The Handmaiden (dir. Park Chan Wook, 2017) - EveryFilmIWatch Review
The Handmaiden is an absolute textbook example of what we've come to expect from the Korean film renaissance of the past 20 years. Its perverted, twisty plot takes you on a psychological journey, dragging you through the boggy mires of the Korean class system and Japanese imperialism, something which thematically grips the film by the throat.
One of the most satisfying things about this film, something it shares with Park Chan-wook's earlier ‘Oldboy' and Bong Joon-ho's recent hit ‘Parasite', is its unwillingness to rest on its laurels. All of these films set up immensely interesting plot conceits that play out with intrigue and great detail. But that’s not enough for the directors. Here Park up-ends the entire plot in a startling manner that feels like the director swiping his plans off the table eager to start all over again, relishing further opportunities for enthralling the audience. It's not as tightly structured as Oldboy and I think the period skin that it slips into gives Park a taste for indulgence, as the pace languished at times. But it's still incredibly watchable, a fascinating and riotous plot with so many layers, each as richly ornate as the previous.
Park - as mischievous as he is insightful - enjoys the idea of the audience squirming in their seats, something that he got a taste for in the infamous Oldboy octopus scene nearly twenty years ago. It's a blatantly anti-Japanese film, that admits its own irony with a faintly bitter melancholy: one of the film's most obvious influences is the controversial Japanese erotic thriller ‘In The Realm Of The Senses' by Nagisa Oshima. The way in which the Japanese influence suffuses itself through the film is metaphoric for the ever-oozing wound Japanese imperialism left on Korea. Excessive, frightening, seductive and very tricky, The Handmaiden is a distinctly Korean classic.
EveryFilmIWatch is multi-channel film review project run by Sebastian Cox, ScriptUp co-founder. Further reviews can be found on Instagram.