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Park Chan-Wook’s “The Handmaiden” is a love story, revenge thriller and puzzle film set in Japanese-occupied Korea in the 1930s. It is voluptuously beautiful, frankly sexual, occasionally perverse and horrifically violent. At times its very existence feels inexplicable. And yet all of its disparate pieces are assembled with such care, and the characters written and acted with such psychological acuity, that you rarely feel as if the writer-director is rubbing the audience’s nose in excess of one kind or another. This is a film made by an artist at the peak of his powers: Park, a South Korean director who started out as a critic, has many great or near-great genre films, including “Oldboy,” “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance,” “Lady Vengeance” and “ Thirst ,” but this one is so intricate yet light-footed that it feels like the summation of his career to date.

It’s also as inspiring an example of East-West cross-pollination as cinema has given us, on par with Akira Kurosawa ’s adaptations of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky and Dashiell Hammett in its ability to submerge a respected source while keeping its outlines visible. The plot faintly evokes many Gothic thrillers (chiefly "Rebecca," "Jane Eyre" and "Gaslight") and quite a few examples of film noir as well; Park’s source is Sarah Waters ’ Fingersmith , a 2002 novel set in Dickensian England that was previously made as a 2005 British miniseries. The result seems at once specifically English, specifically Korean and not of this astral plane; like Park’s best work, it’s an expressionistic, at times surreal movie that skates along the knife-edge of dreams. Every frame pulses with life, sometimes with blood.

The script tells of a spirited female pickpocket named Sooki, actually named Tamako ( Kim Tae-ri), who gets a job as a handmaiden at the estate of a rich old book collector (Lee Yong-nyeo), serving him and Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee), the niece of his late wife; she gets pulled into a scheme by a fake count who wants to marry the niece and have her committed to an asylum so that he can claim her fortune; the book collector, the fake count’s mentor, has more or less the same plan in mind. “Frankly, I’m not that interested in money itself,” says the fake count, who was raised by a Korean fisherman but claims to be Japanese and calls himself Fujiwara ( Ha Jung-woo ). “What I desire is—how shall I put it?—the manner of ordering wine without looking at the price.”

The plan is fiendishly complicated, but it grows thornier still when Sooki/Tamako starts falling in love with her target. Their blossoming affair is tenderly observed—a startlingly blunt sex scene is delayed until fairly deep into the film, and preceded by many scenes that pivot upon subtle glances, overheard remarks, and moments where one woman rushes to the other’s defense. The fake count is handsome and can be dashing at times—Ha looks so at home in a tuxedo that you could imagine him wearing it to a supermarket—but he’s also pig who seems to revel in his piggishness, and his intended target sees through him immediately. When he calls her “mesmerizing” over a tense dinner, she replies, “Men use the word ‘mesmerizing’ when they wish to touch a lady’s breasts.” He’s upfront about his utter cyncism and lack of affection for Lady Hideko, a crushed flower of a woman who was raised from girlhood as a virtual prisoner by the book collector after—well, let’s just call it a tragedy, because now we’re at the point in this review where describing any specific moment or scene from “The Handmaiden” in detail would rob readers of one of the great pleasures of watching a densely plotted, elegantly executed motion picture: having no idea of what’s about to happen next, yet nearly always being surprised and enthralled by both the twist itself and the film’s presentation of it.

So here we go, somewhat vaguely, into the breach: nothing is what it seems in this movie, and the things that aren’t what they seem aren’t quite what they don’t seem to be, if that makes any sense at all (and if it doesn’t right now, trust me: it will). Most of the story takes place in and around the book collector’s country estate, a splendidly realized creation that’s not just one of the great mansions in film history—rivaled in recent movies only by the estate in another modern Gothic romance, “ Crimson Peak ”—but also an organizing metaphor for the whole film. It seems to change size and shape depending on a visitor’s angle of approach, and once you’re inside it, the geography at first seems so clear that you could draw floor plans of its most frequently used spaces; but after a few more scenes, you realize that you only saw a small part of the house, and not only are there rooms and wings you’ve never laid eyes on, there are secret doors and hidden passageways that only certain characters know about, leading to places where they can go to make love, commit sadistic acts of violence, or spy on each other. Soon enough, the movie teaches you how to watch it, and you start asking questions, like, “What does this person truly hope to gain from sneaking here, doing this, stealing that?” and “Are they really spying in secret, or do the spied-upon people know somebody is watching?" and “Are the emotions being expressed by that character real, or are they faking it, or are they seeming to fake it while actually feeling those feelings?”

A good many moments resonate not because of what one character is saying, but because of the looks on other characters’ faces as they hear their words and either contemplate their true meaning or visualize images to accompany them. One of many show-stopping setpieces is a reading of perverse erotica from the book collector’s library, accompanied by one of the weirdest sex shows in mainstream cinema, but most of the sequence’s eerie power derives from observing the rapt expressions of men who’ve gathered to hear explicit fiction read aloud. Nearly as powerful, though far subtler, are the cross-cut sequences that feel like self-contained short stories of their own. Dialogue or recited scraps of letters or fiction become de facto narration laid over a cascade of images, brilliantly composed for a very wide frame by Chung Chung-hoon, and backed by Cho Young-wuk’s hypnotically repetitive yet rapturously melodramatic score, which rises to operatic heights when the characters are experiencing misery, ecstasy or fear.

Park’s sense of texture and color seems as intuitive as a painter’s, but the film’s narrative construction is as right-brained as Christopher Nolan at his wonkiest. "The Handmaiden" is neatly diced into thirds, each approximately 45 minutes long, each narrated by a different major character with parenthetical mini-narratives embedded within each, Russian nesting doll-style. As you ease into the middle third, you start to see moments and images revisited from different angles, seen or heard from fresh vantage points, or picked up slightly earlier or slightly later, altering their meaning or revealing previously withheld facts. The result is a rare film that could be equally well-represented by a billboard-sized collage of randomly chose still-frames, and a flowchart. “Even listening to the same story, people imagine different things,” a character warns us, so deep into the movie that the line plays not like a revelation, but a confirmation of what we we’ve been feeling in our marrow.

As you might have deduced, “The Handmaiden” is a story that is also about storytelling, and writing, and picture making, and the obsessive-compulsive attention to detail that links so many great artists throughout history, regardless of medium, worldview or temperament. The movie is filled with literal and figurative nods to the act of artistic creation, from the loving close-ups of the book collector’s treasured volumes, the drawings and paintings made by Hideko and the fake count (he was originally hired to tutor her), and the shots of calligraphic sentences scratched onto letters and scrolls, to the way that blood spilled by lovemaking or disfigurement blooms upon mattresses and stone floors, rhyming with the lotus blossoms glimpsed in trees over the characters' heads, the eruptions of green that accompany transitions from indoors to outdoors, extreme closeups of voyeurs' eyeballs, and shots of a full moon so bright that it seems to be burning a hole through the clouds.

These touches are all striking in their own right. But they never feel ostentatiously disconnected from the story and characters. “The Handmaiden” is about a lot of things, among them trust and vulnerability, imprisonment and freedom, and the tension between the authentic self and the façade that individuals create, and that society imposes from without. Park never loses track of these ideas or forgets about them, but they never expressed in tediously rhetorical terms—always in a gliding, playful, often audaciously musical way. "The Handmaiden" stirs the senses by appealing to our gut feelings, our sense of morals and ethics, and our appreciation for the sight of great artists making magic as if it’s the easiest thing in the world.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Film credits.

The Handmaiden (2016)

145 minutes

Kim Min-Hie as Lady Hideko

Kim Tae-Ri as Sook-Hee

Ha Jung-woo as Count Fujiwara

Cho Jin-woong as Uncle Kouzuki

Kim Hae-sook as Butler

Moon So-ri as Aunt of Noble Lady

Lee Dong-Hwi

• Park Chan-wook

Cinematography

• Chung Chung-hoon

Original Story

• Sarah Waters

Original Music Composer

• Young-wuk Cho

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Review: ‘The Handmaiden’ Explores Confinement in Rich, Erotic Textures

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By Manohla Dargis

• Oct. 20, 2016

The art of the tease is rarely as refined as in “The Handmaiden.” Set in Korea in the 1930s, this amusingly slippery entertainment is an erotic fantasy about an heiress, her sadistic uncle, her devoted maid and the rake who’s trying to pull off a devilishly elaborate con. The same could be said of the director Park Chan-wook, whose attention to voluptuous detail — to opulent brocades and silky robes, luscious peaches and creamy shoulders — turns each scene into an invitation to ooh, aah and mmm. This is a movie that tries to ravish your senses so thoroughly you may not notice its sleights of hand.

It’s not for nothing that one of its heroines, Sookee (Kim Tae-ri), is a pickpocket, though that’s getting ahead of her story. It opens with Sookee weepily saying goodbye to some adults and wailing children, their gushing matched by the torrential rain. She’s off to work for Lady Hideko (a sensational Kim Min-hee), a pale beauty who lives with her tyrannical uncle, Kouzuki (Cho Jin-woong), a collector and purveyor of art and rare erotic books whose darting tongue has turned black from his ink pen. The realms of his bibliophilic senses are suggested when a client asks if one of his books is by the Marquis de Sade. “It’s Sade-esque,” the uncle says, all but winking at the audience.

The kinks grow more outré and twisted, the winks dirtier and broader. The uncle has raised Hideko from childhood, away from the world, intending to wed her for her fortune. He’s also turned her into a puppet, having trained her to read erotic fiction aloud for the delectation of his potential customers. Fate in the form of the con man (Ha Jung-woo) intervenes. Disguised as a count, he insinuates himself into the uncle’s home and seemingly into the niece’s affection, enlisting Sookee in the ruse as Hideko’s new maid. The count plans to marry Hideko and then ditch her, a plan that seems doomed when Sookee and Hideko’s lady-maid intimacy steams and then boils over.

The inspiration for all this intrigue is Sarah Waters ’s ambitious 2002 novel, “Fingersmith,” a lesbian romance set in Victorian Britain in which she slyly has her way with established literary themes like avaricious male guardians and cloistered female wards. In adapting the movie, Mr. Park, who wrote the script with Chung Seo-kyung, has moved the story to Korea during the Japanese occupation. This setting initially seems more thread than cloth, conveyed in the smatterings of soldiers who pass through the story and in the mixing of languages, although it also factors into the villainy of the uncle, a Korean who’s embraced a Japanese identity, asserting, “Korea is ugly and Japan is beautiful.”

