The Handmaiden
Director: Chan-wook Park
Talent: Min-hee Kim, Jung-woo Ha, Tae-ri Kim, Jin-woong Jo
Released: 14th April
The setting: early 20th century Korea under Japanese rule. The plot: professional conman ‘Count Fujiwara’ (Jung-woo) sends a young associate Sook-Hee (Tae-ri) to work as the maid of Japanese heiress Lady Hideko (Min-hee), to grease the wheels of his planned seduction and subsequent pilfering of her fortune. However, new layers of intrigue emerge at every turn, as the maid and her mistress begin a relationship of a different kind, and who exactly is the object of the con becomes less and less clear.
Chan-wook Park just about manages to keep all the balls in the air in this impressive narrative juggling act. The story is as remarkable for its twists and turns as it is for its black-hearted content, involving all manner of bourgeois Victorian fetishism, scheming and betrayal. In fact, it is its eventual insistence on tying together all of its loose ends, beyond that of the two (truly excellent) women leads, that detract from what had been an enjoyable and amoral romp.
Words – Oisín Murphy-Hall
