ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the formal and thematic innovations of The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook’s movie adaptation of Sarah Walters’ novel Fingersmith, in turn, part of a larger medial complex. Fingersmith makes systematic use of some techniques that are either uncommon or not directly available to the cinematic medium: in its first two sections, the same events are narrated twice, from the point of view of the two main characters, exploiting the interplay between the secondary characters’ thoughts and the main focaliser’s reconstruction of them in order to set up a plot twist. The film, lacking the immediate insight into the focaliser’s mind of internally focalised written narrative, attempts to reproduce this interplay through a variety of means, including an experimental use of voiceover and the consistent use of parallel line which occur at different points in the narrative, introducing the key theme of the role of imitation in desire. This adds a deeper significance to the movie’s symmetrical visuals, leads to a different plot development, and, as will be argued, has radical interpretive implications on the movie’s portrayal of its characters’ desires and motivation.
