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Hajime Isayama's "Attack on Titan" is one of the most popular anime/manga ever; its cultural impact is like a rumbling heard across the entire world. Well, almost the entire world.

In 2015, "Attack On Titan" was banned in China by the Chinese Ministry of Culture, along with other violent manga such as "Death Note" and "Claymore." The ministry was banning series that "include scenes of violence, pornography, terrorism, and crimes against public morality." "Attack on Titan" absolutely fits that bill.

The series is set in a post-apocalyptic world where most of humanity has been devoured by giants called Titans — resembling naked, ravenous, dead-eyed 20-foot-tall humans. "Attack on Titan" follows a young boy named Eren Yeager as he learns to fight the Titans with his friends. It's a violent series where no character is safe; Titans are disemboweled and humans are devoured in at least every other chapter.

"Attack on Titan...

As we are now officially in June, BritBox has announced their slate of new programming arriving this month. From beloved, returning police dramas to new series premiering for the first time. We have the complete list and have selected three of the most exciting titles landing on the service during the month.

In the United States, BritBox has just one subscription price. American Anglophiles can sign up for the service for just $8.99 per month. Not only will they have access to all of the new titles every month, but they will also get an incredible library of iconic series like, “Sherlock,” “Luther,” “Vera,” “Father Brown,” “Death in Paradise,” and more.

7-Day Free Trial $8.99+ / month BritBox.com What are the 3 Best Shows, Movies, and Specials Coming to BritBox in June 2024? “Changing Ends” | Thursday, June 6

Chatty Man himself Alan Carr stars in the semi-autobiographical sitcom that focuses on the comedian’s upbringing...

Always one to juggle a handful of projects in development, as Todd Haynes’ delightfully entertaining drama May December finally arrives in theaters this week, the director has been sharing updates on what he’s working on. While it seems like his Joaquin Phoenix-led 1930s-set gay drama is next on the docket, the director has revealed another project he’s working on.

Speaking to Indiewire, Haynes revealed he’s developing an adaptation of Sarah Waters’ 2014 novel The Paying Guests. “It’s a three-part limited series that would need to be a British production, but it’s a really great novel.” Set in post-wwi London, the drama is part lesbian love story and part murder mystery following a down-and-out widow and her daughter, the latter taking up a relationship with one of their lodgers. Waters also wrote Fingersmith, which was adapted into The Handmaiden by Park Chan-wook. Meanwhile, Haynes also confirmed...

Locked In is a mystery thriller film directed by Alex Baranowski, from a screenplay by Rowan Joffé. The Netflix film revolves around Lina, an unhappy newlywed woman who has a hostile relationship with her mother-in-law Katherine. An affair starts a chain reaction that ends up in betrayal and murder. Locked In stars Famke Janssen, Rose Williams, Anna Friel, Finn Cole, and Alex Hassell. So, if you loved the Netflix film here are some similar movies you could watch next.

Gone Girl (Max & Prime Video Add-On) Credit – 20th Century Fox

Synopsis: Gone Girl, directed by David Fincher and based upon the global bestseller by Gillian Flynn, unearths the secrets at the heart of a modern marriage. On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports that his beautiful wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick’s...

Seven Kings Must Die concludes the story of Uhtred Ragnarsson, a decades-long frenemy of the English crown since the days of King Alfred the Great. It’s largely adapted from Bernard Cornwell’s final instalment in his Saxon Stories books, War Lord, along with elements of the two previous novels, and tracks the contested succession to the royal throne following the death of King Edward.

A significant time jump has taken place since the final moments of The Last Kingdom season five, during which Aelswith, Hild and Eadith have all passed or moved away. A core of male characters remains though, including Uhtred, Finan, Sihtric, Father Pyrlig and Aldhelm. They’re joined by brand new characters, as below.

Laurie Davidson as Ingilmundr

The biggest addition to The Last Kingdom’s regular cast is Aethelstan’s new trusted advisor, Ingilmundr, a Danish-born Christian who shows a powerful influence over King Edward’s successor.

The nameless amphibian-man (Doug Jones) may be the most recognizable part of "The Shape of Water," but it's his human lover Elisa (Sally Hawkins) who's the movie's protagonist. Hawkins' performance is stirring. Since Elisa is mute, Hawkins never says a word (barring an imagined musical number). She instead lets her actions and expressions speak for her, resulting in a performance even more emotive than if Elisa spoke dialogue aloud.

Director Guillermo del Toro knew ahead of time that Hawkins could deliver the performance he wanted; he's been a fan of hers since the 2005 BBC miniseries, "Fingersmith." In an interview with Gold Derby, the director recounted:

"[Hawkins' character] fell in love with another woman and they had a beautiful affair and I thought the way she did it was so natural, there was no wink-wink, no titillation. So I wrote it for her, speechless, mute, because to me, love renders you speechless."

Del Toro,...

