Review: The Handmaiden


Set in 1930s Japan-controlled Korea, con man Junh-woo Ha employs young female pickpocket Kim Tae-ri to take part in a scheme he has devised. He needs her to pose as the new handmaiden to young Japanese heiress Hideko (Min-hee Kim) to try to convince the heiress to dump her current suitor Kouzuki (who also happens to be her disgusting uncle), and fall for Junh-woo Ha, who will be posing as a teacher. Over time, the scheming Junh-woo Ha will marry the heiress, have her declared insane and shipped off to the funny farm, while he has at it with the heiress’ fortune, giving his accomplice half. Things hit a substantial speed bump however, as the two women get to know one another and…feelings emerge. Passionate feelings. There’s more and more twists to come than that, though.


South Korean director Chan-wook Park has a habit of making films with premises that sound great…but the execution flops. At least for me. Happened with the overrated “Old Boy”, and “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” did even less for me. His English-language debut “Stoker” was a gigantic disappointment, too. Yes, he also gave us the insane vampire flick “Thirst”, which I really liked, but otherwise this guy and I just aren’t on the same wavelength. Now there’s this 2016 epic-length con game with romantic elements. It came with what I consider to be one of the greatest trailers I’ve ever seen, it looked fucking incredible. And yeah, a mixture of Sapphic action and critical respect? It sounded like this was gonna be the one film where I was finally on the same wavelength as everyone else. I couldn’t see how it wouldn’t happen and thought this might have the potential to be like a smarter, Asian “Emmanuelle” or something. I should’ve kept in mind the film’s pedigree, and remembered that this guy rarely delivers the goods. Yeah…I’ve been duped again.


It starts pretty well, with an intriguing con game going on and interesting female characters, and also the potential for both a moving and seriously scorching hot Sapphic romance. The build-up is fairly sensuous and genuinely erotic, rather than ‘sexy’. There’s even some humour, especially with the title character having to suppress her knowledge of criminal matters. It looks great and there was room for some interesting twists and turns to come.


And then we realise the film is in three parts, and that’s when it all goes to hell. Damn it.


The majority of Part II is completely unnecessary filler that only serves to take one’s investment right out of the film, never to fully recover. It could’ve easily have been cut down to just 10 minutes without losing much of anything important. As is, it caused me to lose all sight of the connection between the two women that had been built up in the first part, and it never quite got it back on track for me. I know that although a lot of people found it exploitive, many people also found some feminist brilliance in all of this (the men are all disgusting pigs here for a start). However, I just didn’t come away impressed. I honestly felt like this was a good 100-110 minute film stretched to 2 ½ hours, and it’s far too long (A film like “Blue is the Warmest Colour” was a rare exception that really did manage to last the distance, though it was a different kind film). To be honest, even the sex scenes were a bit underwhelming for me. The first sex scene is a bit too comedic for my liking, though the others are certainly better, if still a bit silly with far too close-up angles at times (not to mention I’d lost interest in the film for the most part by that point).


It’s a shame that the execution is off here, because there’s a fascinating plot afoot in this one and it’s well-acted across the board. Some really nice build-up is squandered due to the film stopping dead in the second part and never quite recovers. The world’s most frustrating filmmaker is at it again, I’m afraid. This may be his most frustrating film to date, because there was a way to make this one so much better. Scripted by the director and Seo-Kyung Chung, it’s based on a novel by Sarah Walters (originally set in Victorian Era England). A lot of people love this film, so don’t necessarily let me sway you with my fairly average view of it.


Rating: C+

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Boyka: Undisputed

Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) is out of prison and fighting for a living, with ambitions for the ‘Most Complete Fighter’ to make a real name for himself. However, after an opponent dies during a fight, the deeply religious Boyka starts to have a crisis of conscience. He tries to make amends with the man’s widow, which eventually pits him against a local gangster (Alon Moni Aboutboul, quite good). Anything with Scott Adkins will generally get me interested, and although this series peaked with the superlative “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , this 2017 film from director Todor Chapkanov (director of the SyFy movies “Copperhead” and “Ghost Town” ) is no slouch in a series yet to deliver anything less than solid entertainment. Producer Isaac Florentine is missed in the director’s chair, but Chapkanov gives us at the very least the series’ most dramatically ambitious entry, as Adkins’ ‘most complete fighter’ Yuri Boyka continues on his journey to redemption here. In this one, the
Read more

Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the f
Read more