This film has everything! Beautiful costuming, gorgeous locations, amazing camera work, but also some very adult scenes … and a live octopus. So viewer and listener discretion is advised. This week, Associate Professor of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, Dr. Jacqueline Avila joins us to explore the music and soundscape of the erotic thriller The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016). As the film progresses, new layers of secrecy, deeper levels of the house, and new textures in the score, are revealed. 

Works Discussed:

The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016)

“My Tamako, My Sookee” by Jo Yeong-wook

The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife  by Hokusai