Park Chan-wook
The Handmaiden
Stoker
When we began this week’s double feature excursion, I had no idea of the impact each film would have, and the feelings they’d carry with them. Park Chan-wook, the internationally critically-acclaimed director, conducts his work in a very refined, stylized way. You can tell within every scene, every frame, every line of dialogue, every piece of furniture and clothing that a considerable amount of thought and care went into each creative decision. There is a symmetry and a rhythm to his films that is deliciously addicting, each twist and turn unfolds to the beat of your heart as you watch. His 2016 film The Handmaiden and his 2013 English-speaking film Stoker, were both brilliant, sexy, and gross—the perfect combination, when done correctly. The Handmaiden took every second of its 3 hour run time to establish itself, making the category of psycho-sexual thrillers all the more bold by its presence. This story is told in Korean and in Japanese, as well as within whispers and closed doors and rituals of things I won’t dare reveal. The slowness of this film isn’t even really felt until it’s finished, and you’re left alone with your thoughts and theories and unanswerable questions. Though this story untangles itself effortlessly, it is unnerving and incredibly suspenseful to watch. What begins as somewhat of a heist movie set in Japanese-occupied Korea, evolves into a twisted queer love story that doesn’t stop unraveling mysteries until very end. This film is both beautiful and grotesque, with its emphasis upon antiquity, literature, art, but also things like sex, violence, and family secrets. Like a dark Miyazaki film, The Handmaiden was enriched by its use of nature and tall-tales and innocent sense of wonderment. There was eroticism and danger within every moment and every breath, and the chemistry between Kim Min-hee and Kim Tae-ri was undeniably ferocious. I was completely blown away by this film’s script, and the fearlessness of the players working within it. There are just so many beguiling instances of tension that somehow had the ability to transport and ensnare you in that exact moment. The only other film that I recall leaving me this mystified was The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a film that is positively PG compared to The Handmaiden. It is very Fincher-esque, though, for a film to be set up as the puzzle that it is, only to be crushed and left unrecognizable by its last, missing piece. I keep this vague for those who wish to watch and experience The Handmaiden for themselves (and you really, really should), but also because try as I might, it’s difficult to put this film into words. The feelings it holds with it are indescribable, like the face of someone you recognize but cannot place, The Handmaiden is equally inviting and unsettling. This theme carries over to Stoker, another Park Chan-wook affair made with incredible details and disturbing elegance. Once again we’re placed inside a cavernous, ominous mansion enveloped by sprawling trees and immense tragedy, and once again we’re presented with questionable, inescapable familial ties. Mia Wasikowska was serving Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice in her portrayal of the solemn yet precocious India Stoker, this film’s protagonist and most unpredictable character. Along with Matthew Goode and Nicole Kidman, this cast delivered another tragic, tumultuous, and titillating tale, with less surprises than The Handmaiden, but the same amount of intrigue. I loved how everyone moved in the background and in the corner of your eye, finding solace in the shadows like ghosts. And though India is the clear protagonist, no one here can be trusted. While this film followed a more Westernized formula, Park Chan-wook once again found a way to inject style and uniqueness into every aspect of it. The writer of this film is Wentworth Miller, who you probably know best from his starring role on Prison Break, or his notable performance in that one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where the swim team gets turned into fish-men, but he is also an excellent writer. It’s fascinating, not to mention invigorating, that both Wentworth Miller and Park Chan-wook chose to make use of male fantasies in innovative ways, with somewhat-exploitative, emasculating results. Both films display complicated, thoroughly disgusting relationships, which ultimately bring up interesting questions about desire, fear, and our truest selves. Even if sexually-charged psychological thrillers aren’t your thing, the empowered, interesting, layered female characters in these films will demand your attention. An enthralling 3 part odyssey of queer desire and and a sexually subversive story written by a proud, gay man? Happy pride :)
