Ah-ga-ssi

Plot synopsis:
PART ONESet in Korea during the 1930s prior to World War II, the film begins with a local Korean woman named Sook-Hee preparing to move away from her home and move into the estate of a Japanese heiress, Lady Hideko. Sook-Hee is taken on a long ride until she reaches the large estate in the countryside. A woman greets her and gives her a tour of the grounds including an annex which has been furnished into a library. Sook-Hee is told that she wont sleep in the servants quarters but near the Lady of the house as she is her handmaiden. She calls Sook-Hee 'Tamako' and tells her that the lady is often tasked with reading for the master (her uncle) and that he loves books. Sook-Hee is then showed her room which is just across from the Lady's bedroom. When left alone, Sook-Hee tries to peek into the room but a loud noise scares her back to her tiny cot.Later in the night, Sook-Hee awakens to hear the Lady Hideko screaming. She rushes into her bedroom and comforts her. Hideko says she had a nightmare and tells Sook-Hee that her aunt had hung herself from the big cherry tree and on moonless nights, her aunts ghost dangles from the branch. Sook-Hee proves to be a good handmaiden as she comforts the Lady by feeding her sake and singing to her.Sook-Hee tells us (through voice-over) that we think she is a Korean handmaiden named Tamako but she's really Sook-Hee, a pickpocket raised by a woman who teaches children how to steal and commit forgeries. In a flashback, we see the house takes in abandoned newborns and sells them to Japan. A man enters the house of thieves and tells them about an interpreter who bribed his way into a translating job for the high officials. He helps Japan annex Korea and then gets naturalized so he can marry the daughter of a Japanese noble. He builds a mansion, filled with books, and invites Japanese collectors to his library to hold readings of rare books and auction them off. Some of the books, he needs to sell but doesn't want to lose possession so he hired this man (telling the story) to create forgeries he has convinced the nobles he is Count Fujiwara from Japan. The collector's wife died with no children and her sister has died but his wife's niece is still alive and employed to perform book readings for her uncle. Now an orphan, this woman is rich she has 1.5 million yen in cash and 300,000 yen in bonds -- and the man who calls himself Count Fujiwara plans to make her fall in love with him and after marrying her, hell declare her insane and have her locked up in a madhouse thus inheriting her fortune. He wants Sook-Hee to work as her handmaiden so she can persuade her to fall in love. Her uncle also wants to marry her for her money but if Sook-Hee can convince her to marry the Count, hell give her 50,000 yen and the dresses and jewelry. Sook-Hee demands 100,000 yen.Sook-Hee goes to the estate to meet with the staff, to convince them to hire her. The women who work on staff steal her shoes as a prank which angers her because it will make her look bad. She is amazed to see how beautiful Lady Hideko is. Sook-Hee gives her a reference letter from the last woman she worked for but in reality, its a forgery by the man who is pretending to be Count Fujiwara. He has written it in Japanese, which Sook-Hee can't read or write. He has told Sook-Hee what the letter says "A maid is like a pair of chopsticks". Her presence is little noted, but her absence causes much distress. Lady Hideko claims she has a headache from all the reading she has had to do for her uncle and asks Sook-Hee to read it. Sook-Hee struggles to do so from memory, claiming it says she's like a spoon and then finally admits she is illiterate and can't even read in Korean. Lady Hideko said she doesn't care if Sook-Hee curses or steals but she doesn't ever want to be lied to. She shows Sook-Hee a picture of her mother and asks if she is as beautiful. Sook-Hee tells her that she has heard the Count say he dreams of her face in bed, her first attempt at planting a seed of a relationship.Lady Hideko gives Sook-Hee some shoes and then leaves to go to reading practice, which shell do alone. Sook-Hee goes through all the dresses to see what clothes shell inherit after the woman is locked up. She finds Ben Wa balls. After trying on hats, she finds a rope in a hatbox. Sook-Hee goes outside and looks up at the cherry tree the Lady's aunt was said to have hung herself from.Sook-Hee finds Lady Hideko reading in the library with her uncle. She tries to approach but is told not to go past the snake. A gate is rolled closed, locking her out. She notices a statue of a snake on the ground, creating a boundary of limitations which she isn't allowed to cross.Back in her room, Sook-Hee bathes Lady Hideko, giving her a lollipop which she says she used on children to help them associate bath time with sweetness. Lady Hideko complains one of her teeth is sharp. Sook-Hee grabs a thimble and begins shaving it down. The two exchange sexual energy