The Handmaiden

In the circle of romance, deceive and defraud.

Those who are into the world cinema, particularly the Korean, knows Park Chan-wook very well. But if you don't, then you must. His films are definitely for the grown ups. Like everybody else, my admiration for his work has started a decade ago with the film 'Oldboy'. He had tried his luck in Hollywood with 'Stoker'. Despite a good entertainer, it was criticised. I love Park Chan-wook doing hundred masterpieces like this in Korea than trying to do one in Hollywood. His ability to turn the good book into a great flick was phenomenal. Here it goes another one. This was based on the British novel 'Fingersmith' by Sarah Waters. The story of an orphan woman who assigned to be a maid for a youn...

Talk about the best laid plans! This is a cracking, sexy, thriller set in Korea during the Japanese occupation of the 1930s. It centres around the charming, butter-wouldn't-melt "Sook-Hee" (Tae Ri Kim) who takes a job attending the wealthy "Lady Hideko" (Kim Min-hee). She lives on a grand estate with her cantankerous uncle "Kouzuki" (Cho Jin-woong) and is frankly rather low maintenance for her new maid. Pretty quickly, though, we begin to smell a rat! Is she what she seems, and what has the obviously duplicitous "Count" (Ha Jung-woo) got to do with things? Well gradually, we find out that there are schemes afoot to rob the lady of her fortune, her liberty - even her mind. What the plotting didn't take account for, though, was human nature. ...