Erotic romance thriller set in Japanese occupied 1930s Korea - and what a bizarre set up it is. If I understood it correctly, a scam artist recruits a street urchin (the Handmaiden) to carry out the ultimate con. He'll pose as a Japanese count and persuade a loveless woman in a remote country house to elope to Japan where he'll then have her committed and split her inheritance with said urchin. Add in a weird old uncle with an unusual taste in book collecting and awe-inspiringly rich palette of locations and costumes, and you have the makings of a film that treads the fine line between genius, voyeurism and culture-shock.
It is never anything less than attention grabbing, and despite the unusual topic, by the end it has earned its place as a recognisable, if not the best, of the director Chan-Wook's work.
Verdict: Weird Korean beauty.
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