Reel Time: The Handmaiden and the Consumption/Fulfilment of Female Desire

Now released in the UK after its release in South Korea back in June 2016, Park Chan-Wook's latest offering, The Handmaiden, is a period drama that is far more dynamic, fun and ferocious than it initially appears. Simultaneously mimicking the structures of an Austen-style Victorian drama and a luxurious, erotic thriller at the same time, the film also deconstructs the differences between masculine desire and feminine sexual fulfilment. The Handmaiden is a film you need to see - in your local arthouse cinema - to continue to support genuinely good, non-Western cinema. 

Kim Tae-ri (left) and Kim Min-hee (right) as handmaiden and lady, respectively, in The Handmaiden

Adapted from 'Fingersmith', a novel by Sarah Waters and set in Victorian England, The Handmaiden lifts the plot and overall structure of the text and re-situates it in 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea. Such a shift is fitting between the two periods - both characterised by distinctions of class, gender and race, with overarching problems of restriction and repression, and colonialism as a backdrop. The film effortlessly fuses the two cultural contexts, particularly in the architecture of the family land - partly English family manor and a Japanese style annexe.

Conversely, the film also moves beyond the limits of the typical period drama.  Though the film appears like a conventional romance-drama at some points, potential audiences shouldn't be put off by its surface. The film was funnier than I expected, has luscious cinematic qualities, erotic romance and so many twists it becomes hard to keep track of what exactly the story is. 

Kim Min-hee's Lady Izumi Hideko performs a reading of erotica for a male audience

Though some critics have accused the film of offering nothing more than the usually degrading pornography in its sex scene, the film actually demonstrates, with a deft hand, the difference between the consumption of women's sexuality and the fulfilment of women's sexual needs. 

The men within the film have desires rather than needs, and most of those are linked to a desire to own or possess something or someone. Count Fujiwara desires money and the resulting lifestyle that comes with being part of the upper class, but he doesn't need it. Rather his desire is one of possession and ownership that eventually translates onto his relationship with Lady Hideko. Similarly, Uncle Kouzuki is an old man obsessed with historical pornography, the more violent and explicit the better. Since his extensive collection of erotica is found in expensive and rare books, Kouzuki's relationship to sex is one of possession - he comes to own the situations within the books by first possessing the enormously expensive book itself. 

This relationship in particular manifests during the readings of these books - where Hideko performs dramatic readings of the texts for an entirely male audience (pictured above). Here, the performative nature of the readings, which are rarely actually explicit, are more exploitative than the sex between Hideko and Sook-hee, her handmaiden, ever could be since it is 1) performed for 2) a male audience, the hallmarks of a sexist mode of cinematic production. By contrast, the sex scenes between the two women are, yes, sexually explicit (to an extent never seen in broader Western cinema) but are shot and created with real care and attention. They serve the plot and character development nicely whilst demonstrating an understanding of feminine sexuality and fulfilment that is a dramatic contrast to the of the men. In particular, the final scenes show the women re-enacting the fantasies from some of the erotic texts from Kouzuki's library, demonstrating a difference between the masculine fantasy - which always remains at remove, desperate for the spectacle of the performance - and feminine sexual fulfilment - active and engaged, not a performer for an unseen eye.

Overall, don't believe all of what you hear about The Handmaiden. It's tone is far lighter and funnier than it appears, even where it deals in serious topics. It's also nowhere near as exploitative or performative in its presentation of sex - rather it's a scathing critique of men's voyeurism when it comes to women's sexuality. A truly masterful piece of work, beautiful to the eye and engaging for the brain, The Handmaiden is a refreshing piece of cinema you need to rush out and see.