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.
A genuinely fun blend of sumptuous visuals and a perverse sense of humour.
This is richer fare than the vengeance movies which shot South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook to international acclaim.
Park Chan-wook’s adaptation of Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith, relocated to 1930s Korea, is an erotic triumph – with a whiplash twist.
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.
Sexy, beautiful and constantly surprisingly, The Handmaiden is a satisfying period drama.
Park Chan-wook refashions Sarah Waters’s Fingersmith into a perverse psychodrama that wrongfoots you at every turn.
Sarah Waters: 'The Handmaiden turns pornography into a spectacle--but it's true to my novel'.
Interview: Director Park Chan-wook.
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/