Fantastic Fest 2016 Interview: Co-Writer/Director Park Chan-Wook on THE HANDMAIDEN

Throughout his career, filmmaker Park Chan-Wook has crafted some of the most visceral and evocative films of the last 15 years of cinema, and his latest movie, The Handmaiden, is yet another exquisitely unforgettable experience that feels like nothing we’ve seen from him before, and yet, his adaptation of Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith still has all his trademark directorial touches and wicked sense of humor firmly entrenched throughout.

While at Fantastic Fest 2016, Daily Dead was honored to participate in the press day for The Handmaiden, where we heard more from Park about his approaches to the film’s sublimely nuanced storytelling, his thoughts on the response to The Handmaiden thus far, why it was important at this point in his career to do a film that was very much about celebrating female characters, and much more.

Look for The Handmaiden in theaters on October 21st courtesy of Magnolia Pictures and Amazon Studios.

One of the things I enjoyed the most about The Handmaiden is the way you use perspective and point of view through the whole thing. I noticed there are many shots in the film where sometimes we're seeing things from the character's exact point of view, where the camera acts as the character's eyes. I'm wondering when you made those choices, why you decided to go, in certain scenes, through those characters' eyes, and how that changes from one chapter to the next, since there are three very distinct chapters in this film?

Park Chan-Wook: With this film, the first and second chapters especially, takes place through the eyes of certain characters, the first chapter being the eyes of Sook-hee, and [in the] second chapter, we see the story through Hideko's eyes. When it comes to chapter three, the story mostly shows what happens to the count and Uncle Kouzuki. It's difficult to say that the story progresses in a certain character's perspective, or point of view.

Because the first two chapters are seen through [the] subjective perspectives of these two characters, as you noticed, these chapters are clearly intended to be shown as such, and that's why I've used a lot of close-ups of the eyes watching something. Also, I've employed exact point-of-view shots where the cameras would act as those characters' eyes, and we're seeing the story through those characters' eyes. When these POVs are shot, it's shot with [a] handheld camera, so that I could give it the sense, as a natural sense, there's a subtle shake to the camera, as if it's affected by your breathing, and so on.

Oldboy has been a film that has had such a huge response across the world for many years now. What's been the most interesting or surprising response to you about The Handmaiden so far?

Park Chan-Wook: In Korea, I was really worried about this anti-homosexual sentiment, but when it actually opened, the Korean audience didn't really react negatively to that, and that was a surprise. For non-Korean speaking audiences, I was worried that there were too many subtitles to contend with. Not only that, it's color-coded into Japanese and Korean, where you have a lot to track, so much so, I was worried the audience would lose the sight of the pictures, and only focus on reading. It wasn't that [case], that's what surprised me, in that the audience reaction, has been [that they] clearly they saw the performances, they saw the images, which surprised me.

To sum up, I am surprised, because those things that I was worried about didn't actually happen, but now it's the Japanese release that is a big question mark, because in this film, the Japanese character, Hideko, is depicted as being, she's obviously the good guy, whereas Kouzuki, the Korean, is the bad guy, the villain.

This Korean, who is a big Japanese sympathizer, he holds everything Japanese up on a pedestal. In that sense, I'm worried what the Japanese audience’s reaction's going to be. Also, the actors have gone through extensive training to practice their dialogue in Japanese, but I'm not sure how the Japanese would react to that. If we keep this trend up, and I might get surprised by the Japanese audience reaction, in that what I'm worried about [what] does not become a reality. Whether that's going to be the case, it remains to be seen.

The Handmaiden reminded me a lot of ’50s Gothic melodramas like Gaslight and Rebecca, and even ’70s erotic cinema. Were there any big cinematic influences that you brought into the film that inspired you, or that you wanted to showcase?

