The Handmaiden (2016)

The Handmaiden is a con about con artists. It's that fun sort of movie where everyone is playing everyone else. As the audience we follow their schemes, watch the back and forth, the lunges for upper hand. We also are struck by the incredible visuals laid out for us, the kind that balance being absolutely gorgeous and uncomfortably shocking. We are both seduced and anxious. We know not all is alright but are irresistibly drawn to what we are seeing. Park Chan-wook masters the art of beating us up while we love it. He plays us and it is lovely.

The film starts out one way, lulling us into a certain level of security. The film is lovely at this point, and its story is immediately engrossing. But it feels rather familiar and safe at first. Chan-wook pulls the wool over our eyes, not giving us a clue he is going to smack us upside the head with a story that goes beyond what we are expecting. When he gets there the film becomes something that you watch with your eyes wide open.

The Handmaiden, like other Chan-wook films, will take you on an extraordinary ride. It takes the grifter plot genre but makes it into something new. Not only is there his exciting, energetic story telling style, there is his embrace of an uncomfortable erotic esthetic which blends sex with violence, pain with pleasure, love with betrayal. He starts us off, just pushing things to a line, but soon he is far over it and the audience is just made to experience.

And he finds something completely lovely there. Min He Kim is a strong, incredible centre to this film. She opens up like a flower, revealing far more than we first see. The entire cast is strong but so much of the film is centred around Min He Kim and her robust performance. 

The eroticism in The Handmaiden is beautifully dangerous, subversive, and empowering all at once. Chan-wook doesn't shy away from showing it all, appreciating the darker and more nurturing elements of sexuality. His film is a bit triumphant, in fact, for love. I wasn't expecting that quite so much.

The Handmaiden is one of the strongest, most entertaining, most riveting films you'll see all year. It is not for the faint of heart, but the experience is a rich one for those who can take it on.

The Handmaiden
Starring: Min-Hee Kim, Kim Tae-Ri, Jung-Woo Ha
Director: Park Chan-wook
Writers: Park Chan-wook, Chung Seo-kyung