M.A.I.D.

Most people in North America do not have maid and do not spend a moment of their time thinking about it. In Asia, however, most city people, from middle-class upwards have maids. A friend from Hong Kong once told me that she did not like to lunch with her sisters because all they talked about was their maids. It goes without saying that these maids are exploited in most ways imaginable. The Thai film M.A.I.D., directed by Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, is a refreshingly funny look on the relationship between the maids and their masters and mistresses. A special investigator in the Prime Minister’s office recruited his maid to go undercover to investigate corruption involving a minister and two businessmen. The government’s future was entrusted to four bumbling maids—two from the countryside and two from Myanmar. While the film trades mainly on stereotypes, it is still refreshing in its warmness towards the maids. In the end, all the masters are corrupt dirty old men and all the mistresses pretentious fools. The table is turned a little when in the end the maids saved the day and open a school for other maid to learn how to do their jobs—self-defence, blackmail, and stealing. The film does such a good job that in the end we agree that the lessons are not only understandable but also necessary. It may seems a lowbrow slapstick to North Americans but I do not think my friend’s sisters would laugh too much towards the end of the film.