Synopsis
In 1930s Korea, a swindler and a young woman pose as a Japanese count and a handmaiden to seduce a Japanese heiress and steal her fortune.
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Cast
- Kim Min-heeLady Hideko
- Kim Tae-riSookee
- Ha Jung-wooCount Fujiwara
- Cho Jin-woongUncle Kouzuki
- Kim Hae-sookMs. Sasaki
- Moon So-riAunt of Noble Lady
- Lee Yong-nyeoBok-soon
- Kwak Eun-jinKkeut-dan
- Lee Dong-hwiGoo-gai
- Jo Eun-hyungYoung Hideko
Recommendations
- 90
The Hollywood Reporter
Expectations are fully met in Park Chan-wook’s exquisitely filmed The Handmaiden (Agassi), an amusingly kinky erotic thriller and love story that brims with delicious surprises, making its two-and-a-half hours fly by. - 83
IndieWire
No matter its overarching ridiculousness, The Handmaiden remains a hugely enjoyable dose of grotesque escapism from a master of the form. - 83
The Playlist
An intensely pleasurable, lavishly shot dessert tray of utter hokum, The Handmaiden is a prime example of why we should be glad that there’s someone out there still invested in the overwrought Gothic melodrama, and that that person is Park Chan-wook. - 82
The Verge
By replacing the class system of Victorian England with the dynamic of the occupier and occupied, Park has tapped into something uniquely complex about a chapter of history that is rarely explored. There is a deep, festering malady at the heart of The Handmaiden, exacerbated by idle fantasy, cultural projection and denial. - 80
CineVue
The film reveals its twists and turns with a delicate hand and always manages to stay one step ahead of the audience, even as most of those watching will surrender to the hypnotic erotic charge that runs through the film. - 80
The Guardian
Given the nudity on show, some are already quick to criticise Park’s direction as gratuitous and to claim that his male gaze is affecting the depiction of lesbian romance. But the impotency of the male characters helps to counter this while the sex scenes themselves, as lovingly shot as they might be, feel vital to the narrative. - 80
Screen Daily
The film manages the tricky feat of both staying true to Waters breathless, page-turning prose, and creating a wholly persuasive new milieu for the story. - 80
Variety
It’s sybaritic, cruel and luridly mesmerizing.
