?
shareI think it had something to do with the Mother-in-Law/Mother character's situation with her own husband. When that doctor who shows up to take the main character to get an abortion, and makes a comment to her about "the men in this family", I think she was referring to something that happened before, which could have been the early suicide. Just a thought.
shareI actually thought it was the main character who jumped at the beginning of the movie, and the story was told backwards. Guess I was wrong.
shareYes, somewhat.
Before she jumped people were having a time of their lives, doing the usual things like working, walking, drinking and partying. After she jumped some were curious to look, but the rest carried on doing what they were doing before she jumped. No one cared she died or why she did it. Once her body was removed, life moved on. It'll be less than a week before everyone that night completely forget her existence.
BIG SPOILERS
That's what happened to Eun-yi. She took revenge on the family by killing herself in front of them, but they carried on normally after her death. They were only interested in doing as they please as they had always done before she came along.
Foreshadowing yes. Perhaps even a statement on how modern society is so self involved and callous, people too wrapped up in their own world to care for others. I saw it as another "housemaid" who had been through a similar situation (perhaps even with the same family) committing suicide. Something so tragic and startling (the jumper) had no lasting impact, nor would it seem did Eun-yi's horrible death. This would better explain the bizarre and surreal ending. Maybe those two scenes book-end the film in some way with this message?
shareMouse-hover to read what is under the red spoiler-shield.
The very first thought that popped into my head (knowing what I did about the films beforehand) was that the girl was the last housemaid who worked for that rich, screwy family, before the title character came into the picture. This first scene bookended what was to be the penultimate one, of the current housemaid offing herself. It was meant to be, I think, a portent perhaps?
The more Ken Loach films I see, the more I think they need English subtitles.
I think it is the curse that follows the family for years, the kid is the one who suicides (current), and the main character's story is flashback...
shareThere are a couple of threads discussing the start and end of the film.
South Korea has a big problem with suicide, people often top themselves here when they feel helpless, shamed or are facing bankruptcy.
Sounds about right that the first suicide was a previous maid, who no one helped obviously. Her only way out was suicide. Often it seems in Korea that people just turn up dead, there can be little warning, and the discussion or personal problems that might lead to suicide is kept under wraps. Perhaps the first housemaid was going through this kind of experience.
No one noticed her jump, some people were curious about looking at her body, but in a voyeuristic sense rather with concern.
I guess at the end Eun-Yi wanted to try and make an impact, the one way to get revenge was to make the family notice, they did but soon carried on with their detached from reality life in the final scene.
However the impact on Nami is tangible, we see that in the final scene, perhaps this means the future will be different, his generation will see or deal with things in a different way.
The older maid who has been there all her life walks away at the end, she has a well respected son in a big job so she's nothing to be ashamed of, also her generation is tougher, she can tough things out. She does however lack a little warmth.
So I think the final scene is cause for hope that Nami's generation will wake up and not go around pretending the best way to solve problems is to top themselves. Eun-Yi shows her hurt to him, she wants him to see that perhaps.
Whereas the older maid perhaps hid her shame and pain and suppressed it, so the generation after her didn't really face their problems, but just ran from them by killing themselves. Of Eun-Yi just kills herself too, BUT she tries to get through to Nami in the process, this is unlike the maid at the start of the film who kills herself just to escape and people around her just basically carry on with life as normal.
...definitely when we we think of the comments of the doctor who visits the house and the older maid it's clear something happened at the house before the arrival of the main character in this story.
Probably just a general commentary on the desperation of the working classes.
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