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The Handmaiden Movie Review

The Handmaiden is a 2016 South Korean psychological thriller film directed by Park Chan-wook. It’s a very overrated movie.

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“Is it stupid to love someone being someone like you?“

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With help from an orphaned pickpocket, a Korean con man devises an elaborate plot to seduce and bilk a Japanese woman out of her inheritance. That is the very slim plot behind this almost three-hour long movie. You’d think that such a long film that is also a period piece would have something to say either about Japan or Korea or lesbianism during this period, but no, you would be sorely mistaken to expect that from this very shallow picture.

This is one of those erotic psychological thrillers that were immensely popular during the eighties and nineties, but are now thankfully reduced in their number. This one continues the long tradition of South Korean movies entirely disappointing me with their low quality, and I am simply not enamored with this country’s overly praised, annoying cinematic output.

The performances are uniformly strong, there is no doubt about it. And the movie gets a lot of mileage out of its Victorian era setting and atmosphere. I loved its production design, its many gorgeous sets and costumes as well as a good score and again terrific, suspenseful atmosphere. The cinematography is also excellent and the whole film looks and sounds absolutely splendid.

But there is simply nothing to be found behind its pretty façade as The Handmaiden fails to entice viewers at any capacity, at least that was the case with me as a non-genre enthusiast. What particularly infuriated me here is its use of lesbians for homoerotic, titillating purpose. I would expect that we were beyond that by now, but this movie proposes otherwise unfortunately.

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The violence and the extremely gratuitous sex scenes in the movie make it a very difficult film to get into. I found all of those scenes unnecessary graphic and not at all romantic, but again made to entice viewers sexually speaking. The characters are also highly unlikable and downright shallow and one-dimensional. It’s just a very overrated flick through and through.

Though The Handmaiden is clearly a feast for the eyes and ears thanks to tremendous technical aspects with the costumes and sets being especially arresting along with its great atmosphere, the movie is very shallow in terms of plot, one-dimensional in its characters and overly gratuitous in its sex scenes. It’s an annoying, overrated film intended only to titillate its viewers as it offers nothing else besides that.

My Rating – 2.5

You can get both cuts of the movie on Amazon.