The Handmaiden (2016)

Holy Boredom, Batman! What have you bestowed upon me? I watched this pretentious three-hour long flick with the hope I'd see some of Chan Wook Park's signature violence. Yeah, it was there - near the very end, and it wasn't revealing at all. Instead, what I forced myself to sit through was one long and boring, albeit beautifully photographed, soap opera set in turn of the century Korea and Japan.Is this movie a must see? Not at all. If romance is your thing, then yeah, maybe you'd get a kick out of this tedious nonsense. I'm angry because, so far, Chan Wook Park has never made a "miss" in his directorial life. This is a first. Hopefully, it'll be his last.

Chan Wook Park RomanceA conman hires a bootlegger's daughter to help him convince a wealthy woman to marry him. As the woman and her maid come closer and closer the lines get blurred who's conning who ..P.S. :: There are graphic nude scenes, Japanese erotic-folklore--- "This is a movie for the perverted mind." - David Fincher10/10

Had this remained a revenge movie with a twist I would have appreciated it a lot better. But then it enters lesbian soft porn territory and the movie takes on an entirely different tone. I can just imagine what theater movie goers must have gone through when the love scenes between Lady Hideko (Min-hee Kim) and Sook-hee (Tae-ri Kim) took center stage. When you're not ready or prepared for it, the sex scenes can inadvertently turn a promising night out into a virtual catastrophe. The story could have been told without the explicit sex and perhaps might have been more enthralling if the affair between the Japanese heir and her Korean handmaiden been more nuanced and suggestive. I didn't particularly care for director Chan-wook Park's "Oldboy" either. He has a visually captivating style but his choice of subject matter ought to come with a viewer discretion warning.

This is all about greediness and its betrayal. During the first part of this movie, it kind of doesn't make any sense; however, during the second part is when things start to get way better. I have to though that even though some of the translations in English are sometimes grammatically incoherent, one, as a viewer can still infer or grasp the message. The softness of language in this movie, draws you more into the setting, atmosphere and characters. On the other hand, the acting skills shown by all of their actors and actresses are simply flawless and amazing. I don't what is it about these asian actors that they don't overplay nor fall into too much screaming or cheesy acting. This is something else!I highly recommend this movie to understand better the depths of our most innate human emotions and nature.