Park Chan-wook’s Great Romance
Paste talked to director Park Chan-wook about how his new film The Handmaiden tries to break down the violent male gaze.

Park Chan-wook’s new film The Handmaiden, based on the novel Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, is a beautifully constructed erotic thriller. While the book sets the story in Victorian England, Park establishes the tale in 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea. Returning to Korea after making his English language debut with Stoker, Park tells the story of Sook-hee (Tae Ri Kim), a petty thief and master pick pocket, who conspires with a man known as “The Count” (Jung-woo Ha), an accomplished con artist, to swindle the fortune of a wealthy Japanese Princess, Lady Hideko (Min-hee Kim).
Posing as the Princess’s handmaiden, Sook-hee moves into Hideko’s massive colonial estate, but after meeting Hideko’s strict and perverted uncle (Jin-woong Jo), who forces his niece to read erotic literature to a small group of wealthy men, Sook-hee’s feelings toward Hideko evolve. The two grow closer in unexpected ways, reaching an intense and at times jaw-dropping level of intimacy—and yet, all is not what it seems. Teeming with erotica, violence, double-crossing and perversion, The Handmaiden is a taut thriller underpinned by a message of love.
Paste found Park Chan-wook at this year’s Fantastic Fest to discuss his filmmaking, working methods and the cultural impact the film has had so far.
Paste Magazine: What drives you to make these kinds of big films?
Park Chan-wook: The four members of my family are my biggest drive—putting bread on the table. If not, I might have kept making films, but they would have been smaller, more personal films. Or, I might have been putting more time into my photography or on the experimental kind of work I’ve done with my younger brother.
Paste: What drew you to The Handmaiden?
Park: When it comes to this particular film, as it was with Oldboy, the producer, Syd Lim, brought the material to me. I started reading, and when I got to the first love scene between the two central characters, Susan and Maud in Fingersmith (Sook-hee and Hideko in the film), they’re in bed together and Hideko is asking, “What do men want? What do you think it is that the count wants?”, and Sook-hee says, “I’m sure the count would love something like this.” This sort of [dynamic] between them where they are hiding their true feelings, the love they have for each other: They are hiding their sexual desires, and lying to each other. But, they’re engaged in this sort of role-playing where they are trying to enact what it would be that men would want in this situation. And I thought that was really funny.