The Handmaiden: Patriarchy, Passion and Octopus

Park Chan-Wook’s (Oldboy) “The Handmaiden” is a love story, thriller and subversive Gothic film set in Japanese-occupied Korea (and Japan itself) in the 1930s. It is by turns beautiful, bestial, occasionally brutal. The story centers around a plucky pickpocket ( Kim Tae-ri), who gets a job as a handmaiden at the estate of a rich and eccentric book collector (Lee Yong-nyeo), serving him and Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee), the niece of his late wife. There's also a scheme devised by a poor Korean fisherman who presents as a fake Japanese count and desires to marry the heiress before committing her to an asylum to claim her fortune. We don't want to give much away in this non-linear film but urge you to give it a try (note it's NSFW)...you'll never look at mannequins, thimbles, silver bells, or octopus the same way again.

Intrigued? Good. You should be.

Show Notes:
The Handmaiden Trailer
Sarah Waters: ‘The Handmaiden turns pornography into a spectacle – but it's true to my novel' (The Guardian, 2017)

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