20 Best Foreign Movies Of 2016
8. The Handmaiden
On the surface, Park Chan-wook’s Palme d’Or nominated movie The Handmaiden – a tale of forbidden Sapphic love in colonial era Korea based on writer Sarah Waters’ potboiler-cum-crime novel Fingersmith – might seem a far cry from his usual oeuvre. But remove the period setting and you’ve basically got a lurid and labyrinthine tale of sex and revenge not too dissimilar from the likes of Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.
Split into three parts, the movie focuses on pickpocket Sook-hee hired as a handmaiden by devious con artist Count Fujiwara to steal the inheritance of Japanese heiress Lady Hideko. As the plot twists and turns, Sook-hee and Lady Hideko find themselves increasingly attracted to each other and devise an equally devious plan to outwit the Count. Forever the cephalopod fan, Chan-wook throws in a few octopus references in The Handmaiden but this time they aren’t eaten live, thankfully.