‘Handmaiden’ casts gothic spell
South Korean gothic is not a category I encounter frequently. But there is no other or, for that matter, better way to describe Park Chanwook’s deliriously demented, visually lush, incredibly violent and erotic “The Handmaiden,” a period tale set in 1930s-era Japanese-occupied Korea that evokes Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Daphne du Maurier and the Marquis de Sade.
In part one of a two-and-ahalf hour, three-part film, we meet the eponymous, young and beautiful servant Sookhee (Tae-ri Kim), who will be renamed Tamako, Japanesestyle (and learn to speak Japanese), when she arrives at her dark-glasses- and blackleather-gloves-clad master’s mansion, which shares English and Japanese architectural elements, not unlike our story.
If you are reminded of “Rebecca” and “Jane Eyre” in these scenes, and of Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” as Sook-hee takes leave of the band of mostly female pickpockets and cutpurses whom she has grown up with, you are not alone. “The Handmaiden,” which is based on a notably Dickensian Victorian-era 2002 novel “Fingersmith” by Welsh author Sarah Waters, is rich with evocations. Tamako meets her new mistress, the master’s niece Lady Hideko (Min-hee Kim), at the mansion. Lady Hideko is a stunning, hothouse flower whose “Auntie” hanged herself not long ago from a cherry blossom tree in the garden and who is so neurotic herself she needs her handmaiden to sleep across the hall and be on constant call.
To the tune of a score reminiscent of master Toru Takemitsu, “The Handmaiden” weaves an irresistible, if also at times paradoxically repugnant, spell. The plan is for Sook-hee’s handsome, fellow criminal, who passes himself off as Count Fujiwara (Jungwoo Ha), although he is the son of a Korean fishmonger, to seduce Lady Hideko, marry her for her fortune and then have her committed to an insane asylum.
You know what they say about plans. In the film’s other parts, we see action replayed from a different point of view, and the deeply troubled childhood of Lady Hideko under the supervision of her pervert uncle. The story will further involve readings of pornographic literature for wealthy male clients, a collection of pornographic books worth a fortune, a torture chamber, a lesbian lovemaking scene worthy of “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” a life-sized male wooden puppet and, because this is from the artist who gave us “Oldboy,” an octopus. If these elements ring your bell, you may find yourself tolling with joy watching “The Handmaiden.” But be warned, this is not for the faint of heart.
(“The Handmaiden” contains sexually suggestive scenes, nudity and graphic violence and torture.)