The Handmaiden

For some viewers, The Handmaiden will be a lesbian romance in which the path to discovering one’s own identity and overcoming the patriarchy leads through an encounter with a giant octopus. Others may see the film as a reflection on artistic representations of the female body and the pleasure of looking at them or simply as an erotic thriller with a clear and cohesive narrative in the manner of Hitchcock. Beneath the beautiful surface, however, there are enough other layers with which Park seems to be so fascinated that you'll want to see The Handmaiden several times despite its extraordinary length and slowly rising pace. (14/08/2016)

Park Chan-wook is probably my least favorite Korean director. This film was boring. Interesting in terms of art, the atmosphere was decent, even the eroticism was nice, but that was it. The story was too convoluted for me, I got lost. There’s no gore, nothing much to praise. I survived, I'll give it a weak three stars with gritted teeth. Still better than Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, but never again. 50%. (10/11/2016)

Unfortunately, the eroticism permeating the film doesn't work very well, making it more annoying than exciting. Although there are plenty of plot twists in it, The Handmaiden gets a bit boring after a while. I felt like I was watching one big perversion made in Korea that was good visually, but that's just not enough. (45%) (20/06/2020)

Even though it's essentially an erotic thriller, I can't help but appreciate much more than just the erotica, which is very well shot. I particularly liked the composition of individual scenes, where Chan-wook Park proves he has an eye for detail, a sense of color selection, and an overall arrangement of shots. These are images that soothe the soul. (30/09/2016)

Instead of a refined erotic game, it is more of a shallow voyeur prank that is neither provocative nor too eccentric. Its excessiveness lies in the overuse of sentiment, melodramatic clichés and naive acting. The potentially great double-twist is completely lost in the storytelling, which lacks economy and finesse. Subjectively, it took 4 hours. Park filmed his Sucker Punch to name the hidden chambers of desire and lust, as well as the devastating manipulation associated with them. But this much more than a masochistic feast evokes a red library with a few over the top violent scenes. Disappointment... [Cannes 2016] (14/05/2016)