The Handmaiden (Korean Movie - 2. Commenting guidelines- Stay on topic and do not spam. Arguments are welcome, fights are not. Comments which break the rules will be erased. Repeated rule breaking will result in blacklisting. Film review: The Handmaiden – Park Chan- wook’s lavish erotic thriller. Following his elegant English- language debut, Stoker, Park Chan- wook returns to his native South Korea for his latest outing, the sumptuous erotic thriller The Handmaiden. The Handmaiden Watch 2016 FilmfareBased on British author Sarah Waters’ 2. Fingersmith, Park has freely adapted this Victorian- era tale, relocating it to 1. Korea when the nation was under Japanese rule. An orphan trained as a pickpocket, Nam Sook- hee (Kim Tae- ri) is picked up by Ha Jung- woo’s Korean schemer, armed with an elaborate plan to exploit well- to- do heiress Lady Hideko (Kim Min- hee) while he’s posing as a Japanese count. Becoming her handmaiden, Sook- hee must convince her mistress to marry the count. But when she and the vulnerable Hideko fall for each other, it sets in motion a chain of revenge, double- crossing and violence. Korea’s Park Chan- wook talks violence, lesbian sex scenes and making a feminist film. Billed by some as a lurid lesbian potboiler when it premiered in Cannes, The Handmaiden is much more lavish than this reductive description suggests. Take the film’s central love scene: as the girls pleasure each other, the camera floats above them in a majestically mounted shot conjured by Park’s regular cinematographer, Chung Chung- hoon. It’s a moment of beauty. This being Park, as he departs from Waters’ novel in the final act, there will be blood – with one torture scene liable to turn stomachs. There’s also a nod to the octopus- eating scene in Oldboy, and plenty of Gothic chills reminiscent of Guillermo del Toro’s recent Crimson Peak (a cobra guarding a collection of erotica belonging to Hideko’s uncle is particularly unsettling). Boldly crafted, assuredly told, it’s another splendid work from Park. The Handmaidenopens on June 3. Want more articles like this?
Follow SCMP Film on Facebook. TIFF is a charitable cultural organization with a mission to transform the way people see the world, through film. The new thriller from the famous korean director of the cult OLD BOY! The lesbian thriller from Park Chan-wook has sold to 175 territories, beating out 'Snowpiercer' to become the most widely distributed Korean film in history.
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December 2016
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