Park Chan-wook's new film to compete at Cannes

Director Park Chan-wook

By Kim Jae-heun

Korean director Park Chan-wook's new film "The Handmaiden," known as "Agassi" in Korea, has been invited to the competition section of the 69th Cannes Film Festival, next Friday, to vie for its most prestigious award, the Golden Palm.

This is Park's third film to be invited to the festival and the first Korean movie in four years to appear in the competition since Im Sang-soo's "The Taste of Money" and Hong Sang-soo's "In Another Country" in 2012.

Park won the Grand Prix and the Jury Prize at Cannes with his masterpieces "Old Boy" and "Thirst" in 2004 and 2009, respectively.

"The Handmaiden" is based on the novel "Fingersmith" by Welsh writer Sarah Waters. The film shifts the background to Korea and Japan in the 1930s where the Count (Ha Jung-woo) hires a pretty maid (Kim Tae-ri) to approach the heiress Agassi (Kim Min-hee) in an attempt to seize her property. The story takes a twist when Agassi falls in love with the maid.

Park's chance to win the Golden Palm at this year's Cannes Festival looks slim, as many other renowned international moviemakers will pit their works against his such as "It's Only the End of the World" by Xavier Dolan, "Paterson" by Jim Jarmusch, "I, Daniel Blake" by Ken Loach and "The Unknown Girl" by the Dardenne brothers.

Fellow Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin's thriller "Gokseong" joined the non-competition list along with three American films.

The French film festival previously invited Na's debut film "The Chaser" for the Midnight Screenings non-competition section for commercial films in 2008 and screened his follow-up "The Yellow Sea" in the Uncertain Regard section in 2011. By screening "Gokseong" this year, Na sets a record to screen all three of his feature films at Cannes.

Yeon Sang-ho's film "The Train to Busan" will also be part of the Midnight Screenings program. The disaster blockbuster features top actors Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi and Don Lee, also known as Ma Dong-seok in Korea.

In the Cinefondation Selection, which screens 18 short films, director Park Young-ju of Korea National University of Arts is the only Korean competing for the three prizes with the 29-minute movie "1 Kilogram."

The 69th Cannes Film Festival will take place May 11-22, opening with American filmmaker Woody Allen's "Cafe Society."

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