while this is going on. Sook-Hee admires Lady Hideko's naked breasts.Count Fujiwara arrives at the estate to help with forgeries and requests the Lady's handmaiden to run an errand for him. Sook-Hee and the Count discuss their plan in private. Sook-Hee tells him the Lady is naïve and wont take the hint that he wants sex, even if he pulls on her nipples. Count Fujiwara says Sook-Hee has to put it into her head that the Lady is much happier since he arrived. He also gives her a gift to send along. Sook-Hee presents the gift sapphire earrings. Sook-Hee is excited that they'll be hers when the Lady is sent away to the madhouse. She also convinces Lady Hideko that the earrings are actually spinel.Lady Hideko arranges for Sook-Hee to be dressed up which is a new experience for Sook-Hee. Lady Hideko finishes off the look with the sapphire earrings. They button each others dresses up which is depicted in a very sexual way with Sook-Hee openly longing to touch her. Sook-Hee asks if Lady Hideko is planning to marry her uncle. Hideko points out that's what he raised her for, knowing he'd need access to her money one day. Eventually he will put his entire library up for auction because he cant afford any more books.The Count paints with Lady Hideko, trying to be flirtatious. Sook-Hee watches, feeling sorry for Lady Hideko for being duped. He tells Sook-Hee a peach is ripe which is the signal for her to start convincing the Lady that shes falling in love with the Count. After he leaves, Sook-Hee claims the Lady's cheeks have grown flushed since he arrived but the Lady isn't really convinced.Lady Hideko and Sook-Hee have a personal conversation on the grounds, about how the Lady's mother died in childbirth and its like she strangled her as punishment for being born. Sook-Hee takes this to heart and tells her no baby is guilty of being born and that her mother would probably have been very happy to have given life to her. This surprises and touches the Lady. The Count arrives and steals the Lady away, sending Sook-Hee to run errands so they can be alone. Not wanting to leave Lady Hideko with the Count, Sook-Hee rushes to grab things but when she returns, she sees the clothed Lady mounting the clothed Count, which makes her terribly jealous.Now Sook-Hee harbors anger at Lady Hideko. At night, the servants bell is rang and Sook-Hee is called into the Lady's bedroom. She asks Sook-Hee why she didn't greet her when she got back from her reading. Sook-Hee is obviously still bitter that Lady Hideko is falling for the Count but claims she simply fell asleep. The Lady says she can feel a nightmare coming on and suggests Sook-Hee sleep in bed with her. After a while, she tells Sook-Hee that the count asked to elope with her when her uncle leaves to visit his gold mine. The Lady says without a mother, shes never been told what men want. Sook-Hee teaches her how to kiss by demonstrating on her. Then she begins to make love to her under the context of showing her what it will be like when she makes love to the Count. The two women end up having sex for the first time, both claiming it is simply an instruction although they both seem to be in love with the other.The next time the Count is painting with Lady Hideko, he orders Sook-Hee to find another job to do. Sook-Hee follows suit but then stops short, saying she has no other job except to look after the Lady. Outside the grounds, the Count yells at Sook-Hee for not helping him with his plan. He puts Sook-Hees hands on his crotch and tells her to feel how much he wants her fortune and tells her hes not going to let her fuck it up. Sook-Hee threatens to tell her that hes just a pickpocket but he threatens, in return, to tell her that Sook-Hee is a Korean farmhand and shaman. Sook-Hee cant return home empty-handed, not providing for all the people who have taken her in since she was a little girl. Sook-Hee responds by saying Lady Hideko has no one on earth and if he frightens her, shell close up like a clam. She adds not to ever put her hand on his tiny joke of a cock again.Now Sook-Hee follows the plan accordingly, telling Lady Hideko that she (the Lady) is falling for the Count. But the Lady says she's fallen in love with somebody else. Nonetheless, Lady Hideko agrees to marry the Count if Sook-Hee can go with them to Japan. The Count leaves the estate to visit his mine while the Count pretends to leave but secretly hides so he can sneak off with Lady Hideko. As soon as her uncle is gone, Hideko leaves with the Count and Sook-Hee on a ferry to Japan. Once there, Hideko and the Count are married. The next morning, Sook-Hee stops by their room and finds blood on Hideko's sheets, alluding to having lost her virginity. The Count watches the two women together. When he's not looking, Sook-Hee kisses Hideko.By the end of the week, Count Fujiwara is missing, claiming that he has gone to certify the marriage and convert the inheritance into cash. When he returns, Sook-Hee yells at him for taking her virginity