Bravo! The Koreans have done it again. Another steamy mainstream film is here to whet your appetites.
A “lurid potboiler”, The Handmaiden is directed by Park Chan-wook of Oldboy and Thirst fame.
If the title sounds familiar, that’s because we already had erotic films like The Housemaid (starring Do-yeon Jeon) and The Servant (starring Jo Yeo-jeong). Naturally, this new arrival is also an explicit entry in this canon.
It is actually adapted from a British novel, Fingersmith, though with its setting changed to colonial-era Korea. It is about a rich heiress and the thief hired to be her maid, but then the two beautiful women fall in love.
Yes, that means only one thing: cue hot lesbian sex scenes. (This seems to be a recent trend in Korean cinema.)
The two women are played by Kim Min-hee and Kim Tae-ri. The latter is essentially debuting in the role, and her naked body is making quite an impact. Kim Min-hee is an accomplished actress, though her career has been hit by scandal after her affair was exposed with married Hong Sang-soo, who directed her in Right Now, Wrong Then in 2015 and is about 20 years older.
The cast also includes the lovely Moon So-ri, who has also done nude scenes before but not this time.
One critic wrote: “this film is simmering with genuine sexual tension. There’s explicit sex but more importantly, there’s longing, affection and intimacy between the maid, impressive newcomer Kim Tae-Ri, and her sexually inexperienced heiress, a layered turn from Kim Min-hee.”
Could this be the Korean Blue is the Warmest Color? At the very least, it looks set to launch the career of Kim Tae-ri in just the right way.
