A review of “The Handmaiden” 2016 Korean movie

South Korean erotic psychological thriller film

The Handmaiden (Korean: 아가씨; RR: Agassi; lit. “Lady”) is an erotic psychological thriller film directed by Park Chan-wook, released in South Korea in 2016 (Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-ri, Ha Jung-woo and Cho Jin-woong).

It is based on the novel ‘Fingersmith’ written by Sarah Waters, but the setting was changed from the Victorian era Britain to Korea under Japanese colonial rule. (resource: Wikipedia)

I watched this film on Amazon Prime, with English subtitles. I am not going to reveal the whole story. It is divided into three chapters, and there were lots of plot twists which makes you keep your eyes on it.

It was about a Japanese lady who was living in Korea when it was colonised by the Japanese. One guy tried to have a relationship with her uncle to try and inherit their wealth. He also sent a Japanese maid to support his trick.

If you like suspense and conspiracy, this film has all of the elements you can want. Plus, the Japanese lady had lived under the erotic circumstances of a relationship with her uncle and aunt. Ohhhhhh.

In spite of the length of the film (2 hours and 24 minutes), it was not boring at all. The image was gorgeous and seductive. However, as a Japanese person, I was not very comfortable with the Japanese script which the Korean actors spoke. Disappointingly, I couldn’t really get into the film because their Japanese was not authentic, though it must have been better for me to have watched it dubbed in Japanese.

Apart from that, I think it’s a great entertainment movie. Highly recommended!