Mr. Park is a genre virtuoso, known for thrillers like “ Oldboy ,” whose filmmaking is notable for its visual order and extreme violence, a combination that creates a seductive, at times unsettling aesthetic of immaculate frenzy. The violence in “The Handmaiden” tends to be more restrained than in some of his other work, more psychological and rather less blunt and bloody. A notable exception is some sadomasochistic whip-work that’s far more vigorous than is found in, oh, say, “Fifty Shades of Grey.” There’s also a characteristic Grand Guignol flourish toward the end that’s outrageous enough that you may find yourself at once laughing and gasping, only to hastily avert your eyes.

It’s one of the rare times you want to look away in “The Handmaiden,” which Mr. Park has turned into an emporium of visual delights. Part of Sookee’s journey is one from perdition into opulence, from a lowly thieves’ den into the sumptuousness of the mansion. Yet appearances remain deceiving, which is one of this story’s themes. Everything inside the manor and out has been calculated to enchant, from the grounds with their carpets of green and bursts of flowering trees to the interiors with their wood paneling and floral wallpaper. Nothing is more perfect than Hideko’s petal mouth with its lusciously carnal red lipstick.

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The Handmaiden Is a Cinematic Masterpiece

Park Chan-wook’s new romantic thriller is a sumptuous tale of shifting identities, forbidden love, and colonialism.

The Handmaiden contains multitudes: It’s a sumptuous romantic period piece, as well as a sexy spy thriller, replete with secret identities and triple-crosses. It’s an extended commentary on Japan’s occupation of Korea in the 1930s, and it’s an intense piece of psychological horror from one of the masters of the genre, Park Chan-wook. But more than anything, The Handmaiden is just pure cinema, a dizzying, disturbing fable of love and betrayal that piles on luxurious imagery, while never losing track of its story’s human core. For Park, the Korean director of crossover genre hits like Old Boy and Thirst , the movie feels like an evolutionary leap forward in an already brilliant career.

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This Is No Way to Be Human

The film is, surprisingly enough, an adaptation of Sarah Waters’s 2002 novel Fingersmith , a Victorian crime novel about a petty thief who gets entangled in a long con against a noblewoman, with whom she then falls in love (after that, many further twists ensue). Park and his co-writer Chung Seo-kyung have taken Waters’s investigation of Victorian repression and its limits on female empowerment, and translated it into a tale that delves into the dynamics of Korean culture during Japan’s pre-war occupation. This is a movie about the costumes people wear, both literal and psychological, and that focus extends outward to its setting, a peculiar mansion that mashes up Japanese and Victorian architecture. Park’s film is one where every gesture or period detail is loaded with double meaning, and where his heroines have to wrap their feelings in layers of deception just to try and survive.

The plot plays out the same way that Fingersmith does, following a a three-part structure where each successive chapter sheds new light on the last, and a series of three grand cons bound up into a larger, swooning tale of misandry, romance, and liberation. Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri, making her film debut) is a crafty young pickpocket plucked from a den of orphans to be the new handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee). She’s part of an elaborate scheme cooked up by the conman Count Fujiwara (Ha Jung-woo), who plans to marry the emotionally fragile Hideko for her money and then swiftly have her committed. Sook-hee is hired to facilitate his deception, manipulating Hideko into the Count’s arms, but of course, things don’t go exactly as expected.

Hideko is a prisoner in a gilded cage, a manse designed to reflect the culture of Korea’s occupying power, of which she is a prized example. In interviews , Park has said what fascinated him most about transposing Fingersmith to 1930s Korea was the opportunity to comment on the occupation. The chief villain of the piece, Hideko’s uncle-by-marriage, Kozuki, is a Korean intellectual who fetishizes Japanese culture—but he’s also keeping the Japanese Hideko under his thumb as some petty act of supremacy. While he delves into a budding romance between Hideko and Sook-hee, Park burrows into the twisted relationship between the two countries, and the foolishness of the Korean characters gunning for social ascendency by imitating the Japanese way of life.

The film’s dialogue is subtitled in two colors (Korean in white, Japanese in yellow) to underline the disguises the characters are constantly donning in their efforts to blend in. Park has never been a subtle director, which is why he’s worked so well with more lurid genres (most of his movies fall in the thriller or horror category). With The Handmaiden, he makes use of a smorgasbord of tropes and somehow gets away with it. It’s not every film that can feature astute historical commentary, explicit lesbian sex, prolonged bouts of torture, and a giant foreboding octopus without seeming ridiculous. But in The Handmaiden , each of these elements is as wonderfully surprising as the plot itself, which never lets the viewer guess what’s coming next.

The first part of the film charts Sook-hee’s manipulation of Hideko, a con job that turns into a seduction, and then, a seemingly authentic romance; the power dynamic is clearly tilted against the timid heiress. After 45 minutes, the story is abruptly inverted, then re-told through the eyes of Hideko, revealed as far more self-aware than initially imagined; for its third act, the film upends itself again, each time layering a deeper understanding of its four major characters. You might see each twist coming in isolation, but when they’re all knitted together, the effect is stupefying.

The Handmaiden ’s identity shifts as much as its sinuous ensemble; it’s as exciting to watch Park keep his grasp on its changing tone as it is to watch the characters double-cross each other. To say much more would spoil a dazzling climax, but this is at its core a tale of liberation, of costumes being thrown off, and of the delight (and terror) that comes with embracing one’s true self. The Handmaiden is long, occasionally demented, and intense enough that it won’t suit everyone. But it’s moviemaking that demands to be enjoyed, a thrill ride in service something far grander and more important.

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The Handmaiden Review: Sex, Lies and Riveting Escape

Korean director Park Chan-wook is known for exploring themes of anger, madness, and revenge in his films—after all, he made a whole Vengeance Trilogy, which included the excellent cult hit Oldboy . But he’s quick to clarify that his newest film, The Handmaiden , an erotic psychological thriller, isn’t about revenge in the same way. In this film, “when [the villains] meet their comeuppances, it’s just punishment,” he says. The difference, perhaps, is that the main characters don’t intend to exact revenge on their tormentors; their goal is simply their own freedom. Through this, Park highlights the central theme of his newest film: “These women are liberating themselves from male oppression,” he explains. It’s a fittingly lofty theme for a film that’s ambitious—and nearly flawless—in every way.

The twists and turns of the plot are brilliant; Park has taken the storyline of Fingersmith , Sarah Waters’s Victorian thriller, and simplified it somewhat, better highlighting the message of female empowerment and love that the book offered, while adding additional surprises. But the film never feels overly complex, plotted so well that the story is unpredictable but never confusing. Like the beautiful house in which much of the film takes place—an architectural masterpiece of Eastern and Western styles that hides unsavory secrets—viewers will think they’ve got everything figured out, only for Park to reveal another hidden room, another facet to his story.

Park’s sex scenes are 90% exquisitely beautiful and 10% grotesque.

Sook-hee, a pickpocket in Japanese-occupied Korea, is recruited by a con man called Count Fujiwara to act as a handmaid for Lady Hideko, a rich, beautiful, and isolated Japanese heiress; Sook-hee is to slowly convince Hideko that she should elope with Count Fujiwara, at which point the two swindlers will put Hideko in an asylum and divide up her fortune. Hideko lives with her eccentric and obsessive uncle Kouzuki, who plans to marry her and use her inheritance to continue to finance his library of erotic texts, a collection he’s kept Hideko in service of since her childhood. On top of being lecherous exploiters of women, Fujiwara and Kouzuki are both Japanese sympathizers—or “colonial lackeys,” as Park calls them—adding another element of odiousness to their characters. Contrary to plans and their own expectations, the two women develop feelings for one another.

Park explained that he’s always wanted to make a film about a homosexual relationship, but he said, “I wanted to portray these characters in a way that they’re not very self-conscious about their sexual identity, and so that they’re not necessarily oppressed because of their sexual identity.” In The Handmaiden , it’s everything else in Sook-hee and Hideko’s lives that keeps them apart: their class differences, their opposing cultural backgrounds, and the complex plot that both are tangled in with Fujiwara. Although their sexual relationship is central to the storyline, it’s never explicitly addressed through a lens of deviant sexual behavior—in fact, it’s the film’s heterosexual desires that are portrayed as far more deviant.

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“Sometimes I wish I was a woman,” said Park when he introduced the film at a recent screening in New York. He described the skepticism he’s sometimes met with, that a male director could make a movie that successfully tells a love story between two women, and that features explicit lesbian sex scenes. It’s a criticism that Blue Is The Warmest Color director Abdellatif Kechiche also faced: that his sex scenes were voyeuristic, that they seemed produced for the male gaze, that you could tell they’d been imagined and directed by a man.

But to argue that a male director, no matter how talented, is incapable of creating an intimate sex scene between two women is to imply that there’s some inherent truth to womanhood that only women can access. Park’s sex scenes are like the rest of his scenes in The Handmaiden and in his other excellent films, like Oldboy , Stoker , and Lady Vengeance : 90% exquisitely beautiful and 10% grotesque.

In the film, the first erotic encounter between Sook-hee and Hideko is a scene in which Sook-hee rubs Hideko’s sharp tooth smooth with a thimble while she’s in her bath. It’s tender, intimate, and discomfiting all at the same time. The film’s depictions of sexual encounters with men (or those intended for male pleasure) are consistently unpleasant and shudder-inducing, even if they are visually stunning. In this film male sexuality is loathsome and despicable, selfish and greedy, something to be avoided and shunned. It’s the nature of this grotesqueness, contrasted with the beauty of Park’s set, costumes, and cinematography, that leaves the viewer feeling mildly uncomfortable, but that ultimately elevates Park’s sex scenes. They’re meant to do more than arouse the viewer, which is what makes the “male-gaze” criticism somewhat limited—and what makes The Handmaiden outstanding.

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The Handmaiden Reviews

Fiercely intelligent, unapologetically erotic and endlessly stylish, The Handmaiden is a perfect film that toys with the audience’s expectations and formed beliefs.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 30, 2024

Park Chan-wook’s neurotic period piece is a beyond tricky weaving of conflicting identity, the desire for intimacy, masculinity vs. femininity, and historical and cultural oppression.

Full Review | Jun 18, 2024

Park demonstrates how the complicated relationship between role-play, desire, secrecy, power and revenge prove ripe for darkly comic (and perverse) fodder.

Full Review | Dec 12, 2023

Beautiful images in the frame with a grotesc story about the survival in a context war. You have to watch it. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 31, 2022

It’s a beautiful film of quality and cleverness.

Full Review | May 19, 2022

Park Chan-wook's The Handmaiden envelops the viewer in a clever con game of psychological duplicity, depraved predators, dark humor, and sordid sexual delights.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 9, 2022

While its a feat of technical brilliance and visual genius, its the way Park uses his story to force his audience to question their assumptions that made me speechless the first time I saw it.

