The Handmaiden, a fairy-tale for adults mesmerizing yet inconsistent.
For his newest film, Park Chan-wook travels in time and situates his story in the context of the Japanese colonization in Korea in the 1930’s in order to follow Sook-hee, a young Korean woman that the rich Japanese countess Hideko hires as her handmaid. Sook-hee moves in the dark mansion of Hideko’s tyrannic uncle, discovers her mysterious master’s routine and tries to adapt to this lifestyle. Hideko for her part attempts to find an ally to support her and help her surviving her cumbersome reality. She however ignores that her new young handmaid is the accomplice of a Korean swindler who poses as a Japanese count, and that the two acolytes aim to steal her colossal wealth.
An aestheticism that serves the narration
The photography and the composition create a gothic and mysterious ambiance. The editing contributes to this effect and even adds a hypnotizing aspect to the film. The movie looks like a fairy-tale for adult because of its structure in triptych, its quasi enchanting atmosphere and its characters that seem to incarnate either virtues or vices. The game of influence that the characters play is properly fascinating. The film thus manages to remain surprising, as the protagonists never stop to change the position of the dominant/dominated, so that the spectators are completely unable to understand who would be the ultimate master of the game. The rhythm is nevertheless fluid and the actors are very convincing, which allows the piece to provides the spectators with some clues as the film goes by. Park Chan-wook also manages to produce some delicate hints of poetry thanks to the marvellous work of the director of photography. The bodies become beautiful objects to observe and the landscapes become the mirrors of the different character’s psyche.
Some paradoxical tonalities
The poetical dimension of this cinematic fairy-tale is also tainted of a very powerful sensuality. The erotic scenes are perfectly justified in most of the case because they contribute to build the film’s darkness and allow the audience to understand some psychological aspects of the characters. Moreover, they are very esthetical and offer a truly interesting contrast with the fairy-talish aspect of the movie, anchoring the piece in a hybrid genre that is really captivating. This way to mix what belongs to the realm of the childhood (the story’s structure, the characters impersonating abstract concepts) and what is associated with adulthood (sex, manipulation and knowledge) reflects the genial paradox of the movie that balances perfectly between a delicate lightness and a heady and burdensome ambiance. The photography and the composition contribute to create an atmosphere that is perfectly both gothic and mysterious.
A Lack of consistency
The big weakness of the movie resides in its third chapter. The quality of this chapter is significantly inferior to the two previous’ ones and only indulges in redundancies or offers improbable scenes that unfortunately breaks the equilibrium previously mentioned by destructing the lightness of the film. Park Chan-wook attempts too much to direct his public in the way he wants the film to go and thus produces dispensable scenes that sometimes skim the grotesque. The excellent actors unfortunately do not manage to save this unwieldiness. The spectators thus have to face a crushing final that makes them forget the exploits of the previous chapters. The audience consequently regrets that the movie was not able to show consistency, as a good last chapter could have made the movie become a true masterpiece.
Mademoiselle:
Réalisé par: Park Chan Wook
Avec: Kim Min-Hee, Kim Tae-Ri, Ha Jeong Woo, Jo Jin Woong
