The Handmaiden (2016)
(Ah-ga-ssi)
Country: KOR
Technical: col/2.35:1 144/167m
Director: Park Chan-wook
Cast: Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-ri, Ha Jung-woo, Jo Jin-woong
Synopsis:
A Korean pimp and con artist orchestrates an elaborate scam to deprive a sadistic porn collector of both his future bride and her fortune, by installing one of his pickpockets as replacement for the woman's handmaiden. However, he doesn't count on his protégée first taking pity and ultimately falling in love with their prey. Or does he?
Review:
Like a period version of the Wachowskis' Bound, this exquisite piece of erotica is also an entry in the Sade canon, so closely does it reference works like Justine and Juliette, not least in its secluded, walled house of lechery, with its purpose built library of pleasure. Chan-wook having huge fun, then, with this hybrid of oriental and western kinkiness, reflected in the very architecture of the house, and adding to his own genre of vengeance a new twist of sensuality. The film is in three parts, adding layers of intrigue and irony to what has gone before, the final joke being on the old bibliophile himself, as the lovers turn former instruments of torment into vehicles of mutual gratification.
(Ah-ga-ssi)
Country: KOR
Technical: col/2.35:1 144/167m
Director: Park Chan-wook
Cast: Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-ri, Ha Jung-woo, Jo Jin-woong
Synopsis:
A Korean pimp and con artist orchestrates an elaborate scam to deprive a sadistic porn collector of both his future bride and her fortune, by installing one of his pickpockets as replacement for the woman's handmaiden. However, he doesn't count on his protégée first taking pity and ultimately falling in love with their prey. Or does he?
Review:
Like a period version of the Wachowskis' Bound, this exquisite piece of erotica is also an entry in the Sade canon, so closely does it reference works like Justine and Juliette, not least in its secluded, walled house of lechery, with its purpose built library of pleasure. Chan-wook having huge fun, then, with this hybrid of oriental and western kinkiness, reflected in the very architecture of the house, and adding to his own genre of vengeance a new twist of sensuality. The film is in three parts, adding layers of intrigue and irony to what has gone before, the final joke being on the old bibliophile himself, as the lovers turn former instruments of torment into vehicles of mutual gratification.
(Ah-ga-ssi)
Country: KOR
Technical: col/2.35:1 144/167m
Director: Park Chan-wook
Cast: Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-ri, Ha Jung-woo, Jo Jin-woong
Synopsis:
A Korean pimp and con artist orchestrates an elaborate scam to deprive a sadistic porn collector of both his future bride and her fortune, by installing one of his pickpockets as replacement for the woman's handmaiden. However, he doesn't count on his protégée first taking pity and ultimately falling in love with their prey. Or does he?
Review:
Like a period version of the Wachowskis' Bound, this exquisite piece of erotica is also an entry in the Sade canon, so closely does it reference works like Justine and Juliette, not least in its secluded, walled house of lechery, with its purpose built library of pleasure. Chan-wook having huge fun, then, with this hybrid of oriental and western kinkiness, reflected in the very architecture of the house, and adding to his own genre of vengeance a new twist of sensuality. The film is in three parts, adding layers of intrigue and irony to what has gone before, the final joke being on the old bibliophile himself, as the lovers turn former instruments of torment into vehicles of mutual gratification.