Saturday 1 October 2016

Review: Park Chan-wook's THE HANDMAIDEN


Park Chan-wook’s new film, The Handmaiden, starts out feeling very unlike what you’d expect from the mind that brought us the twisted delights of Oldboy. For much of the first half, you think you know where things are going, and the weirdness that characterises so much of his work is strangely absent. But then he pulls the rug out from under you, that palpable strangeness starts seeping in like spilled ink soaking through a sheaf of paper, and we’re firmly back in the territory of Choi Min-sik eating a live octopus.

I started out almost wondering if he’d actually decided to make a simple costume drama – more fool me, I know. The titular handmaiden is Sookee, a pickpocket who’s been installed as the Lady Hideko’s servant to help her boss, posing as the Japanese “Count Fujiwara”, to seduce her and claim her inheritance. But Hideko’s weird, perverted uncle has designs on her for the same reasons, and they need to get her away from him.

As it happens, Sookee and Hideko end up falling for each other, leading to the sex scene that’s been providing the film with a great deal of press coverage. You’d think this sort of thing wouldn’t be too shocking in a post-Blue Is The Warmest Colour world, but here we are. Park has said that making this kind of film without sex scenes would be like making a war movie with no battles in it, and I have to say I agree. It’s certainly not the only way to convey the powerful attraction between these two women, but it is one of the most effective.

Obviously these scenes are a culmination to which there’s a lot of buildup, notably a scene where Sookee files down a sharp tooth of Hideko’s, which throbs with tension and suppressed longing. But the film’s too smart for simple titillation, and without wishing to give anything away, it definitely passes judgment on anyone who’s only turned up for the sex scenes. It’s trying to have its cake and eat it too, critiquing these scenes while also offering them up for the audience’s enjoyment, and it just about pulls it off.

But there’s much more going on here besides this. There’s the fascinating historical context of the Japanese occupation of Korea and the clash between two cultures, and the conflicts between men and women in this oppressive, patriarchal society where husbands treat their wives as little more than disposable amusements. Hardly anyone likes each other in this film and there seem to be half a dozen different schemes going on at any one time, and the tricksy, puzzle box plotting and angry, embittered characters are very much in Park’s wheelhouse.

Unsurprisingly, revenge is a central theme, but it’s noticeably less hopeless and futile here than in Park’s Vengeance trilogy. Perhaps because the cause here is actually a very just one, and the characters deserve to achieve it more than, say, Oh Dae-su. It’s certainly less gory and nasty than Oldboy, with even the one torture scene towards the end not being especially hard to watch, and despite moments of despair, it’s actually a remarkably optimistic film overall. It’s hardly happy all the time, but there are moments of genuinely rousing triumph here which I’m not used to in Park’s work. His victories are usually Pyrrhic at best.

So should you see it? It’s a new Park Chan-wook film, of course you should. He’s a master of his craft and he’s on great form here, delivering a gorgeous, richly textured movie which will doubtless inspire lengthy discussions in the pub afterwards. It’s a gripping story, expertly told and with an awful lot on its mind. It’s a pity I can’t say more for fear of spoiling its surprises, but it’s another exceptional work from a genius director. Is it better than Oldboy? Hard to say, not least because it’s fundamentally different in the best way. Park’s still pushing his boundaries, and we’re all better off for it.

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