Full Review | Feb 21, 2022

The Handmaiden is a remarkably progressive film that, despite using and abusing sex for the most part, refuses to objectify its subjects.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 2, 2021

Through the extremity of the story, Park manages to present a number of social messages, once more

Full Review | Apr 11, 2021

Whether you've seen it before or not, now's as perfect time as any to see what all the fuss is about while [director director Park Chan-Wook] begins filming his upcoming his romantic murder mystery Decision to Leave this year.

Full Review | Feb 25, 2021

The drama combines the sumptuous art direction and black humor of Park's past work with a warmth and compassion that feeds the soul.

Full Review | Feb 11, 2021

A complicated revenge story, ripe with detail and secrets.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 3, 2021

The Handmaiden is an epic illustration that there is perhaps nothing more human than inhumanity.

Full Review | Jan 4, 2021

The twists in The Handmaiden come fast and furious. It's an engrossing tale that will constantly have you guessing which direction the narrative is headed.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 30, 2020

Plenty of humor and an incomparably depraved, unyielding, violent, rebellious level of creativity.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 5, 2020

...the love between the two lead women is what drives this film.

Full Review | Nov 16, 2020

Throbbing with greed and passion, deception and betrayal, the story remains every bit as gripping on screen as it was on the page.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 16, 2020

A rapturously seductive slow burn watch.

Full Review | Oct 13, 2020

"[Park]'s clearly a believer in the Roger Ebert school of thought, which favors appreciation over deconstruction."

Full Review | Aug 28, 2020

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Handmaiden

In 1930s Korea, a girl is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress who lives a secluded life on a countryside estate. But the maid has a secret: She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindle... Read all In 1930s Korea, a girl is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress who lives a secluded life on a countryside estate. But the maid has a secret: She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler to help seduce the Lady and steal her fortune. In 1930s Korea, a girl is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress who lives a secluded life on a countryside estate. But the maid has a secret: She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler to help seduce the Lady and steal her fortune.

• Park Chan-wook
• Sarah Waters
• Chung Seo-kyung
• Kim Min-hee
• Ha Jung-woo
• Cho Jin-woong
• 367 User reviews
• 358 Critic reviews
• 85 Metascore
• 69 wins & 104 nominations total

Top cast 56

• Lady Hideko

• Count Fujiwara

• Uncle Kouzuki
• (as Jin-woong Jo)

• Aunt of Lady Hideko

• (as Tae Ri Kim)

• Miss Sasaki
• Hideko's Mother
• Mansion Driver
• Kouzuki Porter
• Japanese Officer 1
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia The film title in Korean (Ah-ga-ssi) means ''The Lady'' referring to Lady Hideko, while the English/International title is The Handmaiden referring to Sook-hee.
• Goofs The Count uses a propane gas lighter. That was impossible in 1930.

Lady Hideko : The daughter of a legendary thief, who sewed winter coats out of stolen purses. Herself a thief, pickpocket, swindler. The saviour who came to tear my life apart. My Tamako. My Sookee.

• Crazy credits During the credits, the moon on the wall in the background shifts from full to new.
• Alternate versions Extended version runs approx. 21 minutes longer.
• Connections Featured in The EE British Academy Film Awards (2018)
• Soundtracks The Song at the End of the Century Performed by Kim Tae-ri (P) 2016 CJ E&M MUSIC

User reviews 367

• BrendanMichaels
• Aug 9, 2016
• September 2, 2017 (United States)
• South Korea
• Official Facebook
• Người Hầu Gái
• Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
• CJ Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• ₩10,000,000,000 (estimated)
• Oct 23, 2016
• $37,863,670

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 25 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos
• Dolby Surround 7.1

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The Handmaiden Review

Park chan-wook adapts sarah waters' crime novel fingersmith..

Park Chan-wook organized his story in such a way that keeps audiences engaged with the film in its entirety, its Easter eggs an enjoyable challenge to partake in rather than a confusing twist brush-off.

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Movie Review: The Handmaiden

Set in the 1930s during the Japanese occupation of Korea, “The Handmaiden” — selected to compete for the Palme d’Or, the highest prize at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival — is a stunning film. From its gorgeous cinematography to its impressive cast, the newest film from Director Park Chan-wook is as visually captivating as it is narratively complex. Like many of Chan-wook’s films, it is a twisted, revenge-centered psychological thriller guaranteed to entertain.

Chan-wook is known for his complex tales, and “The Handmaiden” is no exception. A master con artist who goes by the name Count Fujiwara, played by Jung-woo Ha, enlists a young Korean pickpocket, Sook-hee, played by Kim Tae-ri, to aid him in seducing a wealthy Japanese heiress, Lady Hideko, played by Korean A-list actress Kim Min-hee. Lady Hideko, pale and beautiful, lives a sheltered life in a sprawling but isolated mansion with her Uncle Kouzuki, a stern man with an unusual fascination with books. It is to this magnificent mansion — half – English architecture and half – traditional Japanese design — that Sook-hee is sent under the guise of a handmaiden. Her mission: coax her new mistress into falling for the Count.

Chan-wook’s inspiration for the movie — and its unique style of storytelling — was Welsh author Sarah Water’s novel “Fingersmith.” He masterfully transplants the plot of “Fingersmith,” which is set in the Victorian era, into 1930s South Korea in the midst of the Japanese occupation. This setting breathes new life into Water’s original story. Lady Hideko’s liberation from her sheltered life develops new layers of meaning when it takes place in an oppressed society: Her craving for freedom echoes an entire nation’s cry for independence. Overall, Chan-wook offers a tasteful but dark spin of the original piece. It is certainly not an adaptation of the book; it stands on its own while drawing inspiration for certain key elements.

The film is divided into three parts, each narrated by a different character. Each part tells the same story, but each narrator fills in details that others cannot. While each individual’s story is unique enough to stand alone, they flow together effortlessly. This style of storytelling has its obvious flaws: All three narrations are of essentially the same events, making repetitiveness inevitable. However, gripping twists in perspective make each tale all the more intense.

Chan-wook excels in his ability to draw out deep and conflicting feelings from his audiences. He is known for movies without a clear protagonist and plots that always seem to have a truly evil villain but never have a definite hero. Sook-hee seems to be the archetypal heroic protagonist; not only is she a victim of a poverty-ridden community struggling to make a living for herself, but she is also a pickpocket who schemes with the Count to strip Lady Hideko of her riches. The next most obvious choice is Lady Hideko, but she, too, has secrets and an agenda of her own. This lack of a hero is both startling and fascinating. Without a clear idea of for whom the audience should root, agonizing sympathy in one moment is followed by fiery anger in the next — sometimes toward the same character.

Chan-wook’s obsession with exploring taboos in Korean culture makes a fierce resurgence in the 144-minute film, a significant portion of which features drawn out lesbian love scenes. In a society where sex — especially gay sex — is considered taboo, such an explicit portrayal is unusual. Societal norms have not stopped Chan-wook before: In previous movies, he has experimented with incest and extreme sadistic violence to incredible acclaim.

His portrayals, while shocking, are not solely incorporated for their shock value. These taboo topics are presented with exquisite imagery, making it hard to look away. The film is, simply put, gorgeous. Each stunning backdrop is designed to heighten the drama, as well as to serve as a bit of eye candy through a mainly grim storyline.

In every way possible, Park has delivered on what his fans have grown to love him for: a grim storyline told through remarkably beautiful.

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The Handmaiden

Park chan-wook takes on sarah waters’ brilliant, intricate novel fingersmith..

Only a cosmic Freudian could have cooked up the fact that Park Chan-wook’s new film, The Handmaiden , is based on a book by the Welsh novelist Sarah Waters. Water, after all, has long served as Park’s emblem for the maddening fluidity of images and desire. It can act as a mirror, reflecting yourself back at you, but only when relegated to a condition of stasis. Several of Park’s bad guys keep small, square, decorative pools of it under floor panels in their fancy houses, sliding back the panels to display their tame water to guests. In such a room, one of the two central characters in The Handmaiden, an heiress (Kim Min-hee) confined to a mansion in 1930s Japan, is made to dress in elaborate traditional clothes and read aloud from her uncle’s vast pornography collection to his creepy friends. Women and their sexual desires, for the men in this film, are forces to be constrained, controlled, and collected. But like the water in those reflecting pools, both are fundamentally unpredictable and unruly, always trying to overflow and slip away from under their would-be masters.

The Handmaiden is adapted from Fingersmith , a brilliant, intricately plotted novel set in 19 th -century England, initially narrated by Sue, a cockney thief who agrees, as part of a con, to go to work as the heiress’ maid. Her confederate, posing as a nobleman, plans to marry the heiress and then commit her to an asylum, pocketing her fortune and giving Sue a cut. Sue’s role is to insinuate herself into the confidence of the isolated Maud, urging her to elope with the bogus gentleman. Instead, she falls in love with Maud herself. Park doesn’t include all of Waters’ twists and surprises—his film is more glossy melodrama than Dickensian storytelling, but there’s still a good deal of double-crossing.

Fingersmith is about, among other things, the insurrectionary freedom to be found in invisibility. Waters’ title, Victorian slang for pickpocket, is also a punning reference to the dexterity of the lesbian hand, an erotic implement so much better at coaxing forth female pleasure than any tool the novel’s men have at their disposal. (Not that these guys care much about the real pleasure of real women, caught up as they are in the organized, artificial ecstasies of Maud’s uncle’s pornographic library.) Waters’ pickpockets take advantage of their status as social nonentities—working class, young, female—to move unseen though London’s streets, relieving their marks of the spoils of their rank. Sue, both servant and woman so doubly insignificant, steals Maud away from her uncle and the conman. What happens between them is unimaginable to the men who seek to use them, men who might fantasize about two women in bed together but who have no inkling of the rebellious contents of their hearts.

In Waters’ novel, the hand that works and caresses opposes the eye that mercilessly scrutinizes and the word that commands. Park gets this: Not only has he kept the hand reference in the title, but some of the crueler punishments in the film (notably less violent than his usual stuff) are meted out to fingers. On the other hand, Park is a card-carrying member of the party of the eye. Like many directors, he is infatuated with gazes, male and otherwise. His characters are forever peering through peepholes at forbidden truths and musing over reflections. The primal scene of his most famous movie, Oldboy (winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2003), an act of voyeurism that sets the preposterously convoluted plot in motion, features a young girl who, holding up a mirror to view herself engaged in an illicit act, spots the title character spying on her. Spurred to filmmaking by a seminal viewing of Vertigo (referenced visually in The Handmaiden ), he remains in thrall to the style of Hitchcock, whose ravishing perviness was so flagrant that the revelation of his sadistic treatment of the actress Tippi Hedren and others was one of the biggest nonsurprises in the history of Hollywood scandals.

