Contemporary master Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Lady Vengeance) has commenced production on Fingersmith, a Korean-set adaptation of Victorian-era novel Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters.
Set in 1930s Korea, when the country was under Japanese occupation and rule, Fingersmith is based on the 2002 novel of the same name. Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-ri and Ha Jung-woo (The Chaser, The Yellow Sea) star in the film written by Park Chan-wook collaborator Chung Seo-kyung (Thirst, Lady Vengeance and I’m a Cyborg But That’s OK). Also on board is Park Chan-wook’s regular cinematographer Jeong Jeong-hun, who’s shot all of the director’s films since Oldboy (great news as both Lady Vengeance and Stoker — pictured top — are endlessly stunning).
Fingersmith is described as a novel of seduction and murderous scheme. The amazon synopsis follows:
Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a “baby farmer,” who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksbys household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thievesfingersmithsfor whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home.
One day, the most beloved thief of all arrivesGentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Mauds vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed ofpassed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum.
With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways…But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals
Fingersmith is expected in 2016. [Variety]