and then leaving her alone. She tells him to hurry up and throw Hideko in the madhouse. Two men arrive at the hotel and ask Sook-Hee what treatment she would suggest for Hideko. Sook-Hee says she wants her confined to a place where no one can harm her and she can do no harm. The group travels into town, stopping at a mental hospital. Sook-Hee waits with the employees as they tell the Countess they are going to look after her but then they end up grabbing Sook-Hee and taking her into the madhouse. She claims she is not the Countess and they have the wrong woman. The Count and Hideko do nothing to defend Sook-Hee as she struggles.PART TWOWe now learn about the back story of Lady Hideko. As a little girl, she has to put medal balls in her mouth (reminiscent of Ben Wa balls) while she is hit repeatedly by her aunt for talking back. She is then brought into her room where she's told there is an ogre who lives outside her room who will burst in and smother her if she ever cries out. The aunt also shares the photo of Hideko's mother that we had seen her show to Sook-Hee.Hideko's aunt instructs her in Japanese by reading books which end up being graphic and teaching her words like penis and vagina. Her uncle comes by and grabs both of their faces, suffocating them before letting them go. We now see the young Hideko slapping a servant for saying bad things about her in Korean, which she can speak. Her uncle tells her that she has a touch of lunacy that she got from her mother and he will try to teach her so she doesn't get sent to a mental hospital. The training consists of her being taught to read from his book collection which is now revealed to be very explicitly sexual books. The young Hideko reads from a graphic story and her uncle yells at her lack of articulation. We then see the adult Lady Hideko at the readings for collectors, reading from sexually explicit passages.She flashes back to the day of her aunt's hanging and the servants staring up at her. Meanwhile, the readings continue for the Japanese book collectors and the stories are more and more graphic. She also performs demonstrations of the material for the audience she chokes herself; she is whipped; she sits on a wooden puppet and is lifted to the ceiling. The books are auctioned off. One has lost its value because the sexually explicit illustration has been ripped out. Nobody wants to buy the book, figuring that the illustration was necessary to depict what words alone could not.The man who pretends to be Count Fujiwara is involved in these readings, hired for forgeries. He tells Hideko's uncle how all the women on the estate are attracted to him except for one Hideko. He heard that her uncle is engaged to her and suggests to him to go easy on her training or shell be dead inside.Count Fujiwara and Lady Hideko talk over dinner. He tries to tell her he loves her but she knows he's lying. He admits to being the son of a Korean farmhand and he spent three years learning to paint forgeries so he would have access to her and possess her father's inheritance. But he realized how smart she was after he met her and has another deal to suggest hell rescue her from her uncle, they'll split the money. She says she doesn't want to marry anyone. He realizes she plans to kill herself but he says all her money would go to a perverted uncle. She points out that he will find them if they eloped and take her to the basement where he tortures people he has brought her there as a young girl and showed her what he did to her aunt. Count Fujiwara gives her highly concentrated opium and says if she's ever caught, three drops will make her sleep, five drops will knock her out, and all of it will kill her.They plan to find a handmaiden for her who they will send to a madhouse under Hideko's name. They get rid of her old one after she is caught having sex with the Count. We now see Sook-Hee's arrival from Hideko's perspective. When Sook-Hee tries to peek in her room, she bangs against the wall, scaring her. She watches Sook-Hee undress for bed. Then she screams to get Sook-Hee to come, claiming she had a nightmare. Hideko reads a letter from Count Fujiwara telling her to show Sook-Hee her clothes at every opportunity since that is part of what she will receive for helping him out (if she wasn't being duped). He points out she wont be able to read the letter she's reading because she's illiterate. Hence her asking Sook-Hee to read the recommendation out loud she knew she couldn't read it. Hideko also goes outside and scolds her servants for stealing Sook-Hee's shoe, saying if she runs away, shell throw them out. In the next flashback, we see Sook-Hee bathing Hideko and fixing her tooth but now we see this was followed by Hideko inviting Sook-Hee to join her in the tub.When Sook-Hee presents the earrings to Hideko, Count Fujiwara wrote her a letter warning her that Sook-Hee would pretend they were fake because she wants them but they're actually Hideko's own earrings. He tells her, to keep