Customer Reviews

The Maid

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like a lot of the other reviewers, I'm a big fan of Asian horror of all kinds--I had overlooked this modest little film until now, but it was reasonably entertaining and, despite the occasional silliness, has a cohesive plot and some good effects. (There's a very brief moment when the shadow of a passing coffin falls over a young woman's face, which then contorts into the most terrifying expression I've ever seen. I don't know if it was CGI or not, but it's *really* creepy.)

It's not exactly non-stop terror and the young heroine's cluelessness occasionally gets irritating, but I still found it preferable to some of the earlier j- and k-horror movies that suffer from disjointed plots and ridiculous inconsistencies. Stylistically, it's much closer to the Pang brothers' Eye movies.

This is a film that was produced in Singapore, where my inital thought, that this film just wanted to capitalise on the current unstoppable flow of horror films that seem to follow from the asian countries. Add to that a title that seems even more tacky... I wasn't expecting much... But i was indeed in for a shock.....

The Maid; like it's title, is a tale that is centered around a domestic helper, aged 18, who has travelled to the Philippines to Singapore, in hope to earn money so as to provide a better life for her family back home. Situation is such that money is urgently required to save her ill brother back home.

She is employed by an elderly couple, Mr and Mrs Teo who have a mentally-handicapped son Ah Soon. The relationship between all of them is good, and all seems to go well.

In chinese mythology, the 7th month of the Lunar Calendar is widely considered the Hungry Ghost festival - when the gates of hell swing open and for 30 days, the dead walk among the living. There are some rules during these months that are praticsed during these months amoung most... of which include - not to turn your head when some1 taps or calls your name over the shoulder... Lot of other rules are also mentioned, and most of these have been brushed off as Old wives tale...

The maid (Alessandra De Rossi) brushes them off, and unfortuantely, she gets entangled into the ghostly world....

The acting is decent, with my hat going out to Alessandra De Rossi who makes her performance very believable. But what makes this movie a regular scarefest is the fact that the director is trying too hard to scare us that the scares all seem too rehearshed. This film has a very decent premise, and the acting an't too bad... But i would suggest a rental for all those interested, before committing a purchase, as this is a film for only the acquired taste.

Dvd wise, Tartan issues the regular stuff-along with Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 Surround tracks with a few trailers of it's upcoming movie selections - English subtitles will be available....


******** I have just recieved word that the dvd presentation has a very serious problem with it. For some reason Tartan has tried to stretch what appears to be a 1.85:1 ratio into about a 2.35:1. Also the image is non-anamorphic. For this alone.... i suggest you skip the release!!!

Kelvin Tong's The Maid is an interesting little film. It is not really scary but it is genuinely creepy in a way that not many films are today.

Starring Alessandra de Rossi as Rosa Dimaano, a Phillipine maid who goes to work for a family in Singapore in order to earn money for her family, the film gets heavily involved in Chinese superstition and tradition. Rosa arrives in Singapore during the Chinese Seventh Month. This is the time when according to tradition the gates of Hell open and the spirits or hungary ghosts walk among the humans. Rosa unknowingly breaks tradition and begins to be haunted by these ghosts. She is especially followed by the ghost of a former maid seeking revenge on her host family.

The film is unique in that it presents custom and traditions that few Westerners know about in addition to telling its traditional ghost story. This is a worthy entry into the Asian horror genre that should have received a wider American audience upon its release.

The Tartan disc offers an interesting making of feature in addition to some trailers of their most current releases.

The Maid (Kelvin Tong, 2005)

Now, I'll say right off that, yes, the critics of this movie have it right: there's nothing here we haven't seen before. But you know what? There are thirty-six plots. Total. (And that's the liberal estimate. I've seen the estimate for the total number of plots in the world whittled down to nine convincingly.) As Al Jourgensen said back in the early nineties, "it's all been done already." What you have to try and do, if you're a writer, or a musician, or a filmmaker, is to present it another way, with your own style. I've seen a lot of derivative Asian horror movies recently, and of the lot, The Maid stands out. Why? Because Kelvin Tong has a lot more style than those other guys.

Alessandra de Rossi plays Rosa Dimaano, a young Filipino woman hired as a housekeeper by a cosmopolitan, if old-school, couple in Singapore, the Teos (Huifang Hong and Shucheng Chen). The Teos have a mentally challenged son, Ah-Soon (Benny Soh), and Rosa and Ah-Soon quickly become friends. However, the house is haunted, and the Seventh Month celebration (roughly analogous to a month-long version of Dia de los Muertos) is coming. Singaporean society has a long, complex set of rules on how to get through Seventh Month without the dead coming to plague you, but Rosa doesn't know them, and gleefully stumbles through her existence breaking them right and left until the dead start noticing her.

This is good stuff. Tong spends most of his time building tension rather than going for the jumps and relies heavily on atmosphere to do his dirty work for him. It doesn't work as well as it would if the movie weren't quite as predictable as it is, but this is mitigated by a cast of intriguing characters. Benny Soh, especially, plays Ah-Soon with the perfect mix of childlike innocence and the menace of an adult who can't tell right from wrong. And de Rossi, the most experienced actor in the cast by far, brings a wonderful naivete to her part.

