My favorite film in quite some time is Park Chan Wook's devious The Handmaiden, a movie, which even at two and a half hours, flew along for me. While most certainly deliriously violent and sexual, sometimes at the same moment, this marks his most romantic and mature work; easily his best film since Oldboy.
Based on Sarah Waters' novel Fingersmith, this film captures Park's affinity for fetishism and feminism, climaxing in a loving sharing of Ben Wa balls. The premise centers around a con: a poor orphan is hired as a handmaiden with the help of a swindler who wants to woo a wealthy heiress in remote 1930s Korea. After winning the heiress's hand, the rake will then move to Japan and deposit the heiress in an asylum, helped along by some gaslighting by the handmaiden. Love, happily, conquers all as the heiress falls for the handmaiden and vice versa.
The film is in three parts, with a shift in point of view in part two that renders what we have learned heretofore obsolete. The heiress, also an orphan, wants to escape her uncle who uses her and his collection of erotica for sinister purposes. The historical background is that of Japanese imperialism and it subjugation of Korea. The introduction of Korean self-abnegation as a theme seems a bit tacked on, but does provide a good backdrop for our two orphans in a historical storm.
The acting is superb, particularly Kim Min-hee who won the Best Actress Silver Bear in Berlin. Cinematography, costumes, and set design are all gorgeous and inform and shape The Handmaiden's themes. Park wants to bash the patriarchy and illuminate its cruelty and sexual servitude. The very frocks and fripperies that adorn the heiress are the chains of her colonial, economic and sexual slavery. It is only when the lovers are free, especially of their own submissive and dominant roles, that they can discard their fineries and give each other pleasure and love.
Almost any film by a male filmmaker that has explicit scenes of sapphic lovemaking is going to be accused of utilizing the tyranny of the male gaze. Park does seem to want to have his feminist cake and eat it, too, particularly when he uses a vagina cam at one point. However, I feel that Park has used a loving and not patronizing gaze on his heroines who are juxtaposed with males inhabiting a theater of cruelty. A masterpiece, The Handmaiden will reward multiple viewings. (2/14/17)
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