Korean Cinema

South Korean cinema has, for a while now, enjoyed a significant international profile — its generally accepted renaissance of the past 25 years sparked by a wave of filmmakers who have pushed boundaries and often blended genres in intriguing new ways. In 2004, Park Chan-wook’s dark, moody mystery Oldboy, with its brutal action set pieces and shocking twist, went on to become a worldwide critical sensation, and solid commercial performer.

Multi Golden Globe-winner Steven Spielberg takes on a genre he has never tackled before in his long career – the musical, and at 75 he conveys an energy and enthusiasm rare to see on the screen today. Furthermore, his is not a film adaptation of just any musical.

The HFPA’s Ting Ting Xu examines Asian film trends through standout films and the authors behind them. After Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite became the first non-English language film in Oscar history to win the award for Best Picture, as well as the Foreign Language Golden Globe, films from South Korea received an unprecedented amount of attention on the global market.

Three years after his first Hollywood foray, Stoker, Park Chan–wook returns home with The Handmaiden, a filmset in 1930’s Korea, then under Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945). Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee) is a Japanese noblewoman who lives in seclusion on the grand estate of her overbearing uncle Kouzoki (Cho Jin-woong), a libidinous collector of erotic literature who likes to have his niece read pornography aloud for potential buyers.