The Handmaiden

Inspired by the 2002 novel, “Fingersmith” by Sarah Waters, this Korean historical erotic thriller was produced. It’s a 2-hour film divided into three parts and tells the story of a con man under the name of Count Fujiwara who devises a plan to seduce a Japanese heiress, Lady Hideko, marry her, commit her to an asylum and run away with her inheritance. He hires a pick-pocket named Sook-Hee to become Hideko’s maid and through that medium, convince her to marry him.

Hideko, meanwhile, lives with her sadistic uncle, Kozuki, who sold his home country, Korea, to the Japanese in exchange for a gold mine. From there, he is able to amply feed his obsession with rare and sadistic erotica. He sells forged books to the Japanese elite and makes his niece, Hideko read these books to his clients before they are auctioned. The plan to get Hideko to marry the Count is still underway for Sook-Hee but now, things may begin to pan out differently as she finds herself falