Hello!
This year, I am challenging myself to see a film from a different country each weekend. Not just that. The films must have an IMDb rating of 7.0 or higher and ideally in a language I don’t speak. Got some in mind? Let’s swap favourite titles and keep the research fatigue at bay.
Today, I’ll introduce two! I hope they will provide you with pleasant breaks from feeling snowed under! I am really swamped with research writing, teaching, job applications, marking … When I feel that I have bitten off more than I could chew, a movie helps.
Korean ‘Grip’ at Queen’s
Chan-wook Park’s The Handmaiden (2016) is for you if you are interested in ‘bookish’ erotic thrillers. It is set in 1930s Korea, when the country was under Japanese occupation. A swindler (Ha Jung-woo) hires Sookee (Kim Tae-ri) as a handmaiden to Japanese heiress Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee). The Lady lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her stern and domineering Uncle Kouzuki (Cho Jin-woong). The maid is a pickpocket, and the con man poses as a Japanese Count. He wants the maid to help him seduce Hideko to elope with him and rob the Lady of her fortune. Hideko must be locked up in a mental institution. The con artist’s plan works until ….
I appreciate artistic borrowings between people from different countries. I was also happy to see how Welsh writer Sarah Waters’s Victorian era Britain is beautifully adapted to Korea under Japanese colonial rule. Also, The Handmaiden was a contestant in the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language at the 71st British Academy Film Awards. Sadly, IMBd does not have a rating for this 2h 25min film—one for your Saturday night watch party and freely available at the library.
‘Queer’ Kingston
These days, the city is hosting Reelout, Kingstown’s queer film and video festival. The festival is showcasing over 90 films from 35 locales, or “countries/diasporas” as they advertise. You can find anything from Reel Peeps Doc Series to RealOut Doc Series and ReelOut in the Dark thrillers. Book your passes here. You will learn a lot about issues and topics LGBTQ+ persons tackle. Where? At our favourite movie theatre: The Screening Room!
My personal pick is Richard Finn Gregory’s The Radical (2022). The documentary is about Muhsin Hendricks, a South African man presented as the world’s first openly gay Imam. Hendricks is ‘radical’ because he is the first gay Muslim religious leader.
Why did I choose The Radical? I wanted to see how queer Muslims navigate the tension between acceptance and exclusion and how the documentary chronicles the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights.
Stay well until our March encounter!