Like Vertigo, The Handmaiden is consumed by the meticulous construction of spectacle, from the weirdly hybrid Western–Japanese manor where it is set to its saturated colors and cascading soundtrack. It’s also, at times, as icky as the male lechers it purports to condemn. The composition of Park’s shots, mannered and symmetrical, flaunts its own obsessiveness, as does the elaborate costuming of Kim Min-hee, whose character is at one point made to illustrate a sexual position by posing with a life-size dummy. Her uncle and his buddies treat her like a doll, the film makes very clear—but so too does the film itself. At one point even Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri), the maid who becomes her lover, sees her mistress this way, thinking (in voiceover), “Truly ladies are the dolls of maids. These buttons are for my amusement.” Both actresses deliver vivid, tender performances; they generate all the movie’s fire, but they’re obliged to do it inside a chilly, ritualized framework, the aesthetic equivalent of a softcore mausoleum.

If The Handmaiden is meant to be an exercise in self-criticism, as it seems to want to be, it’s a highly imperfect one. One small example: In Fingersmith, the great struggle of Maud’s childhood concerns the gloves her uncle makes her wear when he forces her, even as a small girl, to work in his library. She resists, and he brutally breaks her spirit, to the degree that by the time Sue meets her, Maud wears gloves all the time. The gloves stand for her uncle’s misogyny (all those descriptions and illustrations of female flesh would be damaged by direct contact with the real thing) and for her imprisonment. Park has kept the gloves but lost the explanation for them, although he does have time for a luxuriant survey of the five drawers where she keeps her extensive collection. (Park has a mad penchant for extravagant closets, like the automated cube in which the puppetmaster villain of Oldboy dons his designer suits.) In The Handmaiden , the heiress’ gloves have become nothing more than another fetish item.

The film’s sex scenes are pure “Showtime After Hours,” disappointingly boilerplate given how doggedly Park sets up the love between these two women as a repudiation of mechanical male prurience. True, there’s a satisfying scene in which Sook-hee rips the uncle’s books from their shelves and dumps them into a reflecting pool; the two women stomp on the sodden smut like Italian peasants crushing grapes. But the vilification of men and their desires is not the same thing as a tribute to the eroticism of women. Finally, having escaped the bastards’ clutches, the maid and her mistress fall back into the tired visual clichés of pornographic lesbianism, their bodies offered up for the camera’s delectation in a carefully arranged exhibition that would fit right into Uncle’s collection. I wish the film had concluded with an earlier scene, one displaying the kind of freedom celebrated by Fingersmith : the two women running , laughing, across a green field toward an imagined, uncontainable sea.

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Movie Review: The Handmaiden (2016)

• Roberto Montiel
• Movie Reviews
• No responses
• --> October 27, 2016

Occupied village. Crying babies. Mothers many. Babies doze. Japanese colony. Korean village. Woman leaves. Baby stays. Both cry. Off goes. Jap’s house.

The opening scene of Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden leaves no room for blinking. That is the secret of its hypnotic pace swimmingly swinging from a contemplative eye which leaves it all to a meticulous mise-en-scène to rapid successions of images beating all actions on its own game. And underlying this hypnosis is an origami-like plot creating a new shape, new figures forming with every new fold. To blink we’re invited not, though every so often we just have to watch with the corner of our eyes.

It turns out it’s all a big lie inside an abusive setting that couldn’t be more real. It is Korea during the 35-year Japanese occupation. The babies cry alright, but the other criers aren’t mothers; rather, they’re orphans recruited by former orphans, now fully-formed women, to learn to make a living in the street. We meet one of our protagonists as she’s leaving to “that Jap’s house,” but then, in a flashback, we truly learn where she’s coming from.

It is a Victorian, too Twistean lair, a shop for pickpockets and petty thieves where Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri) lived before leaving, a place where we learn she’s mastered the art of first-impressing on others. She looks fragile, candid, a young woman in need of protection, but soon we get to know she can take care of herself quite well.

The “Jap’s house” she gets in, a mansion born into the mix between English and Japanese traditions, is owned by a Korean mogul who loves all things Japanese, who admires all things English, or who most decidedly detests all things Korean. An apostate of his homeland, we initially know of him by the rumors of his presence in his impressive estate, with huge portraits on the walls bearing his imposing image filled with self-hatred and the drudge-mongering of the butler-madam who shows Sook-hee around, gives her (us) some background as to the premises, and crafts a perfect pitch for her mission: Take care of a mad woman having bad dreams, a hysterical heiress, the landlord’s nephew and soon-to-be-wife of her uncle, former husband of her aunt, who hung herself on the beautiful cherry tree that adorns the moonless nights outside. Lady Hideko (Min-hee Kim, “No Tears for the Dead”), the Japanese (of course) heir of a fortune for which her uncle is no more than an affidavit, is trapped in her own destiny, unable to access her wealth.

The first plot twist comes (and last about which I will talk here), as Count Fujiwara (Jung-woo Ha, “The Berlin File”), a minor Korean con-man who has managed to make believe he is part of the Japanese nobility, enters the mansion with all the intention of marrying well while supposedly teaching the Lady some painting techniques that are almost as fake as he is. And we know that this Count is a cunt because we’ve met him in the previous flashback, sending Sook-hee as a handmaiden for the Lady with the only purpose of conning her while she (purportedly) opens a pathway for Fujiwara to enter the heiress’ heart, elope her — then steal her fortune and forsake her, confine her in an asylum where her madness will find a house.

This is just part one of the three that make The Handmaiden . The Korean director keeps the triangular storyline of his source, Sarah Waters’ Victorian novel Fingersmith , only to then take significant licenses. The trisyllabic structure of the Korean title, “A-ga-ssi,” moves from a one-two-three that continuously shifts perspectives, intentions, agencies and sympathies (this latter ours) — constantly shifting the angle towards one or other apex, depending on the abuser. In this way, part one is told through the eyes of Sook-hee and part two, respectively, is told through the eyes of Lady Hideko. Then the third (the remotest to the novel, where Park’s imagery and obsessions are set loose) becomes a sort of synthesis between these two — something of a narrative hypotenuse.

But despite the unforeseeable turns and twists, what is truly unplanned, completely out of the characters’ control is that while trying to outsmart one another they find themselves blindly falling for each other. Here I’m speaking of our two main characters, our two catheti, who inevitably find a love they could desire just as much as they could expect. This game between master and servant, victim and perpetrator, creates a dilogic motif between passivity and activity that is best summarized by Sook-hee in one of those instances she dresses her mistress: “Ladies are truly the dolls of maidens.”

Between the emerging love of these two women, there is the abusive rule of two men. Something has been said about the Count, but then we see the Uncle (Jin-woong Jo, “The Admiral”) appear and act, and the Count looks almost palatable next to him. The reach of his abuse of both his late wife and his future wife and nephew gets every crook of his humongous house, manic manor. The main duty of both his women is to read and read well, so that they can entertain his guests in readings of erudite pornography, literary antecedents of Nikkatsu Roman Porno , while each and every one of them explodes in one unreleased erection that inflames every pore of their bodies — greed extends to the realms of excelsior onanism, the devious denial of orgasm, internal ejaculate, injaculate. These reading sessions, it’s worth noting, are meant to be auctions for wealthy pervies, affluent creeps who first applaud their bibliophile host and then bid for the book just read (which is very rarely sold).

Here we see where the Lady gets her education, an educated reflex that is, in her words, “like putting one’s hand away of the flame” — never to get burned, but never to feel anything again. And it is in this context that Chan-wook’s love story is framed. One of the most incisive views in the realms of retaliation, of raged revenge, the virtuoso filmmaker has managed to create a story of vindication at the fringes of a story of two lovers. Vengeance is nothing but riveting the margins, even though it’s at every turn of the page. His aesthetic instincts are equidistant to his character’s (the Agassi, the Lady): They are all calculated reflexes, as if with one hand they were cutting what with the other they are making — almost a simultaneous gesture.

It is curious, even surprising, that the director gives more agency to his two main characters than Waters does in her novel. The underlying theme is freedom and the search of it every time either character has to come face to face with their fears — for fear is the field of sexual violence; it is the very place in which an abused body learns to fear a loving wave, where a flame of care can be confused with a burning flame. That is what these characters have to fight, the fact that they fear each other as much as they feel for one another.

The fact that The Handmaiden is set during the Japanese occupation is no trifle, not a capricious decision. By setting the film there, the continuous, shifting revenge opens an uchronic time for history in which colonization, occupation, abuse can be reframed. This is the time of the future subjunctive, what would be should this or that had happened. It is the time of pure possibility, the time in which history is liberated, is set free of fear, freed under an uchronic gaze, which is ours as well, accomplices of an imaginary vendetta.

Unlike Park Chan-wook’s celebrated “Vengeance Trilogy,” retribution is here driven by an act of love; the role of the grotesque is to play the backdrop of a valiant love. His story is therefore told in the time of freedom, a free time that operates within the logic of the “as though,” where every possibility moves at the pace of every current there may be inside a fiery tide. In the end, it is as though the sea were being freed by a full moon.

Tagged: atlantic film festival , impostor , Korea , love , novel adaptation , relationship , secret

Roberto is a PhD recipient in Philosophy and Postcolonial Literature.

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10 movie characters who don't appear until the end, these are hands down the most badass 5 minutes in a kurt russell movie.

[ This is a re-post of my review from the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. The Handmaiden opens in limited release this Friday. ]

Director Park Chan-wook seems to take great pleasure in unnerving his audience and challenging their expectations, and he succeeds yet again with his latest film, The Handmaiden . What begins as a con artist film slowly evolves into a seductive erotic thriller before taking on new twists and turns that are dark, grotesque, and even occasionally charming and funny. It’s a film that’s difficult to categorize because it also offers a lot to unpack, but it’s also constantly captivating thanks to the lush cinematography, winning performances, and thoughtful subtext. However, when it comes to that subtext, even Park has difficulty walking the line between criticizing the male gaze and indulging in it.

Set during the Japanese occupation of Korea, Sook-Hee ( Tae Ri Kim ) is a young swindler who is recruited by fellow criminal Count Fujiwara ( Jung-woo Ha ) to run a con on heiress Lady Hideko ( Min-hee Kim ). Sook-Hee will serve as Hideko’s handmaiden and convince her to fall in love with the Count. After Hideko and the Count marry, the Count will have Hideko thrown into a madhouse and divide up her fortune amongst himself and Sook-Hee. However, the closer Sook-Hee and Hideko become, the harder it becomes for Sook-Hee to betray Hideko.

However, the film’s twists and turns expand far beyond its initial con, and this is a film that demands to be seen knowing as little possible about the specifics of the plot, especially beyond the first act. The further the film goes, the better its themes are realized, especially with regards to Hideko’s creepy uncle ( Jin-woong Jo ), who collects erotic literature and forces Hideko to read it to a male audience. In these moments, it looks like Park is expressly attacking the male gaze, and he skewers it brilliantly.

