Adaptation
Blu-ray Review
'The Handmaiden' Blu-ray Review: A sexy and suspenseful period thriller
January 25, 2017Ben MK
|
FEATURE: Best known for films like Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance — aka The Vengeance Trilogy — Chan-wook Park's movies are typically violent and bloody affairs, full of lust, betrayal and greed. The director's latest, however, a period piece set in turbulent, 1930s Korea, takes these themes to decadent new heights, with results as sensual as they are thrilling. An erotically-charged tale told in three parts, The Handmaiden is the story of Sookee (Kim Tae-ri), the daughter of an infamous pickpocket, who's recruited to help a grifter posing as a Count (Jung-woo Ha) bilk a wealthy heiress named Hideko (Min-hee Kim) out of her vast fortune. Posing as Hideko's new handmaiden, Sookee's job is to encourage Hideko to fall in love with the Count, so that he can marry her, steal her financial assets and have her committed to an insane asylum. However, things are far from as they appear; and as the plot thickens, so too does the sexual tension between the two women, sending everyone's best-laid plans for a tailspin. Adapted from novelist Sarah Waters' 2002 book, "Fingersmith," what follows is a twisty-turny exploration into the depths of depravity, passion, greed and love, all filtered through a haunting vision where tortured spirits hang from the branches of cherry blossom trees, and ceramic cobras guard the entranceway to a subterranean library rife with perversion and torrid tales. Suffice to say, The Handmaiden is a gorgeous, three-course feast for the senses; and when it comes time for the wicked to receive their just desserts, you'll be hungering for more.  The Handmaiden's exquisite period production and costume design and breathtaking cinematography come across beautifully on Blu-ray, thanks to a top-flight 1080p visual presentation. From the interiors of the sprawling mansion Hideko calls home to exterior shots of the Korean countryside, the film's color palette is sumptuously rendered, bolstered by crisp on-screen detail and balanced contrast levels that give the overall image a natural, film-like quality. And while the movie is overwhelmingly dialogue-driven, the accompanying DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is nonetheless quite capable, delivering both the actors' Japanese and Korean speech and the notes of the dramatically evocative score with crystal clarity.  Mongrel Media's single-disc Blu-ray release includes a Google Play digital copy; however, there are no Blu-ray extras. The Handmaiden is available from Mongrel Media as of January 24th, 2017. The Blu-ray features a Korean/Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and is presented with English and French subtitles. The total runtime is 2 Hrs. 25 Mins. |
* Reviewer's note: Portions of this Blu-ray review were adapted from my original TIFF review, published on September 9th, 2016.
0 comments