No, The Handmaiden comes from the wicked, perverse South Korean director Park Chan - wook, who is best known in this country for the mad, twisted, criminal
masterpiece Oldboy.
Also, the story is able to draw on both Christian and traditionally Korean shamanistic traditions and combine them with the history of Japanese colonialism to create its morbid atmosphere, which has the ability to chill even without a belief in any of its superstitions.4 That said, the bludgeoning nature of the approach kept the movie from achieving the
masterpiece status many other critics have assigned it.5 By contrast, Park Chan - wook's latest, Agassi (The Handmaiden), has received a mixed reception, but I feel it is his best since 2003's
Oldboy.6