her from getting suspicious, they should occupy Sook-Hee with the task of trying to convince Hideko to marry him and that she shouldn't fall in love with him too easily. As before, Hideko gives Sook-Hee the earrings and admires her when she is dressed up. Also as before, Sook-Hee is very kind towards Hideko when she discusses losing her mother in childbirth, leading Hideko to feel a companionship towards Sook-Hee.Count Fujiwara and Hideko really don't like each other and both only tolerate the other to go along with their plan. Sook-Hee now mopes around, angry, watching a flirtatious exchange between Hideko and the Count; now we hear them openly discussing their dislike for each other. Sook-Hee becomes jealous which Hideko notices. As before, when she is away running errands, Sook-Hee rushes back to find a clothed Hideko mounting Count Fujiwara on the grounds. Now we see that they staged that pose just to convince her they were falling in love.We see Hideko giving the readings of sexual literature to the Japanese men. She reads about Ben Wa balls. The men applaud. Then we see the scene again where Hideko and Sook-Hee have sex, under the pretext of educating Hideko on how to please a man. But now the lesbian sex scene is extended and more graphic.Count Fujiwara yells at Lady Hideko, telling her if she scares Sook-Hee, shell close up like a clam. The Lady feels bad about arranging to have Sook-Hee locked up in a madhouse but he tells her that Sook-Hee said Lady Hideko was so dense, she wouldnt know someone wanted sex even if they pulled on her nipples. While it is true Sook-Hee said this early on, it was when she was not fully invested in Lady Hideko's companionship and trying hard to go along with the plan despite her developed attachment. However, it is enough to upset Lady Hideko who is now convinced Sook-Hee doesn't really have feelings for her. In her room, Hideko asks Sook-Hee if she still thinks she should marry the Count, even if she (the Lady) ends up having feelings for someone else. When Sook-Hee says yes, Hideko slaps her and shoves her out of her room. Then she grabs the rope that Sook-Hee found in the hatbox earlier and goes to hang herself from the same tree her aunt had, saying she wishes she'd never been born. (We're meant to believe this is why she allows Sook-Hee to be sent to a madhouse despite falling in love with her).But when hanging from the tree, before she can fall, Sook-Hee appears, holding Hideko by the legs. She immediately confesses to everything, how she was trying to trick her into marrying the Count and they were going to send her to the madhouse. Hideko asks, Sook-Hee, are you worried about me? and Sook-Hee asks how she knows her name since shes pretended to be a handmaiden named Tamako. Hideko confesses her plan to send Sook-Hee to the madhouse. Now Sook-Hee writes home and tells the woman who raised her to be a thief there is a change of plans and they need her help with a forgery.Hideko's uncle drives away to visit his gold mines. He warns Lady Hideko about the basement, meaning if she ever betrays him, he will punish her with torture like he has done to family members before. With him gone, Sook-Hee is finally able to explore the library. She sees the uncle's collection is all perversely sexual literature. Offended that Hideko had been forced to read it, she tears pages and illustrations out of all the books and then dumps them in the indoor ponds underneath the floorboards.The two women are finally free, preparing for Hideko to elope, and we see them running through the fields, laughing. Cut to Sook-Hee being put in the madhouse. Instead of sadness, Hideko is seemingly unaffected and says she's hungry.PART THREE.Hideko and Count Fujiwara dine at a nice restaurant, their plan having worked. Meanwhile, Sook-Hee laughs hysterically while eating dinner at the mental hospital. At a photography studio, Count Fujiwara explains that they'll replace Sook-Hee's photo on her ID with Hideko's so she can take on her identity and Hideko can be declared in a mental institution, allowing them to recoup her inheritance without being caught by her uncle. The Count confesses he might actually like Hideko and suggests they get married again, now that shes stolen Sook-Hee's identity. She inquires whether he feels remorse about having locked Sook-Hee in a madhouse alone but he says she's naïve and deserves her fate.In the madhouse, a fire is set allowing Sook-Hee to escape.Back at a hotel, Hideko dips the opium the Count gave her into a wine glass. They kiss and he decides he wants to have sex. She drinks from her wine glass, hoping hell follow suit, but he doesn't. She lets him kiss her breasts and then they kiss but he still doesn't drink the wine. Finally she drinks from his glass and kisses him, transferring wine from her mouth to his. He then gets really aggressive towards her sexually, citing the books she read out loud that declares women like being taken forcefully. But before he can harm her, he