Park Chan-wook returns with 'Handmaiden'

A scene from the upcoming film "The Handmaiden" / Courtesy of CJ Entertainment

By Yun Suh-young

Director Park Chan-wook, best known for "Oldboy" (2003) and "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" (2005), is returning to the big screen with his new Korean-language feature film "The Handmaiden," which will be released in local theaters in June.

This is his first feature-length film in Korean in seven years, since 2009's "Thirst." Over the past few years, Park has been directing short films such as "Paranmanjang" (2010) and "A Rose Reborn" (2014) and foreign-language film "Stoker" (2013) with a foreign cast. He had also participated as producer in a number of Korean films.

Returning with a new thriller, Park said it was a film he had always had in mind.

"I chose this piece after Stoker because I was completely taken with the plot. I read the original English novel Fingersmith by Sarah Waters and it was mesmerizing," said Park during a press conference in Seoul, Monday.

From left, Jo Jin-woong, Kim Min-hee, director Park Chan-wook, Kim Tae-ri and Ha Jung-woo pose during a press conference held in Seoul, Monday. / Yonhap

"The characters were so real and the plot had a shocking reversal. I had been thinking since then that I should definitely make this into a film."

Park said the film was inspired by the novel but was significantly different from the original story.

"When Stoker was being released, I invited Sarah Waters to the VIP preview screening and that's when we first met. Then I sent her the adapted script and she complimented it saying it was ‘well adapted but significantly different,'" Park said.

"Then she suggested, since the script isn't entirely the same from the original, why don't we use the term 'inspired by' instead of 'based on' the novel? So that's why the title of the film changed."

Poster of "The Handmaiden" / Courtesy of CJ Entertainment

The lesbian thriller set in the 1930s during the Japanese occupation of Korea is about an orphaned heiress Hideko (Kim Min-hee) from a wealthy Japanese family and her local handmaiden Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri) falling in love when the handmaiden was sent to Hideko by a conman disguised as a count (Ha Jung-woo) to persuade Hideko to fall in love with him. The count promises to share wealth extorted from Hideko with the handmaiden in return for her efforts in tying the two in matrimony. Actor Jo Jin-woong features as Hideko's peculiar uncle who shoves around his niece as if ruling over a slave.

In transitioning the novel's Victorian period into the Korean setting, Park said he chose the Japanese occupation (1910-45) because of the hierarchical status system that remained during that time.

"I had no choice because that was a period that still had a status system and when the capitalist class emerged. It was also when institutions such as psychiatric hospitals appeared," he said.

"I wanted a mixture of the East and the West and of Korean, Japanese and European all coexisting in harmony at times and in conflict at other times."

He added that the film is offbeat from his usual productions.

"The film will provide subtle pleasures here and there, because it is a very talkative and charming film with witty lines. It is the most unusual product out of my filmography," said Park.

The film was nominated to compete in the official selection of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and is Park's third film to be nominated for the festival.

"I didn't expect the film to be invited," he said. "Usually the festival likes peculiar and uncomfortable films but this one has a happy ending and is free of ambiguity."

The film features a new face, 26-year-old Kim Tae-ri, who plays the handmaiden. She was handpicked by director Park out of 1,500 candidates.

"Kim has her own particular style which is different from the conventional," Park said. "I picked her because I just had a good instinctive feeling. She's a rookie but she was just as confident as the veteran actors."

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