Move Mountains Productions have released the official trailer for new film The Sun Also Rises, due for release in Summer. The Sun Also Rises is the directorial debut of a full-length film by Roland Manookian and is produced by Shane McCormick, Tom Gordon (Good Shout film collective founder), Josh Witcher and Franky Lankester (Ron Hopper’s Misfortune).

The film focuses on Raye (Gina Jones), a woman trapped in an abusive relationship. The film charts her struggle to survive, her journey to escape, and how the cycle of violence affects everyone who comes into contact with it.

The Sun Also Rises is a beautiful film with an ultimately positive message of redemption; it pays homage to the strength of the human spirit. The film draws inspiration from the Ernest Hemmingway book Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises, portraying Raye’s journey through the lens of a metaphorical bull run. Producer Shane McCormick...

Park Chan-wook was last in Cannes in 2016 with The Handmaiden, a sumptuous and erotically charged film based on the popular Sarah Waters novel Fingersmith. This year he’s back on the Croisette with Decision to Leave, which again deals with crime, subterfuge and passion. If you thought The Handmaiden was convoluted, wait until you see this film.

Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) is a detective in Busan. He is honest to a fault, happily married and highly respected: these are the holy trinity of attributes that need to be crushed during the course of this contemporary noir. Handily for the plot to be able to thicken, Hae-joon’s wife (Lee Jung-hyun) lives up in Ipo, the couple constantly analysing the statistics for long-distance relationships and working out ways to keep their marriage going. Hae-joon refuses to leave Busan for he craves the cases the big city offers.

When a man is found...

Bridgerton season one arrived on December the 25th 2020 like a highly decorated Christmas gift. Unwrapped, it was a perfect confection of untaxing indulgence, romance and escapism. It told the story of Daphne and Simon, a debutante beauty and an emotionally repressed Duke who teamed up to get everybody off their backs, and who ended up getting on their own backs, and fronts, and sides, and – if I remember this correctly – halfway up the stairs and possibly at one point, a ladder? It was all a marvellous distraction from the real world, with excellent casting that threw open the fusty, cobwebbed door of racially homogeneous period drama to revitalise an over-familiar world.

Now it’s back for season two, with a new romantic plot-line and a bunch of new characters. Here’s who we’ll be meeting across the eight episodes, plus the major returning cast being welcomed back.

Simone Ashley...

Park Chan-wook’s return to S. Korea from Hollywood, where he directed “Stoker”, also signaled his return to masterpieces, with “The Handmaiden” reaching the standards of his best films, like “Oldboy”. His passage from Hollywood did not have the same success his previous works had; however, Park seems to have implemented the aesthetics usually associated with American films in “The Handmaiden.” In the process, he has created a completely new amalgam, which seems to have taken the best from his unique style and Hollywood aesthetics, particularly regarding maximalism in terms of image and dialogue. The outcome is magnificent, a truly impressive film in all aspects. The awards it has already received from festivals and competitions all around the world is a testament to the fact.

Please take caution, before reading, because the list contains many spoilers.

The script is based on the novel “Fingersmith” by Sarah Waters...

Photo: 'The Handmaiden'/Cj Entertainment Warning: this article contains spoilers for ‘The Handmaiden’. ‘The Handmaiden’ (2016) is a film that seems to defy categorization. Part long con, part high society, part erotica, part psychological thriller, Park Chan-wook’s critically acclaimed film is a masterwork of storytelling. With decadent costumes and sets, phenomenal acting, and a plot as twisting as the mazelike estate where it takes place, there is much to admire in the filmmaking of director and co-scriptwriter Park. Adapted from Welsh novelist Sarah Waters’s Victorian crime-romance Fingersmith, ‘The Handmaiden’ reimagines the story in Korea under Japanese colonial rule. Told in three parts, each section of the film portrays a vital shift in perspective, changing how the audience understands the characters, their motivations, and the story as a whole. We’ll examine how the shifts in perspective enrich our understanding of the characters while masterfully directing, and misdirecting, the audience.

Hong Sang-soo’s nuanced, low-key film could be a criticism of Korean sexual politics, or just a series of different meetings

The cinema of Korean director Hong Sang-soo is seductively low-key and lo-fi, and his latest is a movie-novella in three encounters. It’s so downbeat, so matter-of-fact, that the registers and nuances are almost beneath the radar of what generally constitutes filmic effect. This really is just people talking, and though they sometimes raise their voices, get angry, embarrassed, or upset, a keynote of polite calm soon reasserts itself. Hong’s camera sedately records each exchange from an undramatic distance, sometimes zooming in for something closer midway through the conversation, but not for any pointed reason. Watching this film means recalibrating your expectations so you can gauge the subtleties and absorb the sotto voce implications about relationships and sexual politics. Pretty much all the way through, nothing very sensational seems to be happening.

