Relationship Between Shots
This scene, from Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden, is primarily made using continuity editing
protocols and shot-reverse shot edits, although much of it is point of view. It
begins with a medium long shot of the two characters walking away from the
camera. The way the camera shakes, followed by the long shot of the protagonist
following the couple, implies that the first shot is a POV shot from the
protagonist’s perspective. As the protagonist continues to approach, there is
another medium long shot of the couple from behind and she moves closer to the
frame, making her visage more of a medium long shot to match the couple.
The first part of this scene is made up of this shot-reverse
shot exchange between the man and the protagonist, and although they are never
on the screen at the same time their relative position is made clear through
the point of view shots from the protagonist and the fact that their positions on
the screen, symmetrically surrounded by greenery, obviously place them in the
same environment. The shakier motion of the camera when it is on the couple
reflects both the protagonist’s point of view and distressed mental state.
As the conversation progresses, after a reaction shot of the
couple, the protagonist races away in a long shot tilt upwards. The fact that
the audience does not see her drop the art supplies but simply hears it,
connecting to a shot of the fallen supplies, creates an auditory match.
There is some slight dissidence as the direction she is
running across screen changes from left to right in the first long shot outside
to right to left in the first shot indoors. However, this could add to the
frenzied state of her hurried quest. There is a match on action as she reaches
down to grab the paints, as the shot changes to a close up as she moves back
upwards.
The protagonist’s return to the same spot is made clear
through the use of the exact same framing as earlier in the scene. Although her
journey was likely longer than the three-shot editing suggests, this creates a
sense of exactly how fast she was traveling. Then comes a transition to an at
first out of focus extreme close up on her eyes, and her expression creates the
expectation that the audience needs to see what she is seeing. The point of
view shot following of the couple delivers, and the long shot composition as
well as the out of focus foreground show exactly what the protagonist sees.
There is another match on action as the woman stands, and
the shaky camera and close up implies that this is what the protagonist is most
focused on. The return to a long shot re-establishes the framing of the scene,
and also helps return to the position of the protagonist. Finally, the slight
track outwards from the protagonist’s face emphasizes her distress and also
shows what the woman in the couple is looking at.
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