passes out from the opium in the wine.When wakes up, he is being taken by two thugs somewhere into town.Now Sook-Hee and Hideko have reunited. Sook-Hee has taken a picture of herself dressed as a man and uses her forgery skills to replace the photo in Count Fujiwara's ID, taking over his identity. Hideko sends a letter to her uncle, telling him that the Japanese Count who he had been trying to impress for years is actually the son of a Korean farmhand and she drops him off with her uncle as a gift. She also tells him to tell the Count that, outside of books, no woman likes to be taken by force. Now that he knows he's been betrayed, the uncle takes the man who pretended to be Count Fujiwara to his basement and tortures him, cutting off his fingers with a paper trimmer. The Count asks for a cigarette.The two women go to the train station. The uncle's goons are there, checking for any women traveling together who are trying to leave town. The women go undetected in two ways; they buy a ticket to a nearby city and then change it to Shanghai, paying the difference; and Sook-Hee is currently disguised as a man so they aren't seen as two women.In another flashback, we see that the Count didn't really take Hideko's virginity. She broke her own hymen with a butter knife, resulting in the blood Sook-Hee saw the next morning. In present day, Hideko's uncle asks about all the details about his niece's wedding night, exposing that he had a perverted fascination with his young niece and wasn't simply after her money. He asks graphic questions about whether he touched her breasts or her cunt. Whether her vagina had many wrinkles and the look of her vaginal secretion. He admits he's just an old man who likes dirty stories. The Count ignores him, asking for a cigarette to help his memory, which Hideko's uncle grabs from the Count's clothes and he smokes.The two women have made it to the ferry. Sook-Hee gets rid of her fake mustache now that they're safely en route to Shanghai. Meanwhile, Hideko's uncle cuts off the Count's underwear as he lays bleeding from losing his fingers. Before the torture can continue, the Count says that the cigarettes were filled with mercury and they both are now poisoned from the smoke. The uncle dies. The Count inhales the air in an effort to kill himself.In the final scene, Sook-Hee and Hideko are in their stateroom on the ship as they travel to their new home. Now free, they undress and kiss and have a long sexual experience (they have more lesbian sex; but this time they are both clearly affectionate and in love). They put the Ben Wa balls in their mouths and then inside each others vaginas. The final shot shows the steamer ship sailing away into the night.

Tags: plot twist, comedy, romantic

Review:
"The Handmaiden" is a crazily imaginative and beautiful movie by Chan-wook Park, who is at the top of his game in this story of a pickpocket that tries to steal the fortune of a naive, innocent rich woman that has been secluded in a mansion in the middle of nowhere.
Of course, things will start to get complicated soon enough.Chan-wook Park has done a great job in adapting the original novel by Sarah Waters, and mixing it with the history of the Japanese invasion of Korea at the beginning of the twentieth century.
From the first moment, the viewer will be enthralled by the story of these two women and their relationship, and every plot development will just add fun to the whole.If the plot and the direction weren't amazing enough, the movie is as beautiful as they come.
This is helped by the amazing work of all the cast, who does an incredible job in bringing this tale to life (it could be criticized, though, some of the heavily accented Japanese, for characters that are supposed to be able to pass as them).All in all, "The Handmaiden" is proof that a movie can have a plot, amazing direction, acting, scenery, craziness and the most beautiful package possible.
With The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook has crafted a film that fully displays the craft and technical prowess he can show and it includes a story that that only gets better the more you think about it.The Handmaiden (2016) Directed by: Park Chan-wook Screenplay by: Seo-Kyung Chung, Park Chan-wook Starring: Jung-woo Ha, Min-hee Kim, Jin-woong Jo, Tae Ri Kim Run Time: 2 hour 25 minutes.
Set in the 1930s Japanese occupied Korea, it's a story of a young female pickpocket (Kim Tae-ri) who becomes a handmaiden to a beautiful Japanese heiress (Min-hee Kim).
It's original and daring work of art that will stick with viewers long after it's finished.Whenever Chan-wook Park makes a film, it must undoubtedly be compared to his masterpiece, "Oldboy".
This film is pretty twisted in the most unexpected ways from the cinematography that is very reminiscent of Possession in that it always keeps moving, eroticism that is reminiscent of Blue is the Warmest Color, performances as spellbinding as Carol, and the insanity of Park Chan- Wook as expected.
