If you find sexual intrigue and secret identities and serpents guarding doors and a random, prominent octopus appealing, then mark your calendar for this Friday, October 21, when Oldboy director Park Chan-wook’s exquisite, engrossing Korean Gothic lesbian revenge thriller The Handmaiden will be released. This beauty of a film — about a poor Korean pickpocket who becomes the handmaiden to a wealthy Japanese lady, all in the name of helping a handsome crook seduce her and take all her money — gives you 144 minutes of welcome escape from our bleak, chaotic election season.
In the meantime, whet your appetite with this exclusive clip, a brief taste of the burgeoning attraction between Sook-hee, the maid (newcomer Kim Tae-ri), and her mistress Hideko (Kim Min-hee). If the lingering, anticipatory shots of them unbuttoning each other’s gowns, unlacing each other’s corsets, and tracing fingers across each other’s shoulders doesn’t get you excited for what else the movie offers (so, so much more!), then I guess check out that movie about Ouija that’s also coming out on October 21.