If The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook’s follow-up US-set thriller Stoker, takes the filmmaker back to his Asia roots, it still has a strong Western thread running through it. Sarah Water’s novel Fingersmith is the source material for a byzantine period thriller full of twists and turns. Watch its new international trailer below.
In case you don’t speak French and your Korean is rusty, this one is the tale of a beautiful Japanese heiress (Min-hee Kim), the young con artist (Kim Tae-ri) hired as her handmaiden, and the puppet-master behind a scheme designed to relieve her mistress of her fortune.
Waters’ book had already been adapted by the BBC in a 2005 miniseries. Park Chan-wook's version, a terrific potboiler filled with stunning visuals and elegant storytelling, shifts the setting from Victorian England to Korea under Japanese rule. It’s definitely one to mark your diary for.
The Handmaiden arrives in UK cinemas on 17 February, 2017.