The Handmaiden

The Handmaiden is one of the must-see Korean films of 2016. The film was directed by the famous director Park Chan Wook, a director with an extremely strong personality. The success of the film is a happy ending when he spent a lot of effort and time with the hope that it would be one of his lifetime works. Indeed, the numbers say it all, on the first day of its release, there were 289,496 audiences in theaters, and The Handmaiden officially defeated Inside Men to become the Korean film with an age limit that attracted the most people to theaters on its opening day. Not only that, the total revenue of the film also reached an unbelievable record of 28.2 million USD. It was truly a success beyond the expectations of the film crew.

But looking back at the process of bringing the film to the screen, we can see that it is a worthy achievement for the diligence and enthusiasm of the film crew. With his personality, director Park Chan Wook not only created the film, but he also helped the actors have the strongest performance. In particular, he has a very sharp eye, the actors he chose are always suitable and shine in the film. The Handmaiden, the entire cast conquers the audience with their captivating performance. It can be said that Hideko is the most impressive role in the career of actress Kim Min Hee since Right Now, Wrong Then by director Hong Sang Soo. As for the 26-year-old journalism graduate, Kim Tae Ri surprised when she transformed into the character Sook Hee even though she did not have much acting experience. Ha Jung Woo, Jo Jin Woong have never been so great. With Moon So Ri and Kim Hae Sook, it is still too excellent.

The content of the movie The Handmaid is adapted from the novel by British writer Sarah Waters “Fingersmith” and is set in the colonial period in Japan and Korea in the 1930s. The plot of the movie is divided into 3 distinct parts with a connected structure. The opening part is the story of the orphaned pickpocket Nam Sook Hee (Kim Tae Ri). She is sent by a Korean swindler posing as Japanese count Fujiwara (Ha Jung Woo) to work as a maid for the wealthy heiress Hideko (Kim Min Hee), in order to seduce the noblewoman to marry him. The second part, still the same story, is told from the perspective of the Japanese lady Hideko. The second part revealed the true identities of the two women, along with revelations about the sexually deviant man Kouzuki. The final part shifted the focus to the character Fujiwara, making viewers dizzy as a series of secrets were revealed here.