South Korean director Park Chan-wook is the master of twists (in regard to plot lines, not dancing).
In Oldboy — Park’s 2003 psychological thriller, not the shitty 2013 Spike Lee remake — a series of surprises in the life of a formerly imprisoned man named Oh Dae-su turns into an unforgettably grim ending that slaps the viewer square in the temple with unpredictability. The Handmaiden, Park’s latest masterpiece, is a cold-hearted tale of love driven by heroes and villains whose motives remain unclear until the film’s terrific finale.
Sookee, played by Kim Tae-ri, is hired as the handmaiden for Lady Hideko (Min-hee Kim), a Japanese heiress who lives in relative isolation with a wealthy, reclusive uncle interested in taking his own niece as a bride. And that — not the cleaning, laundry and constant tending to required of a handmaiden — is where Sookee’s true expertise is required. That’s because Sookee is a con artist, sent by a fellow Korean con posing as the Japanese Count Fujiwara for the purpose of convincing Lady Hideko to take his hand in marriage. He desires Hideko for her inheritance, and Hideko desires anything but being forever married to her creepy ass uncle.
It’s a story of the players and the played, with its characters constantly rotating between the former and the latter. Such a level of perennial uncertainty bears a necessary burden on the body’s lower digits, keeping the viewer on their toes through the nearly two and a half hour runtime.
Multiple times throughout the film I guessed the ultimate outcome, convinced I could foresee Park’s pending madness. Each and every time, I was stupendously wrong. It’s a similar viewing experience to Shutter Island, Memento or even the aforementioned Oldboy, where the entire context and understanding of the movie shifts within the plot’s final moments.
The movie is well-deserving of its “R” rating. A la Game of Thrones, fingers are forcefully amputated and sex scenes are passionately close and long-lasting. In other words, you are sort of a shitty parent if you bring your kid on a Handmaiden movie outing. In other, other words, it’s totally awesome.
Filmed in Japan and South Korea, the film’s terrific acting is captured by the brilliant cinematography of Chung-hoon Chung. Visuals are as consistently gorgeous as the film is continually up in the air.
Ultimately, The Handmaiden is another triumph in the illustrious career of Park Chan-wook. Complete with a morally ambiguous group of characters, the film’s lengthy runtime is made almost unnoticeable by the desire for understanding. The Handmaiden is a must-see, unless, of course, you are Spike Lee. In that case, please never read or learn anything about the movie and stay far, far away from the potential American-audience remake.
