Villain and Widow (Korean: 이층의 악당; RR: Yicheungui Akdang; lit. "Villain on the Second Floor"[3]) is a 2010 South Koreancrimecomedy film written and directed by Son Jae-gon about a depressed widow who rents out a room to a suspicious man who claims to be a novelist.[4]
Plot
Yeon-joo, a depressed widow, lives with her bad-tempered daughter, Seong-ah, who's an ex-child model but is now being bullied in school. Things become worse when she starts to experience financial problems. Now deep in debt, Yeon-joo decides to rent out a room in her house to a mysterious man named Chang-in who introduces himself as a novelist. Unbeknownst to her, Chang-in is a thief who's trying to get his hands on a set of Ming Dynasty tea utensils that her deceased husband stole.
Russell Edwards of Variety called it "amusing if overlong."[1] James Mudge of Beyond Hollywood described it as "a breath of fresh air" that "[refuses] to comply with the usual tired genre clichés."[7] Pierce Conran of Modern Korean Cinema wrote that it "transcends genre."[8] Kyu Hyun Kim of Koreanfilm.org wrote that it is "a superbly intelligent and supremely witty piece of entertainment."[9]
