The Handmaiden
Directed by: Park Chan-wook
Nominated for Palme d'Or in 2016, Won BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language.
The Handmaiden starts like a Kurosawa film, it has an epic vibe to it. It is set in Japanese-occupied Korea, where it feels like someone is being sacrificed from a village. Later we get to know that she is being sent as a maid to a Japanese heiress. Later we get to know that she is involved in a plan to cheat the heiress. The plot changes its course of direction with every scene, with every detail that is added and this is done throughout the film. These are not twists, these are turns where the story keeps changing its direction very fast. This quality was there in Anurag Kashyap's segment in Ghost Stories as well. The most interesting thing about this film is, this film is conceived like an epic where the storytelling is usually clean and strong but the screenplay of the film is twisted. The film never cheats us, they don't bank on what we'd assume because of the film making techniques and then hit us there with a twist.
It is conceived in 3 parts, the extended cut. Quentin Tarantino when asked about chapters, if he uses chapters to give the film a literature kind of a vibe, he agreed to it. I don't know the intention behind the usage of chapters here, it can be because of the change of perceived narrative in the film. The love story between the lady and the maid is conceived in an erotic way, unlike the love story in Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Here they fall in love after feeling sexual tension and discovering what they can do to each other, whereas in Portrait of a Lady on Fire, they feel companionship first and they fall in love and then the sexual tension starts between them. I'm yet to watch Blue is the Warmest Color, which is usually criticized for having a male gaze over a lesbian love story.
It is conceived in 3 parts, the extended cut. Quentin Tarantino when asked about chapters, if he uses chapters to give the film a literature kind of a vibe, he agreed to it. I don't know the intention behind the usage of chapters here, it can be because of the change of perceived narrative in the film. The love story between the lady and the maid is conceived in an erotic way, unlike the love story in Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Here they fall in love after feeling sexual tension and discovering what they can do to each other, whereas in Portrait of a Lady on Fire, they feel companionship first and they fall in love and then the sexual tension starts between them. I'm yet to watch Blue is the Warmest Color, which is usually criticized for having a male gaze over a lesbian love story.
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