Whether a curse or a blessing, “May you live in interesting times” certainly applies to the Lgbtq community — the past decade saw the legalization of same-sex marriages and the end of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, but every advancement has been met with pushback and threats to overturn equal protections under the law. Trans characters got their largest public spotlight on television shows like “Pose” and “Transparent,” while at the same time they remain the targets of violence and of hysterical and reactionary lawmakers. Whatever triumphs and travails the community faced in day-to-day life, their lives and loves continued to be reflected on the big screen; here are some of the decade’s greatest examples, listed alphabetically.

Runners-Up: “1985,” “Appropriate Behavior,” “Booksmart,” “Bpm,” “Cola de Mono,” “Drunktown’s Finest,” “Kiki,” “Love, Simon,” “Paris 05:59 Théo & Hugo,” “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”

“Call Me By Your...

Bong Joon-ho’s bizarre black comedy about a rich Korean family and a poor one in a modern-day Downton Abbey situation gets its tendrils in you

Bong Joon-ho has returned to Cannes with a luxuriously watchable and satirical suspense drama. It runs as purringly smooth as the Mercedes driven by the lead character, played by Korean star Song Kang-ho. Parasite is a bizarre black comedy about social status, aspiration, materialism and the patriarchal family unit, and people who accept the idea of having (or leasing) a servant class.

Parasite is about a wealthy Korean family in a modern-day Downton Abbey upstairs-downstairs situation, one far more unstable than the patrician caste realises. The film could perhaps be a bit more lean and mean, and deliver its jeopardy and payoff with more despatch. But it is an enjoyable, elegant, scabrous movie about a mix of servitude and trickery that is an interesting theme in Korean cinema.

The BBC-produced “The Woman in White,” premiering on PBS’ “Masterpiece,” turns the oft-adapted Wilkie Collins novel into a five-hour miniseries and creates the most feminist version to date. Set in Victorian England, the gothic tale examines the twisted circumstances surrounding the arranged marriage between young heiress Laura Fairlie (Olivia Vinall) and the much older Sir Percival Glyde (Dougray Scott). She and her half-sister Marian Halcombe (Jessie Buckley) become embroiled in a grand conspiracy that also involves a mentally ill woman dressed in white. Despite its period setting, the dangerous consequences of gender inequality make this story disturbingly relevant.

The update comes from writer Fiona Seres, who reteams with “Masterpiece” after adapting “The Lady Vanishes” in 2013 from the Ethel Lina White novel that also produced Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1938 film. Like that project, “The Woman in White” explores the frustrations of a society that doesn’t listen to women or believe in their peril.

“The first time I saw Hundreds Hall was July 1919. Nothing could’ve prepared me for the spell it cast when I saw the house again thirty years later.”

These chilling opening lines set the mysterious tone in the first trailer for their newest gothic horror picture The Little Stranger. Eerily speaking here is Dr. Faraday (played by Domhnall Gleeson) who, after being called to treat a patient, must return to Hundreds Hall – the supposed haunted house of this haunted house tale. Dr. Faraday soon meets the inhabitants of the manor and is quickly thrown into a terrifying descent as the family’s dark secrets reveal themselves.

The Little Stranger is directed by Academy Award-nominated Lenny Abrahamson (Room) and is scripted by BAFTA-nominated Lucinda Coxon (The Danish Girl). Coxon’s screenplay is adapted from Sarah Waters’ novel of the same title. Waters is recently known for her novel Fingersmith, which was...

British actress Michelle Dockery, who receives the Variety Icon Award at TV drama festival Canneseries in Cannes, Southern France on Saturday, spoke at a masterclass earlier in the day about her career and roles in TV series like “Downton Abbey,” “Good Behavior” and “Godless.”

Dockery said that even when she was a child she was a performer – impersonating politicians and other famous people for her parents’ amusement. Her training at Guildhall drama school gave her a classical training best suited to a career on the stage. It also ingrained in her the idea that she should see herself as part of an ensemble, she said.

When she was “stressing out” about whether she was “intelligent” or “educated” enough to be an actor she was reassured by her acting teacher that acting is “more about instincts and intuition than anything – it doesn’t matter how many books you have read or...

Director Park Chan-wook’s acclaimed film ‘The Handmaiden‘ has been nominated for best non-English film award at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). This February the film will be competing with five other non-English movies for the award.

Based on the intriguing lesbian crime novel “Fingersmith”, the film has already been nominated for award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016 and has won awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) the same year.

The erotic psychological thriller stars Kim Min-hee and Kim Tae-Ri in it’s main roles and is set in Korea under colonial Japanese rule with the actors speaking both languages. Be sure to catch the film if you haven’t already!

Source: KoreaHerald...

Continuing our countdown of the year’s finest films, Peter Bradshaw praises Park Chan-wook’s dazzling film about a lesbian love affair in 1930s Korea

See the Us cut of this listSee the rest of the UK countdownMore on the best culture of 2017

Sarah Waters’s novel Fingersmith has had a lavish, almost operatically spectacular adaptation by the Korean auteur Park Chan-wook, which isolates and intensifies the keynote of eroticism. The sexuality drenches the superbly designed fixtures, fittings and fabrics of this film and perfumes the intoxicating air that all the characters breathe.

