The Age of Shadows and The
Handmaiden are two Korean films that had some significant buzz last awards and film festivals season. They were released in South Korea last year, but
it’s now in 2017 in which most international audiences have the chance of
watching them and both had received critical acclaim.
Both movies are intense thrillers
that I found to be challenging to watch but intellectually engaging.
The Age of Shadows, which is set during the early 1920’s in
Japanese-occupied Korea, revolves around a Korean captain named Lee Jung-chool
(played by Song Kang-ho, the star of The
Host and The Good, The Bad, The Weird
– two of my three all-time favorite Korean movies – and who also had a role in Snowpiercer) who has risen up the ranks of the
Japanese police force by selling out his own people. In his latest assignment, he has been asked
to root out members of the Korean resistance.
To accomplish the task, he approaches and befriends Kim Woo-jin (Gong
Yoo, star of last year’s Train to Busan,
which I extremely enjoyed), an antique shop owner who is secretly a high
ranking officer of the resistance. Both
men are aware of each other’s real identity and purpose, as they maintain an appearance
of friendship while trying to read what is on each other’s minds. As the time draws closer to the resistance’s
endgame, Kim Woo-jin decides to take the risk of laying all his cards on the
table; he recruits Lee Jung-chool to help the resistance, hoping that the
chance of redemption will entice him to switch sides.
At the core, this is a gritty espionage
thriller, thick with intrigue, mystery, and tension. It features a high-stakes cloak-and-dagger
plot that involves deceptions, mind games, double agents, and death. However, there are times in which the pacing
gets bogged down and the writing gets a bit choppy. It’s here where the movie gets slightly hard
to focus on. Fortunately, it has been
able to quickly recover from these pitfalls, thanks in no small part to the
quality acting (especially from the two main characters), stylish production
value, great camera work, and narrative depth.
Meanwhile, sharing the same
setting but being a thriller in a different sense, The Handmaiden is a story about an enigmatic Japanese heiress (Kim
Min-hee) living on a secluded state whom a Korean conman (Ha Jung-woo), with
the help of a pickpocket he recruited to act as her handmaiden (Kim Tae-ri),
intends to defraud of her wealth.
And that synopsis should be enough. Offering more plot details would probably spoil
the movie, as the potency of its narrative arguably hinges on its strong,
surprising plot twists. It has uncomfortable
erotic content though. But beyond that, it’s
an eerie, gripping psychological thriller in the same vein of Oldboy (the third of my three most favorite
Korean movies ever) – which is something to be expected, really, for both movies
have the same director: Park Chan-wook.
Furthermore, it feels like a clinic for arthouse cinema,
with its stylish visuals, compelling script, and fluent direction and acting.
With The Age of Shadows and The
Handmaiden, it’s seems like South Korea is looking to be a consistent contributor
to good quality filmmaking to the international market every year.
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