The Handmaiden (2016)

Park Chan-Wook's superb multilayered tale of a con-man who, with the help of an orphaned pick-pocket, devises a plot to seduce and bilk a Japanese woman out of her inheritance. You would expect nothing less than twists and turns from the man who brought us the Vengeance trilogy (Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance [2002], Oldboy [2003] and Lady Vengeance [2005]), but it could be described as a very high class erotic thriller as well, drawing comparisons with something like Ang Lee's Lust, Caution (2007). It's particularly impressive after Chan-Wook's last film was equally terrific, 2013's Stoker which like The Handmaiden combines Western and Korean like architecture. Here, said architecture is as mad as it is gorgeous, and it provides a thrilling back drop to the proceedings unfurling before you. It's a hugely impressive piece of work, and like Lust, Caution, manages to justify its explicitness, when so many films eroticise for the sake of it. 8.1/10