This is, arguably, disproportionate to the more nuanced effect intended and achieved by Waters, but it makes for a luxurious movie, and Park handles with aplomb the story’s whiplash narrative twist and resulting Pov shift.

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Cannibalism in France, a latterday Our Gang in Florida, three women in Tel Aviv, and – at last! – a Blade Runner sequel are among the year’s must-sees

• Observer critics’ reviews of the year in full

To get a sense of how many great movies played UK cinemas in 2017, just look at some of the outstanding titles that didn’t make my top 10 list. From Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden (brilliantly adapted from Sarah Waters’s novel Fingersmith) to Anocha Suwichakornpong’s dazzling By the Time It Gets Dark, Paul Verhoeven’s Elle (featuring an Oscar-nominated Isabelle Huppert) and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Aquarius (with Sônia Braga in breathtaking form), there was a dizzying array of delights on offer. Even so-called mainstream cinema seemed particularly adventurous this year, ranging from Patty Jenkins’s rip-roaring Wonder Woman to Christopher Nolan’s overwhelming Dunkirk, Kathryn Bigelow’s gripping Detroit, Edgar Wright’s pulse-racing...

Sally Hawkins was writing a story about, of all things, a mermaid. That's when the call came in.

New project. Guillermo del Toro. Vague premise. Might not happen. But he has you in mind.

The film that the 53-year-old Mexican director, best known for outrageous, ornate fantasies like 2006's Pan's Labyrinth, was working on was titled The Shape of Water. And oddly enough, like Hawkins' tale, this project also revolved around an underwater creature: a merman cryptically referred to as "the Asset," who's been captured by the U.S. military...

Park Chan-wook isn’t done adapting English novels. After bringing Sarah Waters’ “Fingersmith” to the silver screen in the form of last year’s masterful “The Handmaiden,” the Korean auteur is now set to direct a six-part adaptation of John le Carré’s “The Little Drummer Girl” starring Florence Pugh.

Read More:‘Lady Macbeth’ Review: Florence Pugh Is a Persecuted Woman Who Takes Control In Powerful Dark Drama

The news comes courtesy of the Daily Mail’s Baz Bamigboye, who adds that the BBC TV project begins shooting next year. Pugh has won acclaim for her lead performance in William Oldroyd’s “Lady Macbeth,” itself a literary adaptation; she’ll next appear opposite Liam Neeson in “The Commuter.” Le Carré’s novels have been adapted for the screen more than a dozen times, including the films “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” “The Constant Gardener,” and “A Most Wanted Man.”

Read More:...

Stars: Tae-ri Kim, Min-hee Kim, Ha Jung-woo, Cho Jin-woong | Written by Chung Seo-kyung, Park Chan-wook | Directed by Park Chan-wook

Based on Sarah Waters’ 2002 novel, Fingersmith, Park Chan-wook’s first feature since 2013’s Stoker is a ravishing feminist fable, full of fantastically cruel twists. It’s sensual, funny, nasty, brilliantly acted, beautifully shot and exquisitely edited.

The setting is 1930s colonial Korea, slap bang in the middle of Japanese rule. Nam Sook-hee (Tae-ri Kim), a young pickpocket, is approached by smooth conman “Count Fujiwara” (Ha Jung-woo), who intends to swindle money from a wealthy Korean aristocrat known as Uncle Kouzuki (Cho Jin-woong). The plan is for Fujiwara to seduce Kouzuki’s niece, Izumi Hideko (Min-hee Kim), and steal away with her uncle’s cash. Sook-hee will act as Hideko’s handmaiden, and help manipulate Hideko into Fujiwara’s arms.

But then an intimate relationship blooms between Hideko and Sook-hee. It seems...

Carnal pleasures and clever plotting combine in Park Chan-wook’s thrilling The Handmaiden, while Scarlett Johansson is a woman of steel

Eastern and western identities cross over to striking effect in two of this week’s major DVD releases. Where the English-language, Scarlett Johansson-led Ghost in the Shell (Paramount, 12) took flak in many quarters for “whitewashing” a beloved Japanese manga, South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook’s mischievous The Handmaiden (Curzon Artificial Eye, 18) balances the scales a little by giving a radiant Asian makeover to the brittle Victorian mystique of Sarah Waters’s Fingersmith.

As adaptations go, Park’s is far the more fearlessly individual. The slinky mechanics of Waters’s uncorseted mystery survive intact, but relocating the action to Japanese-occupied 1930s Korea adds tissue-fine layers of political and erotic complexity to an already ornately knotted mystery. Even at their most hot and heavy, the novel’s deviously entwined lesbian...

Author: Competitions

To mark the release of The Handmaiden on 7th August, we’ve got 3 copies to give away on special edition Blu-ray.

