Maui Taylor in "The Taste of Money"

I had a chance to see the Korean movie and Cannes Film Festival entry “The Taste of Money” last night at CGV World Cup Stadium. It was a regular premier night and a friend whose daughter appears in the movie shared her 12 free tickets with us ;p

Maui Taylor in "The Taste of Money"

The movie we saw last night didn’t have English subtitles, but I was glad that I understood almost all the dialogues. I said before that my productive Korean is “blah” but not my listening and reading skills. . I talked about the movie to a friend who’s a lot better in Korean than me. There are some parts in English and it helped me understand the movie more.
“The Taste of Money” isn’t the first Im Sang Soo movie I’ve seen. I saw “The Housemaid” last year and in the previous year’s “The President’s Last Bang” and “A Good Lawyer’s Wife”. He’s a badass director and
Maui Taylor plays a Filipino nanny in the movie. I’ve read negative comments online questioning her role (as a nanny) and suggesting that it’s degrading to Filipinas in general. I didn’t think that way even before I saw the film.
What I liked about Maui’s role “Eva” is that she was not a stereotyped Filipina maid, like what has been portrayed in other foreign films or TV shows. In the movie, she spoke English with a neutral accent that is pleasing to the ear. I’m not going to talk about what she did and what happened to her, but rest assured that she was not degraded at all. Although short and a supporting one, her role is vital to the story.
Other Filipinos who appeared in the movie are Joel (one of the kidnappers), Marge, Minnie and Razel (shown in the church scene), Wendy’s son and friend Zel’s daughter (kids of Maui in the movie) and two others who were in the airplane scene. Bit players but they could claim they were in a film that competed in Cannes ;p

6 comments

  1. I’ve watched the trailer on youtube and been wanting to see this movie. hopefully someone will upload this one with eng sub soon.
    and saw some few clips of the premier on youtube. not enough.

  2. I like to watch that movie with Maui Taylor..Here in pinas, i saw one show and they’re proudly talking about how she make it on said movie that will compete on Cannes festival..I agree with you ms. Betchay, it wasn’t degrading at all, though i’ve only seen the full trailer…

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