That’s part of what makes the sex scenes so troubling. I have no problem with erotica on screen, but here it works at cross-purposes to what Park is trying to accomplish with the rest of his movie. You can’t call out the uncle and his pals for being perverts and then have sex scenes that look like they’re designed to titillate. Admittedly, that’s a difficult line to walk—criticizing the male gaze doesn’t have to be a call for prudery, but it seems like Park went a bit overboard in depicting the sex scenes, and it undermines his point a bit.

Thankfully, it’s not enough to derail the film, an incredibly ambitious work that also tries to tackle identity, nationalism, language, deception, and gender. The Handmaiden is an incredibly rich work of cinema with a lovely score, gorgeous cinematography, and captivating performances from Tae Ri Kim, Jung-woo Ha, and Min-hee Kim. It’s also a movie that would fit in nicely with Park’s trio of revenge pictures, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance , Oldboy , and Lady Vengeance .

The Handmaiden is best viewed knowing none of the twists and turns, and it’s a film I imagine will improve on repeat viewings. It’s thoughtful and complex while also being immensely entertaining, funny, dark, and disturbing. It’s the kind of masterful work we’ve come to expect from Park Chan-wook, and while the subtext can be a bit uneven at times with regards to the sex scenes, The Handmaiden still casts an enchanting spell.

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What it's about.

The 2016 outing of South-Korean auteur director Park Chan-wook (maker of Oldboy and Stoker) once again shifts attention to the dark side of what makes us human: betrayal, violence, and transgression. Based on the 2002 novel Fingersmith by British author Sarah Waters, The Handmaiden revolves around the love of two women and the greedy men around them. Park shifts the novel's plot from Victorian London to 1930s Korea, where an orphaned pickpocket is used by a con man to defraud an old Japanese woman. Routinely called a masterpiece with comparisons made to the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, this is a stylish and meticulous psychological thriller that packs enough erotic tension to put a crack in your screen. If you love cinema, you can't miss this movie. You might even have to watch it twice.

quite a disappointment. as much it is praised, i find it boring and senseless. Alltough it looks nice, there are way better korean movies. Do not be fooled by the famous director, it is a boring remake with unreasonable sex and torture. I guess these elements were needed because of the lack of everything else.

Debbie Rickard

I thoroughly enjoyed the unfolding layers in this movie, which I did not expect. The characters were all equally interesting and I will be recommending it to my friends

anilambaniworks

you’re right.

This movie is beyond excellence. Every detail is perfect, and the plot keeps misleading you until the very end. However, you should watch this movie alone, as it does not lack explicit scenes, especially starring women only

sujanthereaper

Keeps you on the edge every moment. The climax is amazing. The mystery around the protagonists are portrayed very well. I like how our empathy shifts from one character to another as new truths are presented to us. We do not really know who has the upper hand till the end.

Anne Michaud

This movie was not for me. Although I agree that it was well-made, there was a lot of very explicit scenes. I enjoyed the varying points of view, but this film moved very slowly, and the ending was ridiculous.

This film is an absolute masterpiece, the music, the costumes and the filming are just outstanding.

Typically, I would hesitate to watch any movies that are over 2 hours long, but this movie so engaging. The cinematography was unlike any other and everything–the costume, the set, the hair–was so aesthetically pleasing. This movie is easily one of my favorite movies.

A wonderfully feminist film – and great on screen chemistry between the female actors.

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Erotic mystery 'The Handmaiden' is a must-see

Chan-wook park's latest film, in which no one is who they seem to be, is terrific..

“The Handmaiden” is everything.

And not “is everything” in dumbed-down social-media parlance, where the phrase is a lazy substitute for something as pedestrian as “really good.” “The Handmaiden” is everything, in that it is a mystery, a graphically erotic romance, a black comedy and a little bit of a horror story.

And, of course, really good.

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Naturally it’s also violent — it’s directed by Park Chan-wook, famous for the creepy, violent “Oldboy.” (Yes, octopi make an appearance here, too, but not to be eaten alive. If you don’t get what that’s about, well, you really should see “Oldboy.”) But everything in “The Handmaiden” is ripe, sensual, rich. There’s no beauty in chopping off fingers, it’s true. But it can be artfully done.

Park’s film is told in three parts, with differing perspectives and impacts that come together to form a beautifully satisfying whole. It’s based on Sarah Waters’ 2002 novel “Fingersmith,” but moved from Victorian England to 1930s Korea, under Japanese occupation. We meet Sookee (Kim Tae-ri) as she goes to work for as a handmaiden for Hideko (Kim Min-hee), an heiress living in the mansion owned by her rich uncle Kouzuki (Cho Jin-wong), a rare book collector who despises Korea and wants to assume a Japanese identity.

Kind of, to all of this.

In reality Sookee is a pickpocket working for Count Fujiwara (Jung-woo Ha), who by now you’ve probably guessed isn’t a count at all. He’s a con man hoping to marry Hideko, then stash her in a mental hospital and make off with her inheritance. And Kouzuki’s books are, while indeed rare, also hardest-core pornography, which he forces Hideko to read to tuxedo-clad men who presumably pay for the privilege.

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None of this is the real mystery, by the way. It’s all established up front, before things get really strange. There are a number of twists and turns, many revealed by different points of view in the three segments.

What no one has accounted for, in all their breathtaking wheeling and dealing, is anyone falling in love. But Sookee begins to fall for Hideko, even as she is conning her. Like everything else in the film, this relationship will not follow any kind of expected course, and will further complicate matters that are complicated already.

The film is beautifully made, gorgeous to look at; Park shoots it as if it were a most-proper English costume drama. Except for the blood (though it’s in somewhat short supply for his films). And the torture. And the laugh-out-loud suicide attempt. And the wooden life-size puppet Kouzuki incorporates into his niece’s, um, act.

The sex scenes are graphic, yet lovingly shot, like everything else. If the definition of an artist is seeing what we all see in a different way, Park fits the description perfectly. This is a full film, stuffed with images and actions that linger long after you’ve seen them. It’s a tricky balancing act — how can the same film make room for genuine passion alongside a character who says, “What I desire is, how shall I put it, the manner of ordering wine without looking at the price?” Love and greed occupy the same universe.

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So do competing identity crises. It isn’t just that almost everyone is not who they seem. Not everyone wants to be, a function of Japan’s occupation and the attendant clash of cultures. If you aren’t happy with your lot, are you really going to be happy with someone else’s? The answer isn’t easy, and Park’s recognition of that makes for a stunning movie about which you can admire almost, well, everything.

In Japanese and Korean with subtitles.

'The Handmaiden,' 4.5 stars

Director: Chan-wook Park.

Cast: Min-hee Kim, Jung-woo Ha, Jin-woong Jo.

Rating: Not rated.

Note: At Harkins Camelview at Fashion Square. In Japanese and Korean, with subtitles.

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The Handmaiden Review

14 Apr 2017

145 minutes

The Handmaiden

The Handmaiden is numerous things at once. It’s a loose adaptation of British novelist Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith ; it’s a milestone of LGBT cinema in conservative South Korea; it’s an unapologetically kinky slice of erotica Tinto Brass at his most florid would be proud of; it’s a Byzantinely structured tale of con and counter-con that makes real demands of its audience to keep up; it’s a stirring narrative of women escaping from bastard men; it’s a vividly sketched chamber piece; and — most importantly — it’s a damn good yarn. After the trip to America that seems to be a rite of passage for Asian directors (Kim Jee-woon and The Last Stand , for example), Park Chan-wook has followed up Stoker with what might be his best film — and that’s not a claim you make lightly about the director of Oldboy .

Park Chan-wook has followed up Stoker with what might be his best film.

What sounds like a rote set-up — two people teaming up to con a rich person out of their money — is the launchpad for a dazzlingly complex psycho-sexual thriller where names and identities shift as often as outward allegiances. Suffice to say that not all is as it seems, with key scenes revisited time and again to radically alter our perception of what was originally going on. Park — always a watchmaker of a writer — has created an elaborate, teasing, unruly construction that ultimately deeply satisfies.

There have always been strains of perversion in Park’s work, and while his camera acrobatics have been toned down — perhaps due to the period setting — his flair for design and costume has gone into overdrive. The setting — largely a remote country house that combines Western and Korean architecture, in a likely nod to the origins of the material — is so exquisitely realised, it takes a while to clock how barmy its layout is. Plus, as usual with Park, watch out for the colour purple, which he uses to mark out important objects and rooms. There’s not a costume here that goes unfetishised (in particular the corsets worn by Kim Min-hee's Lady Hideko), and as the plot develops into more outlandish territory, the writer in play feels less Waters and more the Marquis de Sade.

Ah yes, the sex. In these situations there’s always the risk of 'male gaze' accusations, but unlike in, say, Blue Is The Warmest Colour , there is seldom the sense of it here. The three big sex scenes are key to both character and narrative, and manage that rare thing: every breath, every shudder, is telling you about the shifting relationships, rather than about the actor’s time in the gym. In fact, in a very Parkian touch, the sexiest scene is one of amateur dentistry. The line between titillation and sensuality is straddled but not crossed — despite close-ups of post-cunnilingus moistened lips and one shot that appears to be from a vagina’s POV. This is a film up-front and unembarrassed about its amatory elements, and it’s all the stronger for it.

It takes place in a porny world where apparently everybody is horny all the time; as the sexual near-hysteria ramps up, nobody gets home knackered after a long day and just wants a cup of tea. But perhaps Nigel Tufnel was right: what’s wrong with being sexy? There’s a long tradition of erotic cinema in Asia, of which The Handmaiden is very self-consciously an update, and with which it’s in explicit dialogue. Park is content to remain matter-of-fact and not bang a progressive gong, yet there is plenty of raw material for emancipatory readings here if you want it. But why reduce everything to a teachable moment, when there is so much purely aesthetic pleasure on offer?

Finally, though, for all the more baroque elements, there’s a generosity here that’s miles away from the cruelty of Park’s earlier work, and even the more villainous characters have their time to shine. Who’d have thought a film with this many scenes of torture, wooden sex dolls, blood on sheets and octopus porn would turn out ultimately to be so sweet?

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Review: ‘The Handmaiden’

TW: Mention of sexual abuse

Park Chan-Wook’s rework of Sarah Waters’s celebrated novel Fingersmith feels a lot like rope play: kinky, knotty and deliberately delayed gratification, rolling in at just under three hours long. In co-writers Chan-Wook and Seo-kyeong Jeong’s deft and cunning hands, Waters’s queer, corset-ripping period drama is relocated to Japanese-occupied ‘30s Korea, the class and gender tensions of the Victorian original filtered through a colonial lens. From across this divide, two female leads – played with deep respective finesse by Tae-ri Kim and Min-hee Kim – attempt to cross and double-cross each other, only to fall in lust along the way.

