06. The Handmaiden

06. THE HANDMAIDEN

Director: Park Chan-wook

Release date: November 3, 2016

After a very brief foray into English language films with 2013’s moody thriller Stoker and a role as producer on the impressive dystopian sci-fi Snowpiercer (released the same year), South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook returned to his homeland for the sumptuous, romantic and decidedly erotic thriller The Handmaiden.

The Handmaiden tells an engrossing tale set in Japanese-occupied Korea, early in the 20th Century. Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri) is a young pickpocket enlisted in a plot by conman Count Fujiwara (Ha Jung-woo) who plans to marry and defraud the mysterious and beautiful heiress Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee). Count Fujiwara promises to pay Sook-hee a nice cut of the proceeds if she becomes Lady Hideko’s personal handmaiden and helps him in his deception. But they have to act quickly, as their victim lives under the watchful eye of her maniacal and perverse Uncle Kouzuki, a collector of erotic literature and art. He plans to marry his niece and get his hands on the fortune himself. Sook-hee becomes Lady Hideko’s handmaiden but soon finds herself falling in love with her intended victim.

Featuring all the luscious sets and costuming that one might hope for from the period, The Handmaiden effectively transplants the novel Fingersmith by Welsh writer Sarah Waters, set in Victorian era Britain, into gorgeous Korean and Japanese locales. Park Chan-wook, known more widely as the director and co-writer of 2003’s Oldboy, imbues the winding story with romanticism, humour, moments of violence and an especially passionate sex scene.

The Handmaiden is an intoxicating experience.