In fact, you might feel like you've had your pocket picked while you were looking the other way. It is impossible to include more in a review without tripping into spoiler territory, but suffice to say that the trio of women and their relationships at the center of the play will make you feel a lot. ‘Fingersmith is a richly emotional story with characters who make you care about them, despite their many flaws. ‘… a fast-paced adaptation that deftly brings the key points of the novel to the stage’ – Boston Globe The American Repertory Theatre reunited with Oregon Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Bill Rauch, director of the 2014 Tony Award-winning play All The Way, to present Fingersmith, Alexa Junge's adaptation of Sarah Waters' 2002 novel of the same name, finishing its run in Boston, on January 8th, to wonderful reviews: ‘Park Chan-wook has made the year’s most irresistible love story’ – David Edelstein, film critic for New York magazine

The Handmaiden is based on Sarah Waters’s acclaimed 2002 novel Fingersmith, but Park shifts the action from Victorian England to a fabulous-looking 1930s Korea that’s ruled by the Japanese. This breathless feminist thriller has the refined style of an art film but offers the disreputable fun of a guilty pleasure. ‘The Handmaiden, the mesmerizing new movie by the spectacularly talented South Korean director Park Chan-wook. ‘Sarah Waters’s novel Fingersmith has had a lavish and almost operatically spectacular adaptation by Korea’s unparalleled auteur Park Chan-wook’ – Guardian ‘Park has conjured up not only his smartest but also his most stirring film to date’ – New Yorker The film was awarded Best Foreign Picture and Best Production Design by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, after being nominated for the 2016 Palme d’Or. The New York Times chose The Handmaiden as one of their top ten picks of 2016 and the Guardian US placed the film ninth in its list of the fifty best films of 2016. The Handmaiden, which was inspired by Sarah Waters’s novel Fingersmith (2002) will be released in the UK through Curzon Artificial Eye in April 2017.

Handmaiden sarah waters