Tae-ri plays Sook-hee, a Korean pickpocket recruited by Jung-woo Ha’s caddish Korean conman. He promises Sook-hee, that together they’ll masquerade as a handmaiden, Tamako, and suitor, Japanese-born Count Fujiwara, in order to swindle a pale, neurotic and isolated Japanese heiress – Min-hee Kim’s haunting Lady Hideko – out of her fortune. The plan is to woo, elope with and promptly institutionalise Hideko, using Tamako as wing woman – though as we discover, there’s more to this gambit than Sook-hee realises.

To close in on his prey, Fujiwara must first ingratiate himself with Hideko’s abusive, perverted and equally duplicitous uncle, Jin-woong Jo’s Kouzuki. Like Fujiwara, Kouziki is also a duplicitious social climber: a Korean farmhand who has married his way into the gentry, where he now passing himself off as Japanese-born. And like Fujiwara, he also has designs on Hideko’s inheritance, In a house full of monsters – from the ‘pet’ in the basement to the Danvers-like housekeeper, Sasaki – this depraved patriarch is king, ruling over Hideko with a brutal, sinister hand. But unknown to him, there’s a rebellion fomenting: Hideko, we later discover, is not the naïve, defenceless aristocrat Tamako has fallen for, but rather a desperate and calculating survivor of abuse, nurturing her own secret passions and designs.

On its surface, The Handmaiden is an intoxicating study of duality and code-switching, a theatre played with the ropes that rig society to elevate the few and subjugate the many. It’s a meditation on power and desire, porn and performance. But more than this: its a brilliantly dark ode to women’s desire and autonomy: a subject that remains as pressing today as it was a century ago.

The film, like the novel, is told in three parts from three different vantage points, the same scenarios accumulating new meanings with each retelling. The repetition feels compulsive, fetishistic in the same way Kouzuki lusts for books and Tamako obsessives over feminine finery – fine jewels; laced lingerie; scented baths and the sweet-sour kisses of her mistress. Together, these individual fixations interconnect to form a subject Chan-Wook has returned to again and again, in the Vengeance Trilogy and 2013’s Stoker : the complicated matrix of family and home, with its closed network of roles and scripts and intergenerational dynamics.

Just like its inhabitants, Hideko’s home is a thing caught in flux, a thing that wants to bridge worlds – part English country pile, part Japanese mansion. Under Kouzuki’s stewardship, it’s a Japanese puzzle box, all hidden wings and spy holes, a space where – in true Chan-Wook style – the erotic and obscene converge. In less accomplished hands, The Handmaiden might have been turgid, ridiculous even. But Chan-Wook and Chung are artful puppet masters, turning the drama up to asphyxiating levels only to puncture its most pivotal moments – the sex scenes; a suicide attempt; covert liaisons – with disarming pinpricks of sweet, weird and devilish humour.

Witness the glorious contempt Hideko shows Fujiwara during the kimono-tying post-matrimony scene, preferring a knife handle to her new husband’s touch;  marvel at Tamako’s sword-wielding, snake-smashing Furie during the glorious destruction of Kouziki’s library of filth. When Fujiwara despairs at his female conspirator’s apparently incomprehensible emotions, the punch line isn’t women but men, and their cocksure myopia.

These are potent laughs, played for feminist kicks. In Hideko, the frigid, quasi-ghost girl of gothic 19 th century sensation novels is neither the mad women in the attic nor the asylum angel, but rather the frighteningly rational survivor in the basement, tricking her way to liberation one performance at a time. If Sook-hee is endearingly gauche as Tamako, Min-lee’s Hideko is a paragon of elegant guile, skillfully switching between pale ingénue, painted geisha and drag-sporting strategist. We marvel at her slyness, not as proof of female duplicity but of our hard-won multiplicity – an essential survival skill in a world that demands performance from us in every sphere.

Chan-Wook has been refreshingly frank regarding his feminist hopes for this girls-against-the-patriarchy opus, and his attempts at fostering a supportive environment for his female leads . But The Handmaiden ‘s sex scenes have divided critics since it toured the film festival circuit last year. Like The Duke of Burgundy and Blue Is The Warmest Colour before it this is, after all, another graphic lesbian love story mediated through a straight male director’s gaze. When asked if she thought the sex scenes reproduced tired, cishet fantasies of girl-on-girl action, Waters offered a considered counterpoint:

“Fingersmith was about finding space for women to be with each other away from prying eyes. Though ironically the film is a story told by a man, it’s still very faithful to the idea that the women are appropriating a very male pornographic tradition to find their own way of exploring their desires.”

For the most part I am inclined to agree. The love scenes feel intentionally staged, designed to turn us on only to trip us up with guffaws and moues minutes later, via histrionics (“I can die happy knowing I got to go down on you!”), uncomfortably extended facial close-ups (see the tribbing scene), and buzz-killing tongue-action. Chan-Wook will give us our kicks, but only ironically and reflexively: at one remove.

For the most part, this mischievous attempt at reconciling (male) voyeurism with feminist film-making is effective. The closing scene is the exception, unfolding without dialogue and comedy in a long, sustained and graphic shot that zooms in on the giggling lovers’ bodies before panning off to the night sky, where a bright full moon shines down on a silvery, gentle ocean – a beautiful, if clichéd, tapestry of feminine symbols. There’s a frustrating neatness to this scene’s unexpected sex act, a benevolent attempt to punctate Hideko’s story by transforming childhood trauma into adult pleasure. Are things ever that simple, or transformative? I’m not so sure.

The perfect symmetry of the lovers in congress during the final scene is also troubling, reaching for radical sameness but landing closer to mainstream porno homogeny. Again, Waters offers a thoughtful interpretation, via Chan-Wook:

“They are like mirrors of each other, which I’ve found rather troubling in the past because it blacks out the difference, but when I spoke to Park he said he was bringing the Japanese mistress and the Korean sewing girl together on an equal level. The novel is about class rather than gender: people passing themselves off as something they’re not. The film is more about colonialism: that very fraught relationship between Korea and Japan.”

It’s a reasonable but ultimately unconvincing rationale. In a film so rich with social tensions – from class and gender to sexuality and race – nothing here feels pure or without motive, including the sex. Chan-Wook attempts to reconcile this in the final scene, to vanish these anxieties with a stylised symmetry that, paradoxically, only betrays his own need for order, his own benevolent but naive vision of queer female love as some kind of classless utopia. The truth, as BDSM lesbian activists have told us for decades, is that our private roles are just as messy, complicated and imperfect as our public selves, and that there can be great joy and deep healing in queering those constructs: mistress and maid, top and bottom, switch and switch .

Happily, the unnatural quality of this scene only adds to the vaguely magical power of the lovers’ triumph, a happy-ending that’s all the more so given death’s constant proximity – from the vial of poison Hideko carries as protection against her uncle’s basement, to the eerie family heirloom she keeps lovingly stowed away in a hat box. Death may follow the couple – doesn’t it always, when queer women are on screen? – but only to unite them, unmasked under the cherry blossom tree during a dark night of the soul. It’s the men that death takes, in pleasingly brutal fashion. Hideko and Tamako survive, together – a just and sapid victory.

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• Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
• Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.1 x 5.42 x 0.58 inches; 2.88 ounces
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20 Movies That Had Really Unique Trailers

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Throughout the course of Hollywood history, there have been some truly unforgettable and influential movie trailers that have graced the big screen, causing both intrigue and excitement within audiences . Trailers are crucial to the success of impending projects, as they provide a glimmer of who is starring in the pictures and what viewers can expect from the plot.

From beloved and universally lauded classics like Citizen Kane and Psycho, to worldwide phenomenons such as The Blair Witch Project , and, of course, Quentin Tarantino’s ‘90s crime masterpiece Pulp Fiction , trailers have the power to dazzle and captivate the masses — not all previews are created equal. Some trailers show too little, but most of them these days reveal too much .

The best trailers are the ones that stand out above the rest, presenting something more than just a preview of the film. Some editors elevate the making of a movie trailer to an art form. Here are the 20 most unique movie trailers you'll ever see.

20 Baby Driver

Baby Driver

Much like some of the best trailers, this list is starting off with a bang. Adored for his fast-paced and energetic approach to storytelling , Edgar Wright delivered a rip-roaring trailer for his action extravaganza Baby Driver , as Ansel Elgort winningly portrayed the eponymous character, a savvy and highly-skilled getaway driver with a deep fondness for music.

Overflowing with adrenaline-pumping action sequences and a toe-tapping soundtrack, the trailer boasts plenty of stimulating roadside sequences as Baby tries to drown out the perpetual ringing in his ears via his trustee headphones.

The Most Stylish Trailer You've Ever Seen

The movie was hailed as the most stylish film of the year in 2017, and it came with the most stylish trailer, too. Released shortly after the movie premiered, the "TeKillYa" (a play on "Tequila") trailer was undeniably thrilling, with some of the sharpest editing in the business. This trailer took things to the next level.

The play with the music, the text, and the stylish cuts was pure art — there needs to be more trailers like this. The excitement it induced matched Edgar Wright's passionate love of music evidenced in the film. As Wright told EW in 2017:

I always wanted to do an action movie that was powered by music. It’s something that’s very much a part of my previous films and I thought of this idea of how to take that a stage further by having a character who listens to music the entire time.

Stream Baby Driver on Freevee

19 Psycho (1960)

The " Master of Suspense " Alfred Hitchcock was never one to shy away from being a true showman, and he effortlessly disarmed viewers by taking them along for a tour of the infamous Bates Motel in the epic trailer for the acclaimed '60s spectacle Psycho .

Hitchcock merrily walked around the quaint grounds and stopped in front of the foreboding, old house inhabited by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) and his mother, where he describes it as a scene of a grisly crime and sinister events.

Hitchcock Masterfully Disarms Audiences

The famed director takes his time as he explains to audiences the horrors that occurred at the seemingly innocent motel, with his final stop being in the iconic bathroom where Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) met her bloody demise.

The trailer comes to a screeching (quite literally) halt when Hitchcock pulls back the shower curtain and viewers are chilled to the bone by a terrified woman's scream, which only foreshadows the unforgettable murder scene featured in the revered Hitchcock classic.

Rent Psycho on Prime Video

18 The Minus Man (1999)

Owen Wilson delivered a phenomenal-yet-underrated performance as a serial killer who believes he is helping his victims escape their miserable lives in the thriller The Minus Man , sharing the screen with Janeane Garofalo and Brian Cox in the engrossing picture directed by Hampton Fancher.

The filmmaker described Wilson's character Vann Siegert as "a cross between Psycho 's Norman Bates, Melville's Billy Budd, and Being There 's Chauncey Gardner," with the underappreciated '90s flick chronicling Siegert's downward spiral into murder and mayhem.

