Romancefest 2018: The Handmaiden

Let's finish off Romancefest 2018 with a twisty and turny 2016 romantic thriller from South Korea, THE HANDMAIDEN, directed by Park Chan-wook. As I rounded out the month I realized most of these films have been comedies and a few of them have been dramas but there hasn't really been any thrillers. So this was a nice diversion.

It's the early 20th century. Kim Tae-ri stars as the titular handmaiden, hired by a con man (Ha Jung-woo) to infiltrate the house of an abusive pornographic book collector/salesman (Cho Jin-woong) and pose as his niece's (Kim Min-hee) handmaiden. The idea is that Jung-woo will romance Min-hee with the help of Tae-ri, steal her away from her uncle, commit her to a mental hospital, and run off with her fortune.

Like HE SAID, SHE SAID and DEFINITELY, MAYBE earlier in Romancefest 2018, this flick tells the same story from a couple different points of view, but unlike those earlier flicks this one does it well. You're hooked from the very beginning, and the twists and turns don't end until the credits roll. It's hard to talk about this movie without spoilers, so spoiler warning:

First the story is told with the con man and handmaiden conspiring against the royal niece. This ends with a twist -- instead of the niece being committed, the handmaiden is in her place. So, we flashback to find out how this happened and follow things more from the niece's point of view. That was the plan all along, we learn, until the handmaiden and niece team up with each other to overthrow the uncle and con man. So begins the third version.

I had no idea what to expect coming into this movie, despite having seen the trailer, and couldn't guess where it was going to go as it unfolded. To quote Stefon from SNL, this movie has everything -- romance, intrigue, betrayels, sex, torture, you name it, this movie has it.