The Handmaiden

The poet of cruelty, the virtuoso of violence, the maker of a vengeance trilogy with Old Boy at the helm, Park Chan-wook is back and this time is using a Sarah Waters novel as the basis for his film. The Handmaiden is a loose adaptation of the Welsh writer's best-selling novel Fingersmith. The director moves the action to Korea in the 1930s. A low-born thief decides to trick a rich Japanese aristocrat into falling in love with her in order to steal her assets. In order to do this, she places a con-artist-the eponymous handmaiden-in her employ. However, the relationship between the two women intensifies. Seen from different perspectives, the intrigue changes radically from minute to minute. The Korean director creates a criminal love story in which nothing is clear. The Handmaiden is a story about a love triangle, desire, sexual fantasies, and sophisticated revenge. Park Chan-wook makes references to psychoanalysis and works from both Japanese and European culture to create a picture of repressed sexuality that is anything but obvious. At the same time, he does nothing to give up his signature violence.