With help from an orphaned pickpocket (Kim Tae-ri), a Korean con man (Ha Jung-woo) devises an elaborate plot to seduce and bilk a Japanese woman (Kim Min-hee) out of her inheritance. From celebrated director Park Chan-wook comes a ravishing crime drama inspired by the novel Fingersmith from celebrated British Author Sarah Waters.

Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Small Print

Open to UK residents only The competition will close 14th August 2017 at 23.59 GMT The winner will be picked at random from entries received No cash alternative is available

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

The post Win The Handmaiden on Special Edition Blu-ray appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Narrowing down the 15 best movies in any genre is tough, but for lesbian films you have to begin with a reductive question: What is a lesbian film? What, in fact, is a lesbian? (But that’s a different piece). Must the film focus primarily on a gay storyline, or can it feature strong lesbian characters doing something entirely different than just being lesbians? Is subtext enough? How much cinephile wrath will rain down on us for the absence of a certain recent Oscar nominee?

Ultimately, the best lesbian films honor the traditions of queer cinema in all of its glory: Strong women, high entertainment value, and bold visuals reign supreme. Too often, lesbian characters are either unattractive man-haters or used for titillation. These movies reclaim all of that; they’re the movies you will see played on a loop in the club, or at an underground rooftop movie night. Some...

Park Chan-wook refashions Sarah Waters’s Fingersmith into a perverse psychodrama that wrongfoots you at every turn

There are giddy pleasures to be found in this rip-roaringly ripe erotic thriller/melodrama from Oldboy director Park Chan-wook. Inspired by Sarah Waters’s 2002 novel Fingersmith, The Handmaiden is a playfully provocative tale of seduction, desire and deceit. Slyly undermining stereotypes of fall guys and femmes fatales (this is more Bound than Basic Instinct), Park’s film takes great delight in wrong-footing its audience, peeling away layers of mesmerising misdirection with delicious cinematic sleight of hand. As the serpentine narrative spirals back and forth upon itself, we witness the same events from multiple perspectives, each one more revealing than the last.

In Waters’s novel (adapted as a BBC mini-series in 2005), an accomplished pickpocket is plucked from a Dickensian den to work in an upmarket home where she plays a key role in...

MaryAnn’s quick take… The intrigue, shifting alliances, and twisted revenge? Delicious, pulpy fun. The male-gazey soft-core porn that undermines the female protagonists? Not so much. I’m “biast” (pro): I’m desperate for stories about women

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

I have not read the source material

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

In Japanese-occupied 1930s Korea, a Korean con man (Jung-woo Ha) and a Korean pickpocket (Tae-ri Kim) conspire to steal the fortune of sheltered Japanese heiress Lady Hideko (Min-hee Kim). He will pose as “Count Fujiwara” and woo Hideko, while thief Sook-Hee will become Hideko’s shy new maid “Tamako” and convince the lady to run off with the handsome and romantic count instead of marrying her hideous widowed uncle-by-marriage Kouzuki (Jin-woong Jo), who of course is (also) only after his niece’s money. The plan is, after “Fujiwara” and Hideko are wed,...

From Park Chan-wook, the celebrated director of Oldboy, Lady Vengeance, Thirst and Stoker, comes a ravishing new crime drama inspired by the novel ‘Fingersmith’ by British author Sarah Waters.

Having transposed the story to 1930s-era colonial Korea and Japan, Park presents a gripping and sensual tale of a young Japanese Lady living on a secluded estate, and a Korean woman who is hired to serve as her new handmaiden, but who is secretly involved in a conman’s plot to defraud her of her large inheritance.

Powered by remarkable performances from Kim Min-hee (Right Now, Wrong Then) as Lady Hideko, Ha Jung-woo (The Chaser) as the conman who calls himself the Count and sensational debut actress Kim Tae-ri as the maid Sookee, The Handmaiden borrows the most dynamic elements of its source material and combines it with Park Chan-wook’s singular vision and energy to create an unforgettable viewing experience.

Director Park Chan-wook's (Oldboy, 2003) The Handmaiden is releasing on Amazon Prime, today. The film is a bit of a genre bender, with elements of mystery, erotica and crime drama appearing. Shot in Korean and the Japanese language, the film is being offered, exclusively on Amazon Prime, with English subtitles. Kim Min-hee, Ha Jung-woo, Kim Tae-ri and Cho Jin-woong star in this feature. Based on Sarah Waters' novel Fingersmith, the film involves a conspiracy to rob a woman of her large inheritance, through any means necessary. A trailer and release details, for The Handmaiden, are hosted here. For more on the story, a Japanese lady lives in a secluded estate. A Korean woman is hired as a handmaiden, on this estate. Sookee (Tae-ri Kim) is working with a local conman, Count Fujiwara (Ha Jung-woo), to strip Lady Hideko of her wealth. But, Lady Hideko has plans of her own.