The Minus Man's Unique Marketing Technique

One of the thought-provoking trailers for The Minus Man shows a couple analyzing the thriller after leaving the movie theater, with the man (Eddie Ifft) and woman (Marin Hinkle) engaging in a spirited discussion over Owen Wilson's character and the overall execution of the film.

They continue on with their lively debate all over the city through the night, until the man remarks on the gorgeous sunrise, and the woman rushes away in a panic, late for her job as a lifeguard — where she discovers two people dead in the pool.

The cutting edge promotional campaign ends with the memorable tagline "Careful, you can talk about it for hours," and was a unique way to spark interest and discussion with audiences.

Rent The Minus Man on Apple TV+

17 Alien (1979)

Undeniably one of the greatest and most memorable trailers of all time, footage for Alien features a hen's egg hatching as audiences travel through space with ominous music playing in the background.

The powerful simplicity of the egg moving as the camera grew closer and closer elicited an immense feeling of unease, which was only heightened as images of Sigourney Weaver and the rest of the cast ran throughout the commercial spaceship Nostromo while being pursued by an unseen force.

An Unforgettable Image

Jerry Goldsmith ( Star Trek, Chinatown ) scored the unnerving soundtrack and the haunting song that played in the highly artistic trailer, as the scenes became progressively dark and menacing with footage of chilling creatures and terrorized crew members riveting moviegoers.

The Nostromo 's squad and the ship's cat Jones are targeted by the horrific extraterrestrial, as viewers are reminded that "In space, no one can hear you scream." The hatching of the egg symbolizes the birth of something truly evil, and the tagline for Alien only added to the trailblazing horror picture's legacy.

Stream Alien on Hulu

16 Red Eye (2005)

Wes Craven has been lauded as one of the horror genre's most brilliant visionaries, and his approach to introducing potential viewers to the taut psychological thriller was downright genius.

The trailer for Red Eye made audiences believe that they were witnessing a flirty meet-cute between Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy , as her character Lisa rushes to make her red-eye flight home back to Miami, where she bumps into the handsome stranger Jackson Rippner.

Unexpected Plot Twist

The seemingly wholesome, romantic set-up quickly gets flipped upside down as viewers realize Red Eye is not in fact an upbeat romantic comedy, but rather a pulse-pounding thriller, with the trailer doing a complete 180 halfway through and becoming a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between McAdams and Murphy.

It was a brilliant and unexpected approach that caught audiences off guard and made them realize that Murphy would not be the romantic love interest of McAdams and was instead a dangerous terrorist with a sinister motive.

Stream Red Eye on Paramount+

15 The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The Blair Witch Project is heavily regarded as the first major feature film marketed chiefly by the internet, as the newsreel-style interviews and fake police reports caused a worldwide media frenzy.

The film's found footage approach only added to the mystique of the trailblazing horror phenomenon, as the missing person's posters for college students Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard caused the masses to question whether or not it was actually a documentary or just a piece of fiction.

A Shocking Work of Fact or Fiction?

The trailer presents itself as if it's real, with police reports and interviews of family members of the missing trio. The fact that, after the horror flick's trailer debuted, its IMDb page listed the actors as "missing, presumed dead" only helped it go viral, as well as its official website including police and investigator's testimonies regarding the "missing" students.

The found-footage approach helped inspire future horror films like Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield , though none were able to capitalize on the hysteria and fascination The Blair Witch Project sparked.

Rent The Blair Witch Project on Apple TV+

14 The Social Network (2010)

The Social Network

When it comes to impactful movie trailers, sometimes a less-is-more approach truly goes a long way, and a rendition of a beloved '90s alternative rock song can really pack a punch.

David Fincher is celebrated for his exceptional psychological thrillers, and when it came to telling the origin story of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network , the gifted director used the power of music and visuals to explore the premise and sociological themes featured in the film.

A Modern Cinematic Marvel

Audiences were treated to a haunting performance of Radiohead's "Creep" by a children's choir as the layout and unique attributes of the social media site were innocently showcased, including comments, likes, and status updates.

It perfectly offered viewers a glimpse of what they were in store for with the Aaron Sorkin-written screenplay . It's no surprise that The Social Network is considered one of the most influential and groundbreaking pictures of the 2010s and a trailblazing film in modern cinema.

Rent The Social Network on Prime Video

13 The Exorcist (1973)

The Exorcist

Like the movie itself, the trailer for William Friedkin's horror masterpiece The Exorcist was almost too much for audiences to witness, as both the spine-tingling imagery and intense strobing effects proved to be jarring for the masses.

As if a demonically-possessed 12-year-old girl wasn't enough, the downright chilling scenes of a profoundly afflicted Regan instilled fear in the hearts of moviegoers all across the world, and the sinister imagery was nightmare-worthy.

Too Much for Audiences to Handle

The trailer is more subtle than modern ones, filled with uneasy motifs, like the parents arguing about whether the problem is possession, and eerie effects going on around them, as well as the signature silhouetted form of Father Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow) arriving to try and save the child's soul.

Cleverly, the trailer does not show the daughter herself, except for one very brief faded shot, leaving viewers desperate to know exactly what it is that has everyone else in the film so scared.

The Exorcist had a massive impact on pop culture and sparked an intense reaction from the public, with audiences fainting and becoming physically ill during screenings; the deep voice of the narrator also helped the trailer terrify those brave enough to watch it.

Stream The Exorcist on Max

12 Pulp Fiction (1994)

Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction had a powerful and unparalleled impact on modern filmmaking, with the star-studded picture starring big names like John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, and Uma Thurman while depicting four massively violent tales. Quentin Tarantino notably took home the prestigious Palme d'Or for his unforgettable creativity and trademark flair in the flick.

Hot off the heels of his cinematic debut Reservoir Dogs , the king of stylized violence created his magnum opus with the independent crime classic and made sure its trailer demanded the attention of audiences and kept them riveted from start to finish.

A Celebrated Cinematic Staple

Revered for his extraordinary taste in exciting music, Tarantino threw caution to the wind and, unsurprisingly, delivered a killer soundtrack full of lively tunes that have since become synonymous with the '90s juggernaut.

The trailer opens with Miramax presenting the film and its already accolades won at the time, before launching explosively into the quick-paced and stylistic trailer that heightens everything that made the movie so Tarantino-esque, from the music to the artistry.

Stream Pulp Fiction on Max

11 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Mad Max: Fury Road

Exploding with chaos, mayhem, and rip-roaring cinematography, the exhilarating trailer for Mad Max: Fury Road puts the pedal to the metal from the very first shot of a chaotic Tom Hardy taking on the eponymous role that was formerly portrayed by Mel Gibson.

The visually stunning installment was brimming with high-octane action sequences as Hardy's Max partnered up with the fearless Furiosa (Charlize Theron) in an epic battle for freedom, resulting in some truly spectacular scenes.

One of Action's Most Acclaimed Hits

It had been 30 years since the 3rd Mad Max film, and so the hype for the rebooted franchise was palpable — and the trailer took that hype to 11, promising everything that the fourth film delivered. Mad Max: Fury Road has since become regarded as one of the greatest and most acclaimed action films of all time, and took in an impressive $380.4 million, in large part thanks to its eye-catching and pulse-pounding trailer.

The technical aspects, lively action sequences, and refreshing social commentary helped cement its status as one of the finest cinematic feats of the decade. A highly-anticipated prequel, Furiosa , will be released in May of this year with director George Miller returning to helm the picture.

Stream Mad Max: Fury Road on Max

10 Citizen Kane (1941)

Citizen Kane

Praised for his many eccentricities, distinct directorial flair, and for being "the ultimate auteur," Orson Welles made his dazzling cinematic debut with Citizen Kane at just 25 years old. Like Hitchcock would do for Psycho some twenty years later, Welles adopted a "making of" approach to the trailer and gave it a pseudo-documentary style, showing viewers around the film set and keeping the actual premise of the picture a secret.

It's one of the many reasons that the epic and innovative drama is regarded as one of the most lauded and finest films ever created, still topping best-of lists for movies over 80 years since its release.

Welles' Out-of-the-Box Approach

Welles, then best-known for his spectacular radio work and mysterious persona, is not seen within the trailer and instead serves as the narrator and introduces audiences to Citizen Kane 's star-studded cast.

Each actor recited a popular line from their character and warned people that the titular man may cause vastly different and intense reactions in viewers. The trailer for Citizen Kane was groundbreaking because it was arguably the first to not include any shots from the film itself, and it also captured what would go on to become Welles' signature directorial style.

Rent Citizen Kane on Prime Video

9 Hereditary (2018)

Not only is the trailer for Hereditary as unsettling and eerie as the horror film itself, but it also invokes newcomer Ari Aster's unique set reminiscent of a dollhouse, in order to better capture the essence of the lead character Annie Graham (Toni Collette), who is a miniature artist.

The horror knockout features tiny sculptures of important scenes and impactful flashbacks from Annie's life as she narrates the complex relationship she shared with her recently deceased mother.

Welcome to the Dollhouse

The trailer keeps in line with the overall feel and unease prevalent in the taut film, and images of the haunted Graham family interspersed with dollhouse images put viewers on edge instantly.

Colin Stetson created the powerful musical score for Hereditary , and in doing so instilled fear and trepidation within audiences that refused to let go. A preview for the movie accidentally played to family audiences in Western Australia and caused massive panic , as roughly 40 children saw the spine-tingling trailer by mistake.

Stream Hereditary on Max

8 A Serious Man (2009)

A Serious Man

The Coen brothers wasted no time in this trailer depicting the mounting frustrations Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) was experiencing as he embarked on a major soul-searching journey in A Serious Man , as it opens with the down-on-his luck professor having his head repeatedly bashed against a chalkboard to the rhythm of the opening score.

Set in 1967 Minnesota, a depressed and disenchanted Larry is dealt one blow after another (both literally and figuratively) while trying to handle the mounting chaos in his life.

Related: 10 Movies to Check Out If You Love Coen Brothers Films

The Brothers Get Brutal

Though not exactly groundbreaking in the traditional sense, the eye-catching and brutal beginning scene foreshadows the immense disappointment and pain Larry experiences throughout the black comedy as the life he created for himself begins crumbling all around him.

Both his personal and professional life is in shambles, and the trailer replays unfortunate events that have happened to the forlorn man. The sound of his head hitting the chalkboard loops continuously, while other sounds from the trailer add and build and loop as well, creating a crescendo of panic that culminates in a suddenly quiet scene made more tense by the anxiety-inducing sounds that came before.

7 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Fans of both the illustrious David Fincher and the popular Swedish novel were in for quite the treat when The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo hit theaters, and its eye-catching trailer helped it become the worldwide sensation that it did.

