Trailers: 'The Handmaiden', 'Split' & 'The Great Wall'
Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 8:30AM Chris here, with some creepy trailers from auteurs for better (Chan-Wook Park and Zhang Yimou) or worse (M. Night Shyamalan). Let's take a look at the coming chills, from the kinky to the twisty to the digitally enhanced:
The Handmaiden
• We've been getting fall festival lineup announcements and hopefully this will pop up somewhere. After a well-reviewed debut in Cannes, we're betting at least on NYFF.
• "... And Stoker" is the most "And Peggy" response to director Chan-Wook Park's filmography.
• Too bad that Oscar is often afraid to get naughty - the design elements look immaculate, especially the cinematography from Park's frequent collaborator Chung-hoon Chung.
• The Handmaiden reenvisions Sarah Waters's novel Fingersmith across the globe and time periods. If only other literary adaptations could be so bold in their interpretations.
Check out what creepiness Shyamalan and Yimou have coming with their more famous stars after the jump...
Split
• James McAvoy giving us Norman Bates's Mother and then some? This can't end well for him or us.
• Anya Taylor-Joy is following up The Witch with this and next month's horror film Morgan. Our new scream queen or a fast track to type casting?
• Split personalities can only result in one of a few expected M. Night Shyamalan plot twists.
• ... yep, looks like a January release.
The Great Wall
• Say what you will about the actor, but Matt Damon was maybe the last I expected to see sporting a manbun.
• Historical fiction plus dragons plus star vehicle whitewashing. For a brief glimpse, this is already pulling us in too many bizarre directions.
• But we can always trust Zhang Yimou to be a stunning, eyepopping visual stylist.
• At least its not another franchise or reboot or video game adaptation?
Reader Comments (14)
I have some South Koreans friends who have seen The Handmaiden and they've hated it - and they're fans of Park Chan Wook.
Let's wait and see.
The Handmaiden looks sexy. Split looks great because James McAvoy is great in everything he's in.
But when the Great Wall trailer came out, I said that people would point out the whitewashing and of course, they did.
I trust Yimou. I hate this era of judging the merit of a film from a trailer.
THE HANDMAIDEN is excellent. My favourite Park Chan-Wook so far. Starts tame, goes extreme, then ends absolutely bonkers!
Yes to The Handmaiden. It looks so intriguing.
Maybe so to Split, mostly for McAvoy
HARD FUCKING NO to The Great Wall. A white savior movie with the blandest white man around UGH.
James what the hell are you doing in an M. Night Shyamalan movie?!?!!!???!!!
In 2016, when the call for greater cultural representation and inclusion of marginalized groups in mainstream media is as loud as it's ever been, I don't understand the level of tone-deafness it takes to mount a project like The Great Wall. It's almost like an intentional middle finger to people whose only desire is to see themselves as protagonists and heroes in stories ostensibly about them.
@Travis C I was told The HandMaiden is Les Diaboliques with gratuitous torture.
Yeah The Great Wall seems like a political disaster waiting to happen and everyone involved should be getting ready with their official statements. Matt Damon knows better than this, you would think. I loved The Martian but don't his other choices these last two years reek a little bit of laziness. Where are the seasoned male actors getting involved with thoughtful challenging work?
Also how M Night has continued to find work and work with notable actors is the real fantasy thriller that is keeping me on the edge of my seat. As someone who was a huge fan of The Sixth Sense, his filmography has punished me over and over again. I think Michael Fassbender is stealing all the James McAvoy roles and this is a good opportunity for him to get back in the spotlight. But if the movie is bad, James McAvoy is going to have a lot of difficulty digging himself out of that one. I like him quite a bit but this may be a bit overambitious unless somehow it works. I don't know what to make of the trailer.
Tony T: He's in the next Wim Wender...oh. Right. Wim actually has a pretty mediocre filmography and certainly nothing in the last 25 years or so. Yep, McAvoy's still getting the short end of the stick.
I'm a huge fan of Chan-Wook Park so that's a yes.
Say what you will about Shyamalan, but there's no denying he brings out great performances from his main actors (Willis, Osment, Jackson, Gibson, etc.). Having said that, I'm a hard no as the trailer looks a little too out there, and the teen-horror genre is not a part of my purview.
The Great Wall looks absolutely fucking ridiculous: The Last Samurai meets Cloverfield?? No thanks.
Ok, Split looks terrible but BETTY BUCKLEY!!!!!!
I don't know if I'll see The Handmaiden when it comes out. But have you seen the poster? I want to wallpaper my whole house with it. Stunning.
Troy H, to be fair, Zhang Yimou probably hasn't been too involved in our current cultural conversation, since he is from a different culture and has a filmography full of Asian heroes--and, even better, heroines! I think it's unfortunate timing, more than anything. As for why Matt Damon would want to do it, maybe it's the only chance he'll ever have to work with one of the world's great filmmakers?
I agree with the argument, but it's a Hollywood argument. Chinese films rarely feature white protagonists. Of course, this is a co-production....