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Handmaiden, The

Handmaiden, The

Drama, Mystery, Romance

A woman is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, but secretly she is involved in a plot to defraud her.

The critical consensus

The Handmaiden is at once a superlative thriller and a deeply erotic character study, but it’s the intelligence, mordant wit and depth of characterisation that are the real turn-ons.

*****Andrew Lowry, Empire Online, 03/04/2017

A genuinely fun blend of sumptuous visuals and a perverse sense of humour.

****(*)Abbey Bender, Little White Lies, 11/04/2017

This is richer fare than the vengeance movies which shot South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook to international acclaim.

****(*)Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent, 12/04/2017

Park Chan-wook’s adaptation of Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith, relocated to 1930s Korea, is an erotic triumph – with a whiplash twist.

*****Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 13/04/2017

It’s the way Sook-hee and Hideko individually take control of their stories that ultimately transforms this puzzle-box of a movie into such a liberating and entertainingly outré thriller.

*****Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 13/04/2017

Sexy, beautiful and constantly surprisingly, The Handmaiden is a satisfying period drama.

****(*)Allan Hunter, Daily Express, 14/04/2017

Park Chan-wook refashions Sarah Waters’s Fingersmith into a perverse psychodrama that wrongfoots you at every turn.

****(*)Mark Kermode, The Observer, 16/04/2017


Features about Handmaiden, The

Sarah Waters: 'The Handmaiden turns pornography into a spectacle--but it's true to my novel'.

Claire Armitstead, The Guardian, 08/04/2017

Interview: Director Park Chan-wook.

Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 11/04/2017

Where and when?

General release. Check local listings for show times.

Cameo, Edinburgh from Friday May 19, 2017, until Thursday May 25, 2017. More info: http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/

Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow from Friday June 23, 2017, until Thursday June 29, 2017. More info: http://www.glasgowfilm.org/theatre/

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