(Korean Movies) The Handmaiden, 2016

Entered the competition section of the 69th Cannes Film Festival
Director Park Chan-wook Meets a Lady
Director Park Chan-wook, who won the Jury Grand Prize at the 57th Cannes Film Festival for his film <Oldboy> (2003), which perfectly melted the original material, creative action, and intense suspense, caused a great sensation in the global film industry. Since then, following <Kind Venus> (2005) with attractive characters and unpredictable development, <Bat> (2009), a film that crosses sensuality and taboo, won the Jury Prize at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, raising her status as a global director. . Director Park Chan-wook, who has built a solid world of work through solid storytelling, elaborate mise-en-scène, and new challenges for each work, is returning for the first time in seven years since <Bat> as a domestic film. <The Handmaiden> was pre-sold in 120 countries at the American Film Market, European Film Market, and Hongkong Film Market with only a 7-minute highlight video, and competed at the 69th Cannes Film Festival. He was officially invited to the category and proved his global interest in Park Chan-wook's new work.

The movie <The Handmaiden> is set in the 1930s during the Japanese colonial period in Joseon, where a noble lady who inherited a huge fortune, a count who seeks the lady's property, and a maid and her guardian who were offered a deal by the count, steal money and hearts. It is a film about the characters who deceive each other and deceive each other for their own sake. Director Park Chan-wook, who has created unforgettable unique characters such as a man imprisoned for 15 years, a woman who dreams of revenge after serving a murder sentence, and a bride who became a vampire, is directed by Park Chan-wook. They completed a fascinating story of intense tension in which their crossed goals and secrets, love and desire collide. The unpredictable reversal revealed in a relationship that subtly collides with a character who lives and breathes vividly, plus the highlights of the 1930s created in the style of director Park Chan-wook. It will fascinate audiences all over the world.

Fake vs Real, Scam vs Love, Deal vs Lie
Lady Meets Charming Characters
The four characters in <The Handmaiden>, who keep a close relationship while hiding what they want, become a big axis leading to the fun of the unpredictable story. Hideko, an aristocratic young lady, is veiled in many things other than the fact that she is the heir of a huge fortune, lost her parents when she was young, and lives under the strict protection of her uncle, who is her guardian. The young lady, who hides her story in beauty, becomes the object of everyone's desire and looks like it will break soon, but it raises the tension with a secret aspect that does not easily reveal her inner feelings and emotions. On the other hand, Sook-hee, a maid with a rugged and bold personality, radiates a vivid charm of rawness at the opposite point of the girl who is completely separated from the world and protected. Sook-hee, an orphan girl who was born as the daughter of a thief and raised by a fencer, is involved in the Count's plan to steal the girl's fortune, but leads the story in an exciting way as she moves between her sincerity towards the young lady who cares for her and the deal with the Count.

The Earl, who hides his identity and purpose, approaches a young lady and shakes up her daily life, is an attractive character with excellent skills to seduce a woman and skillful handling. The earl boasts more noble-like gentleness than a real nobleman, but on the other hand, he shows the side of a swindler-like con artist, and is a three-dimensional character with intense desire and weak humanity. A count like this makes the end of <The Handmaiden> unpredictable. In addition, Kozuki, a double guardian who hid her desires in her own huge space after achieving a rise in her status through marriage to a Japanese nobleman, shows an overwhelming presence that dominates the young lady and at the same time dominates the play. At the moment when the tension between the characters, who pull each other tight as if they are about to break like this, reaches its apex, <The Handmaiden> reveals the outline of the story that was hidden by attempting an unexpected reversal through the change in the narrator's gaze leading the story. The story of the characters who hide their desires in a relationship of fake and real, love and fraud, trade and lie will give the audience thrills and fun until the end.

Seductive transformation Kim Min-hee, fatal charm Ha Jung-woo, unconventional challenge Jo Jin-woong
And a strong debut Kim Tae-ri
Lady, perfect acting synergy
<The Handmaiden> forms a strong aura with the meeting of talented actors newly selected by director Park Chan-wook, including Kim Min-hee, Ha Jung-woo, Jo Jin-woong, and rookie Kim Tae-ri. Kim Min-hee, who continues her career as a leading actress in the Korean film industry by taking drastic challenges such as <The Car>, <Temperature of Love>, and <Right Now, Wrong Then>, has portrayed female characters in various ways through her previous works such as Lee Young-ae, Lim Su-jeong, and Kim Ok-bin. He joined <The Handmaiden> as the new muse of director Park Chan-wook, who has been changing. Kim Min-hee, who transformed into an alluring aristocratic lady of the 1930s by digesting about 25 dresses and various designs, perfectly portrayed the delicate interior and detailed changes of an innocent yet sensitive lady. Actor Ha Jung-woo, who has proven his box office and acting skills until <Assassination>, which mobilized 12.7 million viewers last year, has been transformed into a count of fraudsters. Ha Jung-woo, who added unique humor and sexy to the ambitious count character that anyone can use for his own desire, has completed a charming character who is not hated even though he is a villain. Jo Jin-woong, who caused a syndrome with the recent drama [Signal], shows off a radical transformation as a guardian of a young lady. In order to realistically express the solitary and hysterical Kozuki character, Jo Jin-woong lost 18 kg and dressed as an elderly person, as well as changing his gait, sitting posture, and voice to create a character with a strong image. The maid Sook-hee, who has been a hot topic since the casting stage, took on the role of Kim Tae-ri, a rookie who was selected through an audition competition ratio of 1,500:1, and formed a fascinating ensemble with senior actors. Director Park Chan-wook said, "When I first met Hye-jeong Kang at the time of <Old Boy," Kim Tae-ri said, "I felt very similar to that." In addition, the casting of <The Handmaiden>, which has been strengthened by Kim Hae-sook, who is working with director Park Chan-wook for the second time following <Bat>, as the maid in the Kozuki residence, and Moon So-ri, an actress with an irreplaceable personality, as the lady's aunt. The combination will fill the work with the rich charm of different textures.

