#chan wook park

[ninjavolador]

"Oldboy" (Park Chan-wook, 2003).

[sailermoon]

The Handmaiden (2016) dir. Park Chan-wook / Revolutionary Girl Utena (1997) ep. 38 "End of the World"

Inspiration

[possession1981-moving]

Will he be as gentle as you?

KIM TAE-RI and KIM MIN-HEE as Sook-hee and Hideko THE HANDMAIDEN dir. Park Chan-wook, 2016

[riverlarking]

Stoker (2013) — dir. Park Chan-wook

[shesnake]

The Handmaiden (2016) dir. Park Chan-wook // Interview with the Vampire episode 11 (2024) dir. Levan Akin

He lost his Hindu-originated name “Arun” when he was trafficked from Dehli as a child, was renamed “Amadeo” by his paedophile Maker the vampire Marius, then finally assigned “Armand” by the Roman coven before they sent him to France. He’s also lost his voice in a way, shown code-switching and adopting different accents in different settings. Throughout world history, colonised peoples have often been forced to adopt the languages and names of their oppressive colonisers as a way to erase their cultural identities.

Armand’s history was essentially colonised. His personal sexual trauma is an allegory for wider colonial trauma. This idea was explored similarly in Park Chan-wook’s 2016 film The Handmaiden, where the character Hideko’s forced exposure to pornographic Japanese literature as a child is meant to parallel the colonial oppression of the Japanese occupation of Korea.

The only evidence remaining of Armand’s experiences of sexual and colonial violence is this painting The Adoration of the Shephards With a Donor that hangs in the Louvre. Another cruel irony here is that ‘Adoration of the Shepherds’ is an episode of Jesus’s nativity. Arun as a (presumably) Hindu boy was used as a prop in a Christian narrative. The one historical document that exists of his mortal life is a depiction of his religious assimilation. Completely divorced from his roots, with no identity outside the roles his abusers assigned him, Armand, Amadeo, and Arun “were cut loose and dead like children turned to stone.” Being immortalised, “donated”, and placed on display in a European museum, a space he’s not even really allowed to access, for the mostly-white gaze is a clear metaphor for colonisers’ persisting theft of cultural artefacts belonging to their victims.

The only consolation this journey has for Armand is creative inspiration. He took Amadeo, trapped in the horror of his youth for the entertainment of others, and transferred that idea into the play My Baby Loves Windows to torture Claudia.

Armand, colonialism, and the weaponisation of anti-Blackness by Deah

[miawasi]

Stoker (2013) dir. Park Chan-wook

[margokesses]

The actual male gaze in the handmaiden: Hideko was raised to read erotica leliterature (and in some cases perform it) in front of a room with random men and her uncle

What people think that male gaze is in the handmaiden: a man directed the film and there's 2 women explicitly having sex on screen

[midnightmurdershow]

Stoker (2013) Directed by Park Chan-wook

[kdramaspace]

POTW #99: Pick an iconic film director (as voted by our members and followers)

Park Chan Wook - Oldboy (2003), Lady Vengeance (2005), The Handmaiden (2016), Decision to Leave (2022)

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[Note: This poll is a re-do of an older poll, as the original poll received less than 2,000 votes.]

[roseillith]

아가씨 // THE HANDMAIDEN (2016) dir. PARK CHAN-WOOK

[celine-song]

THIRST (2009) dir. Park Chan-wook

[pudding-bitches]

the loserism is high with these mfs

[possession1981-moving]

MIA WASIKOWSKA as India Stoker STOKER dir. Park Chan-wook, 2013

[2001hz]

싸이보그지만 괜찮아 I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK Directed By: Park Chan-wook (2006)

[shesnake]

The Handmaiden (2016) dir. Park Chan-wook