'The Handmaiden' ranked ninth in Guardian's list of top 50 films

Director Park Chan-wook’s "The Handmaiden" has been selected as one of the best films of 2016 by the Guardian and the New York Times.

The British daily Guardian announced its 50 best films of 2016 in the U.S. list and picked "The Handmaiden" as No.9 of the list. “The Handmaiden is a dazzling and sexy adaptation of Sarah Waters’s historical lesbian novel Fingersmith (2002)," the Guardian said. "Sarah Waters's novel Fingersmith has had a lavish and almost operatically spectacular adaptation by Korea’s unparalleled auteur Park Chan-wook.”

The New York Times also released the Best Movies of 2016 list, which three critics select 10 movies each. Among them, the Times critic Manohla Dargis chose "The Handmaiden" as No. 8. “The latest from Park Chan-wook involves two women and their delectable relationship takes them and the movie to places you might not imagine, while advancing an argument about gender, desire, erotica and pornography that is more complex than the movie’s slickness suggests," she said.

The movie was released in U.S. theaters in October and was awarded last week the Best Foreign Picture and Best Production Design by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Taek Kyoon Sohn sohn@donga.com