In his new film, Park, brings surely one of his best works, the plot is set in Korea in the thirties, in a time of Japanese occupation, and focuses on four main characters, Hideko, a Japanese heiress who lives isolated in the camp with Kouzuki, his domineering uncle, Sook-Hee, a newly hired maid, and a con artist who presents himself as Count Fujiwara to teach painting to Hideko.
Being divided into 3 parts of lies and betrayals, the film has a huge camera work, abusing well-designed plans and space, both indoors and out, traveling through a mixture of English and Japanese architecture, the film is a breeze in the eyes of so beautiful, from the very accurate track, immersion in the beauty of Japanese erotic literature, the film explores well-developed characters, and of course, returns plot twist on plot twist, as the director knows well how to do, no doubt one of the best films of the year..
However, overall this was a really interesting script that suited the new setting (Korea under Japanese colonial rule) well.Similar with Park Chan-Wook's other films that I have seen, Oldboy (2003) and Stoker (2013), this is a gorgeous movie.
Although the director has done similar things in the past, I felt like in those earlier films it served more of a purpose whereas in this film, while there are some moments that do develop characters and the story, there is an abundance of gratuitous sex scenes that elongate the movie a little too much.
Not to mention beautifully and cleverly directed.This is the first of Chan-wook Park's films I've seen and if the others are half as good as "The Handmaiden" I'm going to see them all.
Things only become more complicated from there!The film is a great female empowerment love story, it's also (once again) beautifully shot, and masterfully edited, by Chan-wook (I love his visual style).
The Handmaiden is a film that unfolds with a classic film stylist (in particular I felt like Chanwook Park was in a kind of Brian De Palma mode as far as making an erotic dramatic-thriller with a camera that luxuriates in long shots, elaborate camera movements, and cinematic grammar that emphasizes operatic intentions, though it's maybe not the first time he's done this anyway), and is LOADED with story.
Overall there's so much about The Handmaiden to admire, from the performances by Min-hee Kim as Lady Hideko (appearing in part 1 as varieties of cold and distant and then close and warm and terrified in the other parts), Tae-ri Kim (Sookie, who has much to learn about the art of performance, I mean her character not the actress, she's great), and Jung-woo Ha as the 'Count' who has to remain in control for the whole runtime, but gives in to his passions too.
I can tell you now it's worth seeing if you love pure CINEMA, the likes of which get made by directors with a passion for the form and expressing stories of early 20th century sexual excess and emotional f***ed-up ness (it is early 20th century Korea with a major Japanese influence - in that way it'd make a solid double feature with Kim Jee-Woon's Age of Shadows).
In an example of narrative sleight of hand that would make Quentin Tarantino proud, director Chan-wook Park tells his story in three parts, each one upending the perspective of the one before and forcing his audience to re-process everything it has just seen.The first part tells the story of a young pickpocket, Sook-Hee, who is roped into a scheme concocted by a sleazy thief posing as a rich count to rob a rich heiress, lady Hideko, of her fortune.
It proves that with lust, and hot unexpected erotic passion that leads to emotions that new life and love is possible for two ladies.Set in 1930's Korea a young woman Sook-Hee(Tae-Ri Kim)is hired to be a new handmaiden for Lady Hideko(Min-Hee Kim)who's a Japanese heiress who's lives on an estate by the country and the palace is a castle spread like with many books to read and much to learn like the arts which involve hand painting.
However it's a secret plot that Sook-Hee has with a con man known as the count and that is to defraud Hideko of her large inheritance.Thru it all the film has visions of doubt, trust, and the elements of love and hot erotic passion is taken into new heights as the emotions brought out with Lady Hideko and Sook-Hee twist this plot and little cat and mouse game for a spin and turn that you and even the count didn't see coming.
The Handmaiden (2016): Most of the erotic thrillers of recent times failed to impress because the makers are only focusing on ridiculous sex scenes than the plot.I have watched only few erotic thrillers like Poison Ivy,Basic Instinct and Unfaithful.The Handmaiden,a South Korean film got universal acclaim and I had huge expectations on Korean films especially after watching The Wailing.The Handmaiden is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Park Chan Wook.So how is The Handmaiden?Plot: 1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl Sookee (Tae-re Kim) is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress Hideko (Kim Min-hee) who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering Uncle Kouzuki (Jin-woong Jo).
