Park Chan-wook | South Korea | 2016 | 156’

Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Lady Vengeance) returns with this absorbing and erotic crime thriller set in 1930s Korea. It tells the story of Sook-hee, a young thief apparently hired to serve as handmaiden to Lady Hideko, a young Japanese heiress, but who is actually a pawn in a plot by the predatory conman Count Fujiwara to defraud the Lady. With simmering sexual tension and a luridly twisting plot, The Handmaiden is driven by remarkable performances from its two leads and sumptuous direction.