I liked it. See it on the big screen if you can. Surround sound and a dark theater will definitely get you into the spirit of things. *** ½

The Maid is a actually very good, compare to other "international releases" in recent years, the only weakness of this realistic horror film is that it's story is inconsistent and a lack of high quality visuals. I totally understand a lot of the elements in this film and it sometimes comes across like a documentary, maybe that's why it's unique and scary. The second half of the film had more of a focus story, and it's no longer about the ghosts activities, it's about the unknown ghosts in the household that haunts the maid, and she solved the mystery behind the death of former maid. I was also very surprised or fooled by the identity of the mentally disabled son until the end. For the foreign viewers, you will find some of the superstitions to be interesting or funny. I had seen the practice of burning hell money and incense, but never gone to see a play where a row of seats are exclusively reserved for the ghosts. Isn't that creepy to be part of that audiences? Another movie that's similar to this film is The Eye 1, 2, and it's much better production.

Ok, let's get this out of the way first....I LOVE Asian horror, J-horror call it what you will....bring on them long haired ghosts.....LOVE it!! Ju-On has LONG since been the #1 scariest movie EVER for me....I put this RIGHT beside it!! IT was CREEPY and made me squeal so much my husband threatened to turn it off! I did not personally find the "scares" or anything rehearsed and I LOVED the history and traditions you learn about in this movie. I found the acting, particularly Rosa, really good...OK I thought EVERYONE did great! I was so involved in the story and being scared out of my wits that while I thought the picture was a tad stretched...I DON'T and STILL don't care!! You will SO not be disappointed in this one!!

In the The Maid, a young woman comes from the Phillipines to Singapore to work as a maid for an older Chinese couple who have an adult, mentally disabled child. The woman comes during the 7th month on the Chinese lunar calendar, a time when they believe the gates of hell open up and the dead walk the earth and seek justice. There are rules to follow so the ghosts don't bother you, but since the maid doesn't know the rules, she unwittingly breaks them one by one. Soon she is being harrassed and stumbles onto a family secret.

I liked the plot of The Maid, especially the ending. The acting is pretty good and there is some very creepy imagery with the ghosts. There are a few times when the appearance of a ghost is telegraphed, but there are others that are a surprise and made me jump. The pacing is a little slow sometimes and the editing choppy at places, but overall The Maid is one of the better horror movies I've seen recently.

I picked this offering from Tartan Extreme up on a whim just before Hallowe'en, not sure what to expect. What I discovered was a fascinating and genuinely spooky tale weaving traditional Chinese mythology and ancestor worship with downright scary ghosties, murder, and scandal!

The Maid tells the (perhaps cautionary) tale of Rosa, a pretty 18-year-old girl who has come to Singapore from the Philippines to work as a domestic maid. She arrives at the home of her Chinese hosts during Chinese Seventh Month, the 30 day period when the gates of Hell are thrown open and hungry ghosts walk the earth. There are many taboos that are to be strictly maintained, and Rosa proceeds to innocently break each one until she finds herself wrapped up in a truly ghoulish situation involving scandal, murder, and a slew of desperate spirits clawing to get at her.

The Maid was fascinating as a foreign film, since it jumped linguistically from Mandarin to English (Rosa primarily speaks English, and her hosts speak English with her--I recall her speaking her native language only once).

The Maid is the kind of flick that hooks you from the start, much in the way that a great horror novel does, and doesn't let you go til the heart-stopping finale!

A shy, young girl named Rosa (Alessandra de Rosi) gets a position as a maid in Singapore. Rosa arrives during the seventh month, when, according to legend, the spirits (hungry ghosts) are said to walk the earth. The family that Rosa works for seems quaint and friendly enough. However, she soon learns that her situation isn't as simple or as safe as it appears to be. Rosa's new employers have a secret that will reveal itself in bizarre and terrifying ways. THE MAID had me wondering wtf was going on almost to the very last frame! A well-made, slowly building, supernatural thriller w/ a final twist that is downright wicked! Yep, those hungry ghosts have got to be satisfied...

According to Chinese legend, the gates of hell are opened during the seventh lunar month. During this time the dead spirits walk amongst the living on earth, to 'wreak revenge or repay a kindness', as the narrative intro explains. Given the nature of this picture, you can imagine which one will occur over the next 85 minutes.

This is a surprisingly effective bit of creepiness from the Chinese community in Singapore. The story centers around a young Filipino maid who has been hired by a Chinese-Singaporean family at the start of this lunar hell month. The family has an adult mentally-challenged son who acts like a youngster, and manages to intrude on many aspects of the new maid's life. In addition, the maid is able to see the dead spirits walking. The matriarch of the Chinese family explains that she must have angered some to the rising spirits, and it's not long before the burned visage of a young woman haunting her new abode.

Our young maid becomes aware that this family is anything but normal, and she's embroiled in a hellacious battle of spirits. The effectiveness of this film derives from psychological tension and ritual surrounding this macabre Chinese festival. There are brief moments of intense gore and suffering, but largely the film is propelled by mood and character tensions, rather than effects.

Asian horror has alot to answer for after creating an avalanche of mediocre copycat films over the last decade. The Maid is refreshing, and reaffirms my faith in the power of this genre, when creativity is directed to the good of the film. Worth a look, even for eyes jaded by eastern-inspired horror.

The extras include cast interviews and documentary background surrounding the festival of the dead spirits. There's a trailer and short promos for other Asia Extreme titles.