The Oscar-nominated picture focuses on the complex relationship between journalist Mikael Blomkvist and computer hack extraordinaire Salander as they team up to investigate a perplexing 40-year-old murder that has remained unsolved.

An Exhilarating Adaptation

Set to a cover of Led Zeppelin's legendary rock classic "Immigrant Song," one of the thriller's trailers featured no dialogue and instead included exhilarating images and scenes of Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig, providing audiences a glimpse at the mayhem that was to come.

As the song intensified, so did the various gripping clips, and the film's stunning cinematography (shot by frequent Fincher collaborator Jeff Cronenweth) offered viewers an exciting look at the jam-packed action and mystery that would unfold in the acclaimed adaptation.

Stream The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on Paramount+

6 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Black Panther Wakanda Forever

The world was collectively left devastated following the shocking death of the gifted Chadwick Boseman in 2020, as the actor became a beloved MCU presence with his powerful portrayal of T'Challa, the King of Wakanda and the courageous superhero Black Panther.

After the overwhelming success and popularity of 2018's Black Panther , director Ryan Coogler sought to honor the life and legacy of both Boseman and T'Challa with the 2022 sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever .

A Poignant Tribute to Boseman

Marvel fans were left wondering how another Black Panther film could possibly work without Boseman's presence. The trailer launched right into acknowledging the loss, and packed an emotional punch as a cover of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" was gently played, before gradually transitioning into rapper Kendrick Lamar's "Alright."

The trailer poignantly honored Boseman's moving portrayal, and attracted a whopping 172 million views in just its first 24 hours, with CNN commending the compelling teaser: "Amid the grief that permeates the preview, there's hope, the birth of new life (literally) and a glimpse at the future, with a clawed sneak peek of a new suited hero."

Stream Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on Disney+

5 The Shining (1980)

The Shining

As with other entries on this list, there is something hugely impactful about simple-yet-deeply profound imagery, and the teaser trailer for Stanley Kubrick's cinematic horror triumph The Shining said the most without uttering a single word.

Set to an ominous and eerie score crafted by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind, the trailer touts a shot of the Overlook Hotel's elevator doors as the credits roll and announce who was starring in the adaptation of the Stephen King masterpiece.

The Power of Simplicity

After the cast and crew credits are complete, the doors to the elevator open and a giant wave of thick blood comes pouring through the corridor, shaking the furniture and tinting the camera lens into a deep crimson red.

The startling and sinister scene instantly captivated the masses and only added to the intrigue surrounding the menacing picture, and it was enough to cause a media frenzy as fans anticipated their stay at the remote Colorado hotel and waited anxiously to see the horror hit.

Rent The Shining on Prime Video

4 The Handmaiden (2016)

The Handmaiden

In the trailer for the gorgeous South Korean arthouse film The Handmaiden , director Park Chan-Wook wanted to leave an air of mystery and wonder and chose to keep viewers guessing as to what exactly the psychological thriller was about.

Chan-Wook utilized stunning cinematography and images to promote the picture, as gritty and conflicting scenes played out on the screen, with each sequence becoming more and more bizarre.

Less is Truly More

Audiences were left completely riveted by the conflicting visuals that grew darker and progressively more outlandish and wicked as the trailer played out, and once again, no one could quite tell what was going on and what The Handmaiden' s storyline and plot pertained to.

It's that genius marketing and overall mystique that caused moviegoers to flock to theaters and helped make it both a financial success and one of Chan-Wook's most lauded projects.

Stream The Handmaiden on Prime Video

3 Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

Judas and the Black Messiah

Sometimes, all a good and effective trailer needs is a compelling film subject and powerful, attention-grabbing commentary, and the Academy Award-winning Judas and the Black Messiah brilliantly adopted that meaningful approach to storytelling.

Daniel Kaluuya's Fred Hampton sent shivers down the spines of audiences when he movingly declared "I am a revolutionary" to his devoted followers, with the phrase being repeated throughout the riveting crime drama's trailer.

Kaluuya Shines Once Again

Fred Hampton fiercely exclaimed in the trailer, “You can murder a freedom fighter, but you can’t murder freedom!” which poignantly foreshadowed the African American activist's grim fate in the film as the scenes and visuals intensified, reflecting the civil unrest of the 1960s.

Fans were completely blown away by the commanding trailer and both Kaluuya's impassioned declarations, with many viewers calling it one of the best and most gripping they had ever seen and that it was worthy of an award itself. The trailer is one word: explosive.

Stream Judas and the Black Messiah on Max

2 Us (2019)

Who knew that a popular rap song from the mid-'90s could be manipulated to create a chilling and downright disquieting movie trailer by the creative genius that is Jordan Peele?

The Oscar-winning filmmaker crafted a deeply original look at what his horror movie Us is about, with the trailer focusing on the Wilson family as they embark on a much-needed getaway to the beach, only for them to horrifically discover their murderous doppelgängers have tracked them down.

Related: Jordan Peele Teases His Upcoming Fourth Film: "Could Be My Favorite Movie"

Peele's Brilliant Song Selection

Peele's use of the upbeat Luniz song "I Got 5 on It" was fantastic. It plays as the trailer first begins, with the Wilsons sharing a light and breezy moment while driving to their vacation home.

As the imagery turns more sinister and grim, the tune is slowed down and develops a more malevolent tone, reflecting the true nature of what's to come for the unsuspecting family. After the trailer was released, the track was a smash hit with audiences, and it was subsequently edited into the final cut of the picture, much to the delight of fans everywhere.

Stream Us on Prime Video

1 Suicide Squad (2016)

Suicide Squad

Fans of DC Comics and the DCEU were thrilled when it was announced that David Ayer would be directing an adaptation of the eponymous anti-hero team from the comic book series, and the trailer for Suicide Squad left fans marking their calendars in anticipation for the big screen extravaganza.

Audiences were dazzlingly introduced to iconic characters like Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Deadshot (Will Smith), and Captain Boomerang (Jao Courtney) in the electrifying trailer, which was jam-packed full of exciting action sequences and plenty of humor.

The Trailer Exceeds the Film

Set to Queen's epic and universally beloved masterpiece "Bohemian Rhapsody," the trailer is brimming with well-executed cuts of action, chaos, and violence, a superb blend that captures the essence of the colorful supervillain group.

The song was perfectly timed with the various sequences showcased, and even Jared Leto's Joker made a small-yet-buzzed about appearance at the end. Sadly, the trailer for Suicide Squad far exceeded the film itself, with many wholeheartedly agreeing the actual flick simply didn't deliver on the promise in the magic of the unforgettable preview.

Stream Suicide Squad on Max

• Movie Lists

Ali: Man up, MAGA. White Dudes for Harris are here

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A mob of white men in the thousands amassed in a show of solidarity for their presidential candidate of choice, and no violence ensued. Not one broken window, makeshift noose or whiff of bear spray.

But this rally wasn’t for him. It was for her .

White Dudes for Harris hosted a Zoom fundraiser Monday in support of the vice president and her bid to win the White House. The online event raised over $4 million, drew 200,000 attendees and inspired a slew of jokes.

“What a variety of whiteness we have here,” actor Bradley Whitford ( “Handmaid’s Tale,” “West Wing”) said in his opening remarks. “It’s like a rainbow of beige.”

Review: Kamala Harris’ sterling debate was for every woman who’s been talked over by a man

Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence faced off Wednesday in the 2020 vice presidential debate. And Harris refused, winningly, to be talked over.

Oct. 7, 2020

Leveraging identity politics for campaign cash is nothing new, but bringing together a bunch of white men to counter MAGA’s dire warnings — “White guys will be replaced if the Dems win!” — is genius.

Democratic organizer Ross Morales Rocketto was behind the effort, and according to the New York Times, acknowledged the discomfort some might feel about the group’s name.

“I don’t blame them,” he said. “Throughout American history, there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that when white men organize, it’s often with pointy hats on, and it doesn’t end well.”

If only the Ku Klux Klan were a thing of the past.

But who better to counter such hate than these other white dudes and their de facto leader: Jeff Bridges? The actor who played the Dude in “The Big Lebowski” kicked off the video call by referring to a White Dudes for Harris hat he saw online.

“I qualify. I am white. I am a dude. And I love Harris,” he said. Bridges also worked in his “Lebowski” character’s catchphrase: “As the Dude might say, ‘That’s just my opinion, man.’ ”

As Biden flounders, why aren’t more Democrats sold on Kamala Harris?

Despite her qualifications, Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t been treated as a viable contender to Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee and a felon.

July 5, 2024

Co-opting the other side’s identity politics and then wringing the absurdity of their messaging for all it’s worth marks a new day for Democrats. The former fear and angst over President Biden’s low polling numbers has given way to a fresh enthusiasm since he announced he was leaving the race , and Harris stepped in.

Racist and sexist attacks from the right on Harris — including those by Congressman Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and others who called her a “DEI hire” — are being repurposed and weaponized by the left. A “Cat Ladies for Harris” Zoom call is in the works, taking its name from the insult hurled at Harris from Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, who called the vice president a “childless cat lady .”

The white dudes took their cues from previous Zoom fundraisers for Harris that were organized around racial identities. “Win With Black Women,” a group of high-profile Black women, raised $1.5 million for Harris in the hours after Biden announced he was stepping out of the race. Other groups who’ve gathered to support and donate to Harris include Black men, South Asian Americans and white women.

Monday’s dude attendees and speakers included Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina and Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois.

Actor Mark Hamill delivered his classic “Star Wars” line: “I’m Luke Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you.” Other celebrities included actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Gad, Sean Astin and Paul Scheer, director J.J. Abrams and singer Josh Groban.

But it was Democratic organizer Rocketto who best summed up the reason for the gathering. “The left has been ceding white men to the MAGA right for way, way too long,” he said. “That’s going to stop tonight because we know that the silent majority of white men aren’t actually MAGA supporters. They’re folks like you who just want a better life for their families.”

And they made their point without storming the Capitol or shooting up a Black Lives Matter demonstration. Righteous, dudes.

More to Read

Column: Trump is trolling the Democratic Party about Harris’ mixed-race identity. Will it work?

Aug. 4, 2024

Granderson: Trump is desperate to change the subject

Aug. 2, 2024

Ali: What’s so hard about mixed-race heritage for Trump to understand?

Aug. 1, 2024

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Lorraine Ali is news and culture critic of the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she was television critic for The Times covering media, breaking news and the onslaught of content across streaming, cable and network TV. Ali is an award-winning journalist and Los Angeles native who has written in publications ranging from the New York Times to Rolling Stone and GQ. She was formerly senior writer for The Times’ Calendar section where she covered entertainment, culture, and American Arab and Muslim issues. Ali started at The Times in 2011 as music editor after leaving her post as a senior writer and music critic at Newsweek Magazine.

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