Locations between Japan and Korea
The Lady Creates the Glamorous 1930s
<The Handmaiden> raises expectations in that it is the first period drama directed by Park Chan-wook, who has shown a delicate mise-en-scène that does not miss every little thing in the frame. Director Park Chan-wook breaks away from the stereotypes of the 1930s, which was represented during the Japanese colonial period, and presents the transitional image of the 1930s, where Eastern and Western cultures, class society and capitalism, tradition and modernity coexist. It has been recreated as a sight to behold.

The house of the young lady is the most important space of <The Handmaiden> in that it is a place that visually expresses the environment and life surrounding her and is a place where all the characters gather. Director Park Chan-wook wanted to find a mansion where the style of East and West was mixed while still living in the times to realize a space that reflects the character of a guardian with a strong desire for advancement in status and longing for the West. After a hunting process all over Japan, the production team found a special mansion in Kuwana City, Japan, in which a traditional Japanese and European style building were combined into one. could contain The interior space of the mansion is filled with production designs with different concepts according to the inner and psychological characteristics of the characters that exist there, becoming a colorful attraction of <The Handmaiden>. The guardian’s study, the most symbolic place of the mansion, is decorated with a Japanese-style house, a bookcase reminiscent of a Western-style library, an indoor garden covered with bonsai, strange rocks, water and pebbles, and completed as another world in which heterogeneous elements are in strange harmony. . The lady's room is elegant and glamorous, but with cold colors and sharply arranged images suggesting the lady's inner self, while the space of the maid right next to the lady's room is realized with a dark and cramped closet, showing the sharp contrast between the two figures. If a lady's mansion pursues flawless beauty, Boyeongdang, a place of thieves where Sook-hee grew up, was created as a space with a dynamic atmosphere unique to the outskirts of the 1930s, giving life to the characters. In addition to this elaborately crafted indoor set, <The Handmaiden>, completed through locations that traveled between Japan and Korea, such as the Byeokchoji Cultural Arboretum in Paju, the coastal road in Buan in Jeollabuk-do, and Sorok-do in Goheung-gun, Jeollanam-do, will take the audience to the fascinating world of Park Chan-wook's 1930s. .

shooting, art, costumes, makeup, music
Lady joins oldboy crew
Producer Lim Seung-yong, who was the producer of <Oldboy> and who first proposed the film adaptation of the original cartoon to director Park Chan-wook at the time of <Oldboy>, proposed the British novel 'Fingersmith' to director Park Chan-wook, and the movie <The Handmaiden> began. Centering on director Park Chan-wook and producer, the production team of <Oldboy>, which won the Grand Prize of the Cannes Film Festival Jury, from cinematography, art, costumes, makeup, and music, gathered for the first time in 13 years through <The Handmaiden>.

After creating the intense visual beauty of <Oldboy>, which left many famous scenes, cinematographer Jeong Jeong-hoon, who works with director Park Chan-wook for the 7th time, such as <Kind Venus>, <The Bat>, and <Stalker>, a Hollywood film, created the subtleties between the characters through <The Handmaiden>. It shows excellent visual beauty that does not miss the depth of space and mise-en-scène while concentrating on emotions and relationships. In <The Handmaiden>, cinematographer Jeong Jeong-hoon used a 74 vintage lens reprinted from Hawk's 1974 lens among Anamorphic Lenses to express a 2.39:1 wide image with a film-like texture. Dramatic and classic. Art director Ryu Seong-hee, who has created original worlds across eras and genres such as <Memories of Murder>, <Oldboy>, and <Assassination>, visually reveals the inner side hidden by the characters, such as the mansion, study, and alluring lady's room that overwhelms the viewer. The drama is filled with revealing spaces. Cho Sang-kyung, who worked with director Park Chan-wook for <Oldboy>, <Kind Venus>, and <Bat> and won the Grand Bell Awards Costume Award for <Kundo: Age of Rebellion> , and the costumes that made full use of the personality and times of the guardian, added vitality to the character. It doubles the immersion by realistically expressing the makeup of the elderly with delicate work. And the music director Cho Young-wook, who has maximized the tension and fun of the story through creative selection of songs and music arrangement such as <Old Boy>, <The New World>, and the recent work <Inside Men>, director Park Chan-wook and the production team of <Old Boy>, Lady> will deliver cinematic pleasure with a work that contains sophisticated perfection, creative imagination, and daring challenges.