The plan seems to proceed according to plan until Sookee and Hideko discover some unexpected emotions.Plus Points:1)Screenplay and Direction: The Handmaiden is brilliantly crafted erotic psychological thriller with great twists and turns.Movie is told in 3 parts and all of the parts have great thrills and emotion.Movie starts as drama and later takes a twist at the end of Part 1 and in the second part we get lot of twists which gives us meaning of unanswered questions in Part 1.Park Chan Wook did an commendable job in directing those picture.He cleverly managed to tell a simple revenge in an interesting manner.2)Performances: New comer Tae-re Kim did splendidly well in a challenging role.Debuting in a intimate role is not a great start but she did it and scored big and her sexually inexperienced heiress, a layered turn from Kim Min-hee.Kin-Woong Jo as Uncle Kouzuki is impressive.3)Background Score: The Handmaiden has haunting score which elevated lot of scenes.It provided a creepiness feel to the scenes.The music during sex scenes are seducing.4)Cinematography: The film is beautifully shot with rich visuals and greenery locations.Minus Points:1)Amount of Sex and Nudity: The Handmaiden has lot of explicit sex scenes which may disturb few audience but more importantly, there's longing, affection and intimacy between the maid, and her sexually inexperienced heiress.So,The Handmaiden is an excellent erotic psychological thriller with twisty screenplay,terrific direction and performances.My rating 8.25/10.
''The Handmaiden'' is a mesmerizing period drama that convinces with a twisted story, gloomy settings, an atmospheric score, precise cinematography, profound characters and incredible acting performances.
The story itself was very intriguing, but its the brilliant movie craftsmanship that made "The Handmaiden" into one of the best movies I've seen whole year (2016).Overall, "The Handmaiden" is definitely a movie that should be seen by everyone who enjoys great films (but not for the youngest ones as it shows some explicit sex scenes).
"The Handmaiden" (2016 release from South Korea; 145 min.) brings the tale of a young maid in in Japan-occupied Korea, As the movie opens, we see Sook-hee leave her family behind to start working as the maid to rich and beautiful Lady Hideko.
At this point we're not even 15 minutes into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from Korean director Park Chan-wook, who has previously brought us films like "Oldboy" and most recently "Stoker".
Directed stupendously by Park Chan-wook, and featuring three amazing central performances, it's a film that will grab you with its unbelievable levels of insanity and darkness, but will thrill you again and again with a sumptuous and confident execution of an enthralling story.Let's first establish what on earth this film really is, and why that makes it so brilliant.
On the one hand, this works on its own as a period thriller, with the setting of Korea under Japanese colonial rule allowing for some insight into the time period of the 1920s-30s, as well as some beautiful costume and production design, all of which plays a big role in making the film as elegant as it is.On the other hand, the story is an incredibly intense affair featuring twists and turns the likes of which you've never seen.
The film is directed by Park Chan-wook, who also made the legendarily messed-up thriller Oldboy, a fact that's even more disturbing when you realise that The Handmaiden is in more ways than one even more psychotic and terrifying than that movie.The story is one of deception, betrayal and love from start to finish, and in that, it's very reminiscent of two classic thrillers.
The style of its story, featuring three acts based around three enormous but totally unpredictable twists, is much like how David Fincher's Gone Girl plays out, whilst the content of the story, involving two characters secretly working together to get one over on someone they have befriended is hugely reminiscent of Diabolique, a film so effective in its thrills that it actually influenced the success of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.Anyway, it's a plot that's difficult to talk about without giving away any spoilers, but it is one that is utterly thrilling at every moment.
The story that unfolds effectively takes the form of a love triangle, but Park makes sure to emphasise the darker side of that sort of conflict by filling the film with some incredibly frank and unbelievably graphic sex.Now, many films go too far on this front and become completely gratuitous, but that's not the case with The Handmaiden.
Park Chan-wook's succulent period drama is a three-act intrigue set in a Japanese-occupied Korea, a close-knit cast includes a Japanese heiress Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee), her newly hired handmaiden Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri, in her blazing film debut), the professed Count Fujiwara (Ha Jung-woo), a Korean con artist who is wooing Hideko but schemes to wrest for the marriage's collateral financial gain, and Hideko's current guardian, her uncle Kouzuki (Jo Jin-woong), a Korean book collector who is spoiling for a Japanese identity, and has no qualm of marrying his niece as long as he could keep a tight rein on the latter's magnanimous inheritance.
