View Poll Results: The Handmaiden

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Thread: The Handmaiden (Park Chan-Wook)

  1. #1
    Producer
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    The Handmaiden (Park Chan-Wook)

    Midnight Run (1988) - 9
    The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
    The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
    Sisters (1973) - 6.5
    Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5

  2. #2
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    Third act has a bit of too much winding-down problem, and some aspect of the sex scenes doesn't sit quite right with me, given its story of tyrannical and insidious patriarchal system (it just hits me that these two years have been an especially rich and varied cinematic ground for this theme). Otherwise though, this is as twistedly and gloriously overheated as I'd hoped. So twisty and stylish as only Park can deliver. Between this and Right Now, Wrong Then, this has also been a great year for Kim Min-Hee.
    Midnight Run (1988) - 9
    The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
    The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
    Sisters (1973) - 6.5
    Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5

  3. #3
    In the belly of a whale Henry Gale's Avatar
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    Just saw this at TIFF today and kinda sorta loved it.

    So cleverly constructed, stunning to behold visually, and just so vibrant and sumptuous with everything it has to offer in between, especially its character-interplay and how it toys and messes around with your perceptions and its themes in such consistently exciting and biting ways.

    It was also way funnier than I had any reason to think it'd be. If it weren't subtitled I'd have been missing dialogue in spots.

    The fact that Park's name doesn't tend to pop into my head when I think up a list of my favourite working directors is a form of shame that I'm consciously ending now. I mean, even putting Oldboy aside, the man has done so much excellent stuff in the past decade alone that he's easily one of the most vital helmers out there for me at this point.

    What a wild, fun, and joyous piece of work for material that ostensibly should not be that.
    Last edited by Henry Gale; 09-11-2016 at 07:04 AM.
    Last 11 things I really enjoyed:

    Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
    Safe (Haynes, 1995)
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
    Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
    Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
    What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
    Diva (Beineix, 1981)
    Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
    The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
    Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
    Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)

  4. #4
    The Pan Spinal's Avatar
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    Beautifully shot and refreshingly kinky. It was a fun balancing act, trying to decide who's a target, who's a schemer, who's naive and which actions are genuine.
    Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
    The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
    Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
    Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
    Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
    Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
    Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
    Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
    Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
    Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***

  5. #5
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    I think this is my favorite Park Chan-wook movie now. Didn't really expect that going in.

    The [
    ] seems a bit out of place and felt like an attempt to fulfill an obligatory directorial signature, though.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
    Movie Theater Diary

  6. #6
    Finally, a great con movie. Loved the twists for the most part; it was legitimately fun trying to guess who was sincere and who was faking. I was far more invested in the first two parts than I was the third, but man was the shot of the moon with bells clinging in the background a winning finale. My theater wasn't packed by any means, but everyone I saw leaving had a smile on their face. It's been a while since I saw a movie so sexually frank. The quick cuts to the "gentlemen" gasping, sweating, and re-situating their legs, etc. had me rolling.

  7. #7
    A Platypus Grouchy's Avatar
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    This was incredible. Park is a goddamn genius. He has a way of telling stories so frantic and passionate that he can indulge in as much excess as he likes, because the audience has already been won over by the time the madness begins.

    The screenplay was so expertly constructed, too. Usually, movies which withhold this much information and re-tell events from a different point of view end up feeling like cheats. Not this one.

  8. #8
    A Platypus Grouchy's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting number8 (view post)
    The [
    ] seems a bit out of place and felt like an attempt to fulfill an obligatory directorial signature, though.
    Hahah yeah this occurred to me. "This one's for the fans!"

    Regardless, it was already established that there was something fishy going on in that basement. What was really painful for me was the destruction of the library. I have a soft spot for scenes of books being abused. It's my version of the feelings of the kind of people that completely lose it when a dog dies.

  9. #9
    A Platypus Grouchy's Avatar
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    Also, vagina POV shot.

    This movie rocks.

  10. #10
    Producer Yxklyx's Avatar
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    This was really good - but I think the ending wasn't as good as the rest and it really needed that.

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