THE HANDMAIDEN Earns Foreign Language Film Prize at BAFTAs

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THE HANDMAIDEN Earns Foreign Language Film Prize at BAFTAs

Mar 05, 2018

Writer by Pierce Conran
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PARK Chan-wook Film Marks 1st for Korea at Top British Awards

Despite premiering almost two years ago at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, PARK Chan-wook’s critically-acclaimed The Handmaiden (2016) continues to pick up awards after making history last month, when it became the first Korean film to earn the Award for Best Film Not in the English Language from the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs).

Not only was the period drama-thriller the first Korean film to win the prize, it was also the first work from Korea to pick up a nomination in any category from the BAFTAs, the most prestigious film awards body in the United Kingdom. The film beat out four other nominees, Paul Verhoeven’s Elle (2017), Angelina Jolie's First They Killed My Father (2016), Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Loveless and Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman (2017).

Based on the novel ‘Fingersmith’ by Sarah Waters, The Handmaiden is set in Japan and Korea in the 1930s and features breakout KIM Tae-ri as a young woman who enters a manor as a maid under the orders of a conman posing as a count (HA Jung-woo), in order to swindle a wealthy heiress (KIM Min-hee).

The film has drawn acclaim from several quarters around the world and claimed many awards since its bow on the Croisette, including four prizes from last year’s Asian Film Awards and no less than 19 prizes for Best Foreign Language Film from critics and awards groups in North America.

Coincidentally, PARK is currently in the UK shooting his new project, a TV adaptation of the John le Carré’s novel ‘The Little Drummer Girl’ for the BBC.

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