Part family drama, part class intrigue and partly a story of sexual awakening, “The Handmaiden” was one of last year’s most unexpected — and finest — films from foreign shores. Directed by Korean master Chan-wook Park, it’s about a young woman who’s brought in to be the personal servant to a wealthy woman from Japan during that country’s colonial rule of Korea. Their estate is an incredibly odd and insular world, where Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee) is actually the heiress of all the fabulous wealth, but her uncle, Kouzuki (Cho Jin-woong), acts as her regent and authoritarian master. A dealer in antique erotica, he forces her to recite from the incredibly smutty texts to an elite clientele.
The Handmaiden
The Handmaiden
The Handmaiden
Part family drama, part class intrigue and partly a story of sexual awakening, “The Handmaiden” was one of last year’s most unexpected — and finest — films from foreign shores. Directed by Korean master Chan-wook Park, it’s about a young woman who’s brought in to be the personal servant to a wealthy woman from Japan during that country’s colonial rule of Korea. Their estate is an incredibly odd and insular world, where Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee) is actually the heiress of all the fabulous wealth, but her uncle, Kouzuki (Cho Jin-woong), acts as her regent and authoritarian master. A dealer in antique erotica, he forces her to recite from the incredibly smutty texts to an elite clientele.