Review: The Handmaiden

Set in 1930s Japan-controlled Korea, con man Junh-woo Ha employs young female pickpocket Kim Tae-ri to take part in a scheme he has devised. He needs her to pose as the new handmaiden to young Japanese heiress Hideko (Min-hee Kim) to try to convince the heiress to dump her current suitor Kouzuki (who also happens to be her disgusting uncle), and fall for Junh-woo Ha, who will be posing as a teacher. Over time, the scheming Junh-woo Ha will marry the heiress, have her declared insane and shipped off to the funny farm, while he has at it with the heiress’ fortune, giving his accomplice half. Things hit a substantial speed bump however, as the two women get to know one another and…feelings emerge. Passionate feelings. There’s more and more twists to come than that, though.

South Korean director Chan-wook Park has a habit of making films with premises that sound great…but the execution flops. At least for me. Happened with the overrated “Old Boy”, and “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” did even less for me. His English-language debut “Stoker” was a gigantic disappointment, too. Yes, he also gave us the insane vampire flick “Thirst”, which I really liked, but otherwise this guy and I just aren’t on the same wavelength. Now there’s this 2016 epic-length con game with romantic elements. It came with what I consider to be one of the greatest trailers I’ve ever seen, it looked fucking incredible. And yeah, a mixture of Sapphic action and critical respect? It sounded like this was gonna be the one film where I was finally on the same wavelength as everyone else. I couldn’t see how it wouldn’t happen and thought this might have the potential to be like a smarter, Asian “Emmanuelle” or something. I should’ve kept in mind the film’s pedigree, and remembered that this guy rarely delivers the goods. Yeah…I’ve been duped again.

It starts pretty well, with an intriguing con game going on and interesting female characters, and also the potential for both a moving and seriously scorching hot Sapphic romance. The build-up is fairly sensuous and genuinely erotic, rather than ‘sexy’. There’s even some humour, especially with the title character having to suppress her knowledge of criminal matters. It looks great and there was room for some interesting twists and turns to come.

And then we realise the film is in three parts, and that’s when it all goes to hell. Damn it.

The majority of Part II is completely unnecessary filler that only serves to take one’s investment right out of the film, never to fully recover. It could’ve easily have been cut down to just 10 minutes without losing much of anything important. As is, it caused me to lose all sight of the connection between the two women that had been built up in the first part, and it never quite got it back on track for me. I know that although a lot of people found it exploitive, many people also found some feminist brilliance in all of this (the men are all disgusting pigs here for a start). However, I just didn’t come away impressed. I honestly felt like this was a good 100-110 minute film stretched to 2 ½ hours, and it’s far too long (A film like “Blue is the Warmest Colour” was a rare exception that really did manage to last the distance, though it was a different kind film). To be honest, even the sex scenes were a bit underwhelming for me. The first sex scene is a bit too comedic for my liking, though the others are certainly better, if still a bit silly with far too close-up angles at times (not to mention I’d lost interest in the film for the most part by that point).

It’s a shame that the execution is off here, because there’s a fascinating plot afoot in this one and it’s well-acted across the board. Some really nice build-up is squandered due to the film stopping dead in the second part and never quite recovers. The world’s most frustrating filmmaker is at it again, I’m afraid. This may be his most frustrating film to date, because there was a way to make this one so much better. Scripted by the director and Seo-Kyung Chung, it’s based on a novel by Sarah Walters (originally set in Victorian Era England). A lot of people love this film, so don’t necessarily let me sway you with my fairly average view of it.

Rating: C+