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The Handmaiden (2016): Park Chan Wook's Another 'Heady' Masterpiece


South Korean films have been breaking new Cinematic grounds for quite a while now. The latest masterpiece from soil of Seoul is Park Chan Wook's 'The Handmaiden'. Adopted from the acclaimed Booker prize nominated novel of Sarah Waters' 'Fingersmith', it changes the setting of Victorian Era of Britain from the novel to Japan occupied Korea for its purpose. Headlined by the precocious talents of Kim Min-Hee, Kim Tae-Ri and Ha-Jung Woo, it tells us a story of deceit, slavery, mental torture and love; all wrapped in the garb of eroticism. By its sheer force, it announces the arrival of 'erotic thrillers' back to filmgoers' reckoning.



It came to my knowledge when I was going through the list of Bafta Winners for this year. Out of curiosity, I looked over it on internet and when I found out it was helmed by Park Chan Wook who has given us 'Oldboy', a worldwide smash hit some 10 years ago, I had to see it. Park Chan Wook is a visionary filmmaker who goes to unfathomable extremes to make a wonderful, thought-provoking film and they are always visually sumptuous. Hollywood gush over them, so does entire world. His usage of Korean Landscapes are breathtaking and thus when one of his antagonists say in the movie that Korea is 'slow, boring and tasteless', I could hardly believe him although I very much understood the context of the dialogue. On-screen Gore and Violence are frequent companions of this master filmmaker and they get shown a plenty here.



I am not giving you a sniff of its plot here simply because it would just reveal too much. It is not a simple film, it's skewed but for those who watches thrillers a lot, could guess what's probably going to happen. It's an unbelievable romance though and you gotta love the chemistry of its two female leads. The newcomer Kim Tae-Ri Might become a global star if this film attains mainstream coverage in US and Europe.

All in all, it warrants a compulsory viewing from the fans of Korean films and for those who love Park Chan Wook, it's an ' unmissable masterpiece'. It could also befit any 'best of 21st century films from world cinema so far', at least in my opinion.

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