The Handmaiden weaves together desire, deception, and power through its exquisite aesthetic, while following two women trapped in their own predicaments as they confront one another, ultimately saving themselves and breaking free from the constraints of fate. The women captured through Director Park Chan-wook’s lens are both dangerous and free. I was deeply captivated by its clarity, boldness, and vitality. — Actor FAN Bingbing
Transposing Sarah Waters’s Fingersmith to 1930s Joseon, The Handmaiden traverses Kim Ki-young’s housemaid, the Marquis de Sade’s boudoir, and Hollywood gothic to arrive in a space Korean cinema had never set foot in before. Entering a hybrid British-style manor grafted onto a Japanese house, maid and pickpocket Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri) must attend to heiress Hideko (Kim Min-hee) while watching out for both the master who aspires to be Japanese and the swindler count scheming to claim the lady. Taking the erotic readings forced upon Hideko as its point of departure, The Handmaiden leads women who willingly hijack their oppressors’ camouflage onto a new stage. Passing through sliding doors across the CinemaScope frame over three chapters, the meaning and color of identical gestures, the positions of original and replica, and the faces of love and exploitation are thoroughly transformed. As Park Chan-wook’s first queer melodrama, even the journey of liberating occupied beauty from the ledger of possessions is profoundly aesthetic.
Park Chan-wook achieved both commercial and critical success with Joint Security Area (JSA) (2000), which drew approximately 5.83 million admissions and became the highest-grossing Korean film at the time. He went on to direct his Vengeance Trilogy: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005). He won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival for Oldboy, the Jury Prize for Thirst (2009), and Best Director for Decision to Leave (2022), cementing his status as one of the leading figures in Korean cinema.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
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