Park Chan-wook’s adaptation of Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith, relocated to 1930s Korea, is an erotic triumph – with a whiplash twist

With his erotic classic In the Realm of the Senses from 1976, the Japanese director Nagisa Oshima achieved the distinction of popularising auto-erotic strangling in the Us. Will Korean film-maker Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden be able to claim anything comparable? This film’s addictive and outrageous sexiness might just create an international fad for filing down your lover’s crooked tooth in the bath with the finely serrated surface of a thimble. It’s a quasi blowjob scene that sounds bizarre in print. On screen, it was so extraordinary that I almost forgot to breathe.

Related: The Handmaiden: the return of erotic cinema

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Ryan Lambie Apr 14, 2017

Eminent director Park Chan-wook talks to us about the themes in his new film, The Handmaiden, and lots and more...

One day, science will finally deliver us the electronic equivalent of a Babel fish: a little device you can put in your ear that will interpret and translate your words as they're spoken. That way, people from opposing planet will be able to hold fluid conversations despite speaking completely different languages.

See related  Celebrating Deadwood Timothy Olyphant interview: Justified, Deadwood & more...

This sprang to mind as we sat down with Park Chan-wook, the Korean director of films as Oldboy, Stoker and I'm A Cyborg, But That's Ok. Despite the stunning mental agility of a translator, who renders my mumblings in to Korean and Director Park's responses into English, the back-and-forth is painfully slow. All of this explains why the interview below, despite lasting 20 minutes, only contains a...

Oldboy director Park Chan-wook returns with The Handmaiden - an erotic thriller that is downright unmissable...

There’s a lush, operatic quality to Park Chan-wook’s movies, whether they’re dealing with vampires (2009's Thirst) or bitter tales of revenge (Sympathy For Mr Vengeance, Oldboy). The director brings his unwavering eye for minute detail to The Handmaiden, a deliciously lurid thriller which takes Sarah Waters' British novel, Fingersmith, and moves it to 1940s Korea.

See related Kingsman: The Golden Circle adds Vinnie Jones

At first, it looks as though we’re in for an intimate little chamber piece about a demure handmaiden, her wealthy young Japanese mistress and the latter’s suitor, a handsome nobleman who teaches her how to draw and paint. A passionate love triangle develops between them; Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee) and Count Fujiwara (Ha Jung-woo) are engaged to marry, yet a frisson of sexual chemistry...

Author: Stefan Pape

Renowned primarily for his contemporary classic Oldboy, Park Chan-wook has just crafted one of his very best yet, with the sumptuous, electric thriller The Handmaiden. When the film played at the London Film Festival we were fortunate enough to be granted some time with this ingenious auteur, to discuss this indelible piece of cinema, which owes a lot to the success of the filmmaker’s seminal piece – which helped establish South Korea as a shining light in world cinema.

Sat down next to his translator, Park took a somewhat more modest view, claiming it’s the work of other directors from his homeland which have allowed for the industry to flourish, and see budgets for films such as The Handmaiden now be available to filmmakers.

“I may have been somewhat responsible for Korean films being discovered outside of Korea, but in terms of filmmakers who impacted the...

Waters’ hit novel Fingersmith, about a lesbian love affair in Victorian England, has been transported to 1930s Korea for a new film. The author explains how it remains faithful to her original

“‘You pearl,’ I said. So white she was.” With these words, Sarah Waters confirmed the arrival of a world-class writer capable of turning conventional literary erotics upside-down and inside-out. The dialogue is uttered in a scene of lesbian lovemaking that has been cited by both male and female, gay and heterosexual commentators as one of the sexiest encounters in literature.

Waters’ first two novels, Tipping the Velvet and Affinity, had signalled a powerful new voice in lesbian fiction, but Fingersmith took it to a new level, its kaleidoscopic prose and structure creating a dizzying variety of desires and perspectives. Shortlisted for the Booker prize, it was one of David Bowie’s 100 must-read novels and has had a lusty afterlife in theatre and TV.

Sony Pictures Classics has released a new trailer for its upcoming biopic “Maudie.” The film, which is based on the real-life story of Canadian artist Maud Lewis, hails from director Aisling Walsh (“Fingersmith”). It screened at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals last year, and is now ready for its theatrical release this summer.

Read More: Telluride Review: ‘Maudie’ Is A Paint By Numbers Love Story

Written by Sherry White, “Maudie” takes place in Nova Scotia around the 1930s. It follows an artist (Sally Hawkins) who works as a housekeeper for an orphaned fish peddler (Ethan Hawke), all the while working on her real passion–, painting. Eventually, she becomes one of the most beloved folk artists in her community.

Read More: 50 Movies to See This Summer

Hawkins was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 2014 for her role in Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine.” In 2009, she won a Golden Globe for “Happy-Go-Lucky.

Eroticism has long been a dirty word in film. But a new thriller about a clandestine affair between two women in 1930s Korea returns the genre to its transgressive roots.

Is eroticism fashionable in the cinema again? Is it valid to admit wanting it in the darkness of the auditorium – like fear at a horror film, or happiness at a romcom, or sadness at a weepie?

