The drama combines the sumptuous art direction and black humor of Park's past work with a warmth and compassion that feeds the soul.

| Feb 11, 2021

Once again Park finds himself immersed in a world of woman-driven intrigue, and like Stoker before it The Handmaiden is concerned with the power dynamics between women in what are contextually configured as sexually transgressive scenarios.

| Aug 25, 2018

The Handmaiden is exemplary proof of Park's mastery, a high point from a director known for his purposeful aesthetic care, even in matters of overwrought sexual melodrama.

| Aug 10, 2017

The tricksy plot streamlines and improves the final messy section of the source novel, to tease and mislead even the most astute viewer.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 26, 2017

There are giddy pleasures to be found in this rip-roaringly ripe erotic thriller/melodrama from Oldboy director Park Chan-wook.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 17, 2017

The result is a lush, silken, erotic, disturbing, beautifully photographed drama of betrayal and passion.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 14, 2017

The urge for a second viewing struck me midway through the first.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 14, 2017

In this hyper-intricate construction of false leads and surprise reversals, the ultimate dupe - and a very willing one - is the viewer.

| Apr 13, 2017

It is certainly a brilliant adaptation of Sarah Waters' original novel and a film about something that most other movies can only guess at: pleasure and rapture.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 13, 2017

A complex and wonderfully decadent erotic melodrama.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 12, 2017

Plots twist and twist again, but the true surprise is the film's grasp of power between classes, and sexes, colonial and colonised. Nestled here too is a charge of real emotion.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 12, 2017

A genuinely fun blend of sumptuous visuals and a perverse sense of humour.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 11, 2017

The Handmaiden is at once a superlative thriller and a deeply erotic character study, but it's the intelligence, mordant wit and depth of characterisation that are the real turn-ons.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 3, 2017

Go see it. If you love cinema at all, go see it.

| Original Score: A+ | Nov 11, 2016

Chan-wook [delivers] a marvel of storytelling sleight of hand worthy of euphoric admiration.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 4, 2016

Far too good to be watched in one sitting.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 1, 2016

The Handmaiden is just pure cinema, a dizzying, disturbing fable of love and betrayal that piles on luxurious imagery, while never losing track of its story's human core.

| Oct 30, 2016

Park Chan-wook is a master of classy trash... There's artistry in his filmmaking, but also a lot of blood, plenty of sick humor and moments of sheer lunacy. The Handmaiden ranks among his best films yet.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 28, 2016

The surface is classical, while Park's perversity bubbles up from beneath.

| Oct 28, 2016

Kinky by design, artful by intent, the film draws visual inspiration from Gothic erotic art while distilling its screenplay - Chung Seo-kyung and Park share co-script - from the Sarah Waters Victorian crime novel Fingersmith.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 28, 2016