The Handmaiden is another proof that Asian cinema is at a great time, the direction is of the excellent Park Chan-Wook, who directed the masterpiece OldBoy which is one of my favorite movies, and he returns to make an excellent direction, The Handmaiden is a very different film from Oldboy, it is a heavy film with a lot of sex scenes, some even unnecessary in my opinion, the costumes are impeccable, excellent photography, very beautiful soundtrack, a very good script, even with some problems , The film has quite unnecessary scenes, and the cast is very competent, even though I dislike Ha Jung-Woo's character, but it's a very good film, one of the great films of 2016.
It seems to glow with creativity and beauty with each new scene, and during the entirety of its over 2 hour run time I found myself entranced by a slow-churning mystery that left me once again excited by the craft a good movie can make appear so easy.The film is a South Korean production helmed by director Chan-wook Park, known mostly in America as the director of 'Oldboy.' People often say that foreign films demonstrate a higher quality in comparison to the stuff of Hollywood; that stories are daring and the craft is not as pressured by executives who would rather turn a profit than make something truly substantial.
Sook- Yee, who sees the potential wealth she will soon inherit, seems hypnotized by the beauty of her boss, and in some of the most beautiful moments of glances and gestures, we can see a dark romance forming between the two women.The story is broken up into three parts, and to venture in even discussing the array of twists and turns would do no favors to the structure of the story, so expertly-written and brilliant that at any one time we may have flashbacks within flashbacks told simply to act as footnote to a line of dialogue or interpret the actions of a character.
A masterwork of precision craftsmanship, The Handmaiden is an exquisite blend of high-quality direction, clever writing, sumptuous production design, impeccable camera-work, tight editing & mesmerising score that finds the revered filmmaker in sublime form, and is all the more uplifted by his sweeping cinematic vision to cement its spot amongst the finest films of 2016.Set in Japanese-occupied Korea, the story of The Handmaiden follows a pickpocket who's hired by a conman to assist him in seducing a Japanese heiress, who lives a secluded life in a countryside mansion with her uncle, in order to steal her inheritance but finds herself attracted to her beauty & innocence and after an unexpected encounter, starts having second thoughts about going with the original plan.Co-written, co-produced & directed by Park Chan-wook (best known for Oldboy, Joint Security Area & Stoker), this sexually-charged erotic thriller finds the esteemed filmmaker returning to his roots after his stint at Hollywood and makes splendid use of all his trademarks, including his own touch of dark comedy, bizarre elements & graphic violence, and is possibly the most refined & beautiful film he's made to date.The ornamental set pieces & lush locations provide its tale a setting that's as steeped in mystery as it is in beauty, which is further enhanced by its arresting cinematography that makes excellent use of fluid camera movements, fitting colour tones & perfect lighting to radiate a sense of warmth & an undercurrent of ambiguity.
While Min-hee illustrates the fragility & mysteriousness of the heiress with finesse, Tae-ri does a fabulous job at expressing the maidservant's shifting allegiance and the sexual tension between them is the core ingredient that drives this film and Chan-wook captures it with genuine intimacy & tenderness.On an overall scale, The Handmaiden finds the visionary filmmaker in complete control of his craft, and is an erotic thriller for the ages.
The Handmaiden succeeds as a mesmerizing piece of cinema thanks to a rich story full of twists and turns that you won't see coming, excellent camera work, superb directing, excellent costume design, and unforgettable performances by its ensemble cast.
It's fun to watch it all unfold, although those expecting a mind-blowing twist in the vein of Oldboy may be let down; while the movie is quite far from traditional, its plot machinations are fairly traditional (although very engaging).What pushes the film up quite a bit is Park's style.
As for the sexy, erotic elements that the film had to offer, well, all I can say is that they don't hold back anything and Chan-Wook is very direct and to the point with the subject matter at hand.In the end, "The Handmaiden" is hands down of the best movies I've seen in 2016.
It's a wonderful movie, but when the second part of the story starts its when things really begin to heat up and then you can clearly see that this is truly a Park Chan-Wook film that it's not far from he's master piece "vengeance trilogy".
But, above all things, this movie is a beautiful and empowering love-story.Much like Kurosawa's "Rashomon" Chan-Wook's film creates powerful suspense and tension through its multiple perspective story-telling; allowing the viewer to slowly piece together a narrative puzzle (as each character recounts their experience), revealing bits of information that unravel the truth about the chain of events that occur.