2016 Cannes Critics’ Panel Day 4: Park Chan-wook Gets into Seduction Mode with “The Handmaiden”

Following 2004’s Old Boy (Grand Prix) and 2009’s Thirst (Jury Prize), this is Park Chan-wook‘s third trip to the Cannes comp and technically tenth feature film (this excludes the larger body of short and omnibus work). After his English language debut Stoker, the South Korean filmmaker returned offers us a new subtitled offering with stars Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-ri, Ha Jung-woo, Cho Jin-woong, Kim Have-sook and Moon So-ri (most recently from Hong Sang-soo’s Hill of Freedom). Clocking in over the two hour mark, the multi-twisty plotted feature hasn’t slayed critics a la Oldboy, but our small sampling of critics who saw it this morning are finding plenty to like in this genre item with The Guardian’s Benjamin Lee claiming this is an “exquisitely designed and sexually liberating, this is a hugely entertaining thriller that has shades of Gaslight, Les Diaboliques and last year’s Duke of Burgundy, but thankfully no grey.”

Based on Sarah Waters’ 2002 novel Fingersmith, Park’s latest relocates the book from Victorian England to colonial Korea to tell the sexually charged story of a servant girl (newcomer Kim Tae-ri) who is hired by a conman to help win the trust of a wealthy heiress, only to watch helplessly as the two women enter into a passionate affair.

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