Park Chan-Wook: Not necessarily Rebecca, but I was thinking of Jane Eyre more so, when the young girl arrives at the big mansion. As to the ’70s erotica, it's been brought up by another film critic in America, but in those cases, I know the kinds of films that the film critic was thinking about, when that comparison was made. Honestly, nothing really comes to mind, because I wasn't thinking about that. As to any other influences, I just made the film, rather than think about those things too much.

What initially spoke to you about Sarah Waters' novel The Fingersmith, and how did you go about interpreting a novel that's set in Victorian England for Korea under Japanese Colonial rule?

Park Chan-Wook: The things that spoke to me, things that I found myself drawn to, were as I was reading, it was the scene with Sook-hee filing down Hideko’s tooth with a thimble, because there’s an intimacy there. That was exquisite, and also the first bed scene between the two characters, when they essentially, under the pretense that this is an educational exercise—what do men want? I don't know, maybe this is what they want, and they are both lying to each other about the true feelings, how they are in love with each other, and their sexual desire for each other. They actually know, they can see through the lie, but yet they keep up this pretense, where they’re in a role-play situation almost. That was really interesting.

Also, this idea in that role-play, what's fascinating is these two women were attracted to each other, staging a role-play situation, where one of them pretends they are the opposite sex, [which] was fascinating. The structure of where, in part one, the story's seen through one character's eyes, in part two, the same story gets told, but this time through the other character's eyes, and it reveals other bits of information we weren't privy to before, and it changes our own perspective of the stories, [it’s] awfully fascinating. Above all else, the twist at the end of part one was something else I loved about the book.

The Handmaiden is very unquestionably funny, and I feel like the humor translates very well for American audiences. Did [your] experience working on Stoker, and perhaps studying American film, help in constructing the humor that we see in this film?

Park Chan-Wook: I don't really think so, because I actually pay careful attention to that sort of thing—infusing humor into my films—because that's how important I think humor is. In my creative films, if there was something, some humorous moment that is lost to a non-Korean speaking audience, I'll be very sad. I tend not to use the humor which would only apply to Koreans, or which would only affect the Koreans, as much as I can.

That is why I hope, or I think in my previous films as well, humor has been conveyed [to the] US audience, but it just so happens that in The Handmaiden, there are more humorous moments in it. If you are watching my films and wondering, am I missing humorous speak because I'm not Korean? Am I missing out? You don't have to worry, because you're only missing probably about a few cents worth out of your ticket price.

First of all, you've always done a really beautiful job with female characters in all of your movies, but I loved, with The Handmaiden, the dynamic between Sook-hee and Hideko. It's really compelling to see them come out of the male gaze that was prevalent at that time in history. Can you talk a little bit about developing those characters and then taking them on this wonderfully twisted journey that they share together in this film?

Park Chan-Wook: Before The Handmaiden, I have been making many films that are very masculine, and in Oldboy, the only real, or significant, female character is the daughter, but the film finishes without the daughter ever finding out the truth. Now, it's a narrative necessity that dictated she should not find out the truth, but nevertheless, it always got me that this character never finds out about the truth.

She is excluded from the truth, and that is why I decided that, "Okay, in my next film, I'll make a movie with a female protagonist." As I was making Lady Vengeance, I got into it, casting all these beautiful actresses, and telling a story that you don't seldom see, you don't often see in mass media, or your average commercial, feature-length films, where these female characters, empowered women, reveal their desires, whether it's a good thing they're doing or a bad behavior they engaged in, they're doing it because they want to do it. I got a kick out of seeing these women beating men, kicking them, and putting them through hell.

Is there a particular genre that you feel that [you] would like to tackle in the future?

Park Chan-Wook: Yes, the reason why I always wanted to make an American film was because of the Western genre. It is something that I would very much like to make in the future, because it's very uniquely American, and I can't make a Western film in Korean.

Also, I've grown up watching a lot of Western genre films on TV, and America is not just a country, but it's one of the most important countries in the world, and examining the process of how this nation came to be, it's an important thing, even for outsiders. I have a big desire to make films like those, that were made by great directors like Anthony Mann and Robert Aldrich.