The Handmaiden

I believe The Handmaiden will be something completely different for a lot of viewers. More important than the story, which has an excellent twist, is the completely original, borderline-perfect treatment. The best thing about the whole film, in my opinion, is the division of the story into three parts and the precise cinematography. Actually, I can't even say that the cinematographer did a good job with it, it would sound somehow underrated. This was no acting, it was a very skilled job, shot with confidence. Another thing that plays a very important role and adds to the overall impression is the costumes. It was also because of these and the hair styling that some of the shots were so famous. Of course, no less credit goes to the actors, who performed something incredible under the direction of Park. The only thing I could easily do without are the rather lengthy sex scenes. It's hard to say how the rest of the film would have affected me in their absence, and if the story would have lost its weight without them. In any case, there were too many of them. And they were also quite detailed and perhaps a bit too overt. /// Since I still can't get The Handmaiden out of my head, I'm raising the rating one more star after a month. (12/08/2016)

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)

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)

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)

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)