The question arises from Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden, which is out next month. Intricate, intimate, gorgeously detailed and bejewelled, it is the Korean director’s brilliant version of the novel Fingersmith by British author Sarah Waters, with the setting changed from Victorian London to 1930s Korea under Japanese colonial rule.

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A new trailer and Ireland and UK release date have been released for Park Chan Wook's 'The Handmaiden.'   Directed by Park Chan Wook it stars Kim Min-hee, Hideko Kim Tae-ri, Ha Jung-woo, Cho Jin-woong, Kim Hae-sook, and Moon So-ri.

A ravishing new crime drama inspired by the novel 'Fingersmith' by British author Sarah Waters. Having transposed the story to 1930s-era colonial Korea and Japan, Park presents a gripping and sensual tale of a young Japanese Lady living on a secluded estate, and a Korean woman who is hired to serve as her new handmaiden, but who is secretly involved in a conman's plot to defraud her of her large inheritance.

The film will be released in cinemas for Ireland and the UK on 14 April.

Here is some exciting news if you weren't able to see Park Chan-Wook's latest film during its many festivals runs last year: The Handmaiden is coming to Blu-ray on March 28th!

Blu-ray.com reports that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release Park Chan-Wook's The Handmaiden on Blu-ray on March 28th. No special features have been announced, but we'll keep Daily Dead readers updated on further details as they are revealed.

Synopsis: "From Park Chan-wook, the celebrated director of Oldboy, Lady Vengeance and Stoker, comes a ravishing new crime drama. Park presents a gripping and sensual tale of two women - a young Japanese Lady living on a secluded estate, and a Korean woman who is hired to serve as her new handmaiden but is secretly plotting with a conman to defraud her of a large inheritance.

Inspired by the novel Fingersmith by British author Sarah Waters, The Handmaiden...

After screening in Telluride and Toronto last fall, “Maudie” is finally ready to tell the masses about the life of Canadian artist Maud Lewis. Sally Hawkins stars in the biopic, which was directed by Aisling Walsh, who previously helmed a BBC miniseries adaptation of Sarah Waters’ “Fingersmith” (which also served as the inspiration for Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden”). Watch the trailer below.

Read More: Telluride Review: ‘Maudie’ Is A Paint By Numbers Love Story

The film takes place in Nova Scotia circa the 1930s and finds the desperate artist taking a job working for a fish peddler played by Ethan Hawke. Lewis, one of her country’s most highly regarded folk artists, specialized in small paintings depicting outdoor settings; the small size of her canvases had to do with Lewis’ rheumatoid arthritis.

Read More: Fox Searchlight Acquires ‘A United Kingdom,’ Sony Pictures Classics Picks Up ‘Maudie’

Hawkins received an...

One of the very best films of last year, Park Chan-wook‘s erotic thriller The Handmaiden, arrives on DVD this week. We’ve teamed with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to give it away five copies to our readers. All entries must be received by 11:59 Pm Est on Tuesday, January 31st.

To enter, do the first two steps and then each additional one counts as another entry into the contest.

1. Like The Film Stage on Facebook

2. Follow The Film Stage on Twitter

Follow @TheFilmStage

3. Comment in the box on Facebook with your favorite South Korean film.

4. Retweet the following tweet:

We're giving away Park Chan-wook's #TheHandmaiden on DVD! Rt this & follow us to enter. See more details: https://t.co/7H6ITBF7Gt pic.twitter.com/lHdPKeFysO

— The Film Stage...

As our countdown moves into the final fortnight, Peter Bradshaw welcomes a dazzling and sexy adaptation of Sarah Waters’s story about lesbian love

• More on the best culture of 2016

Sarah Waters’s novel Fingersmith has had a lavish and almost operatically spectacular adaptation by the Korean auteur Park Chan-wook, which isolates and intensifies the keynote of eroticism. The sexuality drenches the superbly designed fixtures, fittings and fabrics of this film and perfumes the intoxicating air that all the characters breathe.

This is, arguably, disproportionate to the more nuanced effect intended and achieved by Sarah Waters, but it makes for a luxurious movie, and Park handles with aplomb the story’s whiplash narrative twist and resulting Pov shift.

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Just based on who is telling the story, the narrative can completely change. It’s all about perspective. This becomes an important element in The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook’s new film inspired by the novel Fingersmith by British author Sarah Waters. The South Korean director’s approach to the material is important. He shows a keen understanding of what the story is essentially about while giving himself a little bit of room to inject his own interpretation of the story. The key word there is little. The Handmaiden strives to be the erotic fantasy it wants to be, but still delivers as a sumptuous exploration of storytelling.

An orphaned Korean pickpocket (Kim Tae-ri) is hired to serve as the handmaiden to a young and rich Japanese lady living on a private estate. Little does the wealthy Japanese woman know, but the new handmaiden is secretly plotting with a conman to...

