Park Chan-wook's THE HANDMAIDEN: full of secrets and lies -- and it's drop-dead gorgeous

If you're a fan of South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (J.S.A., his Vengeance trilogy, and Thirst), you'll make a bee line for his newest film, THE HANDMAIDEN, which is very probably his best. It is certainly his most beautiful film, often breathtaking in its color and composition, but it is also his most placid -- even thought it's filled with mystery, betrayals, and finally just a tad's worth of his signature violence and blood. It is also one of the sexiest, most voluptuous movies I've ever seen -- brought to life, or at least to movie life, with that peculiar (to us westerners) Asian blend of inscrutability, perversity and out-and-out passion that offers up a very hot time.

Mr. Park, shown at left, is gifted in so many areas -- storytelling, visual sense and provocation -- that prove pertinent to the tale he tells here. It is lifted pretty much intact (as I remember, at least) from the British lesbian mystery series Fingersmith, which was set in Victorian England and first shown on television in 2005. Park has made the move to Korea and Japan seem utterly appropriate in terms of plot, behavior and all else. And his movie is maybe ten times as beautiful as was the original -- which was perfectly fine in its own manner.

Fingersmith, in three episodes, ran three hours, and The Handmaiden, coming in at nearly two-and-one half, is almost comparable in length. The plots (as I recall, at least), while similar in basic outline, vary greatly in their details, especially as concerns a "reading group" composed of wealthy Japanese men for whom one of our heroines performs. (These scenes are among the movie's most bizarre, perverse and, in their way, beautiful.)

The tale told involves a pretty young girl who is a pickpocket in a family of criminals, another of whom, posing as a wealthy Count, has wormed his way into the trust of a man who controls the inheritance of a niece whom the Count plans to woo, marry, dispose of, and inherit her wealth. To more easily accomplish this. he uses the young girl to serve as the lady's hand-maiden and help convince her that this Count is the man of her dreams.

The filmmaker tell his tale from three vantage points, that of the handmaiden, then from the POV of the lady for whom she works, and finally from the usual, all-knowing viewpoint we're more used to in our movies. Though much of the same material is covered, seeing it so differently proves enriching, surprising and very entertaining. Our sympathies moves back and forth between the two women, finally coming to rest almost equally on both. (The men here are entirely pigs. Of their time, of course, but pigs all the same.)

The plot may have its coincidences and contrivances but so enthralling are the characters and the beautiful visuals that I don't think you'll mind one bit. (I kept wanting to takes notes on the film but could not pry my eyes away from the screen long enough to do so.) A terrific cast has been assembled here, and it performs to the hilt. The little details Park allows us to witness -- taking care of milady's too-sharp tooth, for instance -- are just about perfectly chosen for both beauty and intimacy.

This movie is so full of quiet surprise and finally a kind of passionate dedication to freedom for its quartet of characters (in very different ways, however) that I don't want to spoil one bit more of the rapturously convoluted plot by blabbing further. The Handmaiden -- like Snowpiercer and a number of other South Korean films -- keeps this little country still at the forefront of some of the best and most unusual mainstream arthouse cinema.

Being distributed across the USA by Magnolia Pictures, running 145 minutes and remaining unrated, the movie -- after opening in New York and L.A. last week to mostly excellent reviews -- hits cities around the country this Friday, October 28. Here in South Florida, it plays the Coral Gables Art Cinema in the Miami area, the Miami Beach Cinematheque, and the Cinemark Palace 20 in Boca Raton. To see all currently scheduled playdates and theaters, click here. 

God hits the Quad, as Israel's jaw-dropper of a sermon, HAMESIMA X, opens on Friday

The press materials for this you've-got-to-see-it-to-believe-it objet d'ordure calls it a "psychological and spiritual thriller," and so far as "spiritual" goes, TrustMovies can indeed imagine this oddity on a double bill with the current To the Wonder. Both imagine themselves as "spiritual" films, the difference being that Terrence Malick's movie is made by someone with a wide assort-ment of cinematic skills. HAMESIMA X, on the other hand, appears to have been cobbled together by a trio of filmmakers with, between them, maybe two-and-one-half percent of Malick's movie-making prowess. The result should see jaws dropping so fast and far that I suggest that the Quad Cinema, where the movie opens this Friday, consider staffing a nurse or two for the week's run to assist patrons whose faces have suddenly come unglued.

As written and directed by three guys (not the Stooges; that might have helped) -- Yuval Ovadia (who also edited, produced and did the sound--and acts one of the leading roles), Prosper Malka and Or Yashar (only one of whom, Mr. Yashar, shown above, has had any industry experience and also did the cinematography here) -- the movie concerns a "being" from somewhere out in space (or up above) who comes to earth in order, it turns out, to turn a member of Israel's Mossad into a very upright citizen. The Mossad? Them?!

Yes. Them. The particular guy who needs converting is a big, angry bear of a man (Shalom Sharon Raginiano, shown above, right, with co-filmmaker Malka) who's going through divorce, children trouble, health issues, you name it. As the alien and the fellow Raginiano must interrogate, filmmaker Ovadio (below) does a nice job of being "spiritual" and/or other-worldly (he has the face for it!). But compared to another (and so much better) movie of somewhat similar theme -- Man Facing Southeast -- this one is paltry indeed.

Unfortunately, almost as soon as the interrogation begins, it also becomes clear that this is simply an excuse for presenting the audience with a religious sermon. (And, yes, TM does not appreciate stuff like that masquerading as a movie.) Granted the budget here is very low. But really, wouldn't you imagine the Mossad headquarters has more than three employees, and perhaps a security guard or two?

The so-called thriller elements (a magical-but-naughty Ninja, above, and a beggar/devil who keep appearing out of thin air to make miserable the lives of our two "heroes") are more embarrassing than exciting, though the actor who plays that devil (Danny Steg, below, center) gives it his all. He also gets the the movie's best line: "Ouch."

The worst thing about Hamesima X, however, is its idiotic funda-mentalist bent. It should actually please fundamentalists of all religions -- whether Christian, Jew or Muslim -- because it preaches absolute religious faith against everything and anything else. When our alien hero tells the poor Mossad schmuck, "You're trying to be rational, logical," as though this were something wrong, you'll know you have stumbled into the thinking person's special pit of hell.

That said, I must admit that the movie does have its own brand of witless charm. There is something rather fun about having your jaw drop this far. It is possible, in fact, that  Hamesima X has inaugurated a new genre: Call it Kabbalah camp. (But for god's sake, don't send your children there!)

As noted above, the movie opens this coming Friday at Manhattan's Quad Cinema for a week's run. Elsewhere? I could not find any playdates, but on the movie's blog, I found a sentence saying, "If you want to see this movie, contact us." So here, for your perusal, is that contact link.