Directed by:
Park Chan-Wook
1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl (Sookee) is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress (Hideko) who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering Uncle (Kouzuki). But the maid has a secret. She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler posing as a Japanese Count to help him seduce the Lady to elope with him, rob her of her fortune, and lock her up in a madhouse. The plan seems to proceed according to plan until Sookee and Hideko discover some unexpected emotions.
Cast:
- Kim Min-hee as Lady/Izumi Hideko
- Kim Tae-ri as Maid/Nam Sook-hee
- Ha Jung-woo as Count Fujiwara
- Cho Jin-woong as Uncle Kouzuki
Critical Response:
The Handmaiden received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 95%, based on 210 reviews, and an average score of 8.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Handmaiden uses a Victorian crime novel as the loose inspiration for another visually sumptuous and absorbingly idiosyncratic outing from director Park Chan-wook." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 84 out of 100, based on 40 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". The Economist described the film as a masterpiece. Benjamin Lee of The Guardian ranked it four out of five stars and described it as "a hugely entertaining thriller".
Release and Box Office:
In February 2016, CJ Entertainment announced that The Handmaiden was pre-sold to 116 countries, including to Amazon Studios for the US. The film premiered in competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it received a standing ovation, and Ryu Seong-hee won the Vulcan Award of the Technical Artist for her art direction work on the film. In South Korea, the film was released on 1 June 2016 and sold more than 4 million tickets.
In the United States, the distribution of the film was handled by Amazon Studios and Magnolia Pictures. The film opened in limited release across five cinemas in New York City and Los Angeles, and played in 140 additional cinemas in the following weeks. Eventually, the film grossed more than $2 million in the United States theatrically; the film outgrossed Stoker and became the highest-grossing Park Chan-wook-directed film in the United States. It was released on DVD in the US on 24 January 2017 and Blu-ray on March 28, 2017.
