South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook creates long, enigmatic films where expectations are foiled with twists and turns. His Handmaiden (2016) was a sumptuous, erotic feast. I was initially disturbed by the subjects of grooming a child and the pornography favoured by the sadistic uncle, and the lesbian sex scenes certainly lingered on the female bodies in a way that one rarely sees in depictions of male gay sex except under a gay male director. But because the subjects were those of subjugation of a woman who plans to flee and women breaking free of male hegemony, I stuck with it and found it dreamy and compelling. I was not the only one impressed - the film was nominated for the Palme D’Or at Cannes and won Best Film Not In The English Language (what a clumsy soubriquet that is) at the Academy Awards, as well as being nominated for Foreign Language Film of the Year at the London Film Critics Circle Awards. It also won a clutch of other awards worldwide, and, in a nod to its lesbian theme, it was also nominated for the Cannes queer Palm.
Chan-wook has won similar critical and commercial success for many of his other films. Oldboy (2003) won the Grand Prix prize at Cannes, and his other films and TV adaptations, such as of John le Carré’s Little Drummer Boy (2018) also met with acclaim.
Park Chan-Wook co-wrote Decision To Leave with Chung Seo-kyeong, with whom he has worked many times. It was nominated for the Palme D’Or and won the Cannes Best Director Award, and was again nominated for the Best Film Not In The English Language at the British Academy Awards. It won the Foreign Language Film of the Year at the London Film Critics’ Circle Awards, and picked up a dozen other nominations or wins at award ceremonies worldwide.