The Handmaiden (2016)

Park Chan-wook’s career has been defined by films that are playful and dark in equal measure, stories of betrayal, revenge, obsession and secrets told with a style that no other director quite matches. The Handmaiden is his tenth feature, and it stands alongside his finest work. The story, adapted from Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith, follows a pickpocket who poses as a handmaiden to help a con artist marry into a Japanese heiress’s fortune, all under the watchful eye of her abusive uncle. The three-part, multi-viewpoint structure keeps the audience constantly reassessing what they think they know.

The story shifts and flashbacks are the work of a director operating at the absolute peak of his powers. The mansion itself becomes a character, its rooms and corridors mirroring the desires and deceptions of the people inside it. The film’s sexual explicitness is never gratuitous; it serves as both a weapon and a liberation, and Park weaves in a reading of the Japanese occupation of Korea that adds yet another layer to an already rich text.

The two lead actresses are extraordinary, and the craft on display, from the cinematography to the costume and set design to the score, is daring, provocative and rewarding.