When it was first announced that Park Chan-Wook would be adapting Sarah Waters‘ novel “Fingersmith,” it seemed like an odd choice for the filmmaker who generally likes to push the genre envelope. But upon seeing “The Handmaiden,” it all made sense. Revamping the story for his sensibilities, Park Chan-Wook’s film is sexy, violent, hilarious and definitely epic film, stretching out across 144 fast-moving minutes.

Continue reading Extended Edition Of Park Chan-wook’s ‘The Handmaiden’ Released In South Korea, May Hit Blu-Ray In The U.S. at The Playlist.

Following his Hollywood foray Stoker, Park Chan-wook returns to (mostly) home soil for his sumptuous and sensual adaptation of Sarah Waters' Fingersmith. Transposing the novel's setting from Victorian England to 1930s Korea and Japan, when the former was a colony of the latter, The Handmaiden is a deeply engrossing, highly sexual and at times darkly humorous tale of female sexuality brought to life in spectacular fashion. The Handmaiden begins when a conman who goes by Count Fujiwara employs the help of Sook-hee, a lowly pickpocket, to swindle a wealthy, lonely heiress. The plan is for Sook-hee to become the woman's maid and slowly convince her to marry Fujiwara so that he may elope with her and subsequently make away with her fortune. Split into three...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Park Chan-wook is not exactly unfamiliar with the con man narrative – his two most famous films in America, Oldboy and Stoker, both revolve around hidden plots the protagonists are trying to untangle. In The Handmaiden, however, he is more directly engaging with the tropes of the genre. There are plots and double-crosses and unreliable narrators and massive amounts of plot skillfully slid just out of or just into the audience’s view. The pure pleasure of watching The Handmaiden is not dissimilar from the machinations of an Oceans film or any other such heist, which indeed, in a sense, this is. There’s a loot of money that must be had and a definite plan for how to get it. What makes it a great film, beyond Park’s characteristic directorial rigor and downright strange taste, is the way he twists the heist plot into something personal, and recognizes that...

Plot: In 1930s pre-war Korea, a scheming Count hires a poor thief to work for the Japanese heiress he plans on running away with. Review: Park Chan-Wook is probably one of the greatest filmmakers working today, and he doesn't disappoint with The Handmaiden, a gorgeous, sensual adaptation of Sarah Waters' novel "Fingersmith" that is so stimulating that its 144 minute runtime feels about half that.... Read More...

The Handmaiden Amazon Studios/ Magnolia Pictures Reviewed by: Tami Smith, Film Reviewer for Shockya Grade: A Director: Park Chan-wook Written by: Seo-Kyung Chung, Chan-wook Park; Based on “Fingersmith”, a novel by Sarah Waters Cast: Ha Jung-woo, Kim Tae-ri, Kim Min-hee, Cho Jin-woong Release Date: October 21, 2016 “Things are seldom what they seem, Skim milk masquerades as cream” sings Buttercup in Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta, “H.M.S. Pinafore;” “A virtuous woman obeyed men throughout her life: in youth, she obeyed her father; when married, she obeyed her husband; if her husband died, she was subject to her son.” As per Korean Confucian standards Director Park Chan-wook and writer Seo-Kyung Chung must [ Read More ]

The post The Handmaiden Movie Review 2 appeared first on Shockya.com.

The Handmaiden (Agassi, or Young Lady) Amazon Studios/ Magnolia Pictures Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B+ Director: Park Chan-wook Written by: Chung Seo-kyung, Park Chan-wook, from Sarah Waters’ novel “Fingersmith” Cast: Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-ri, Ha Jung-woo, Cho Jin-woong, Kim Hae-sook, Moon So-ri Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 8/10/16 Opens: October 21, 2016 A Dickensian movie with the most gorgeous photography of any film this year, “The Handmaiden” is an adaptation of the Welsh writer Sarah Waters’ novel “Fingersmith” transported all the way to South Korea and Japan by Park Chan-wook. The director has quite a reputation among those who like tales of revenge and violence. His “Oldboy” focuses [ Read More ]

The post The Handmaiden Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

“The Handmaiden” is perhaps the most internationally acclaimed Korean film of the year, but domestic support for Park Chan-wook’s adaptation of Sarah Waters’ novel “Fingersmith” hasn’t been robust. Kim Jee-woon’s “The Age of Shadows” was recently chosen as the country’s official Oscar submission, and Screen Daily reports Park is among those on president Park Geun-hye’s blacklist of artists who are not to receive financial and logistical support from the government.

Read More: ‘The Age of Shadows’ Chosen as South Korea’s Oscar Submission, Upsetting ‘The Handmaiden’

Hankook Ilbo, a Korean daily newspaper, broke the news on Wednesday. The document is said to be 100 pages long and include 9,473 different artists; the main reasons for inclusion are criticizing and protesting the government’s reaction to a 2014 ferry accident that left 304 dead and supporting Moon Jae-in, who ran against Park for the presidency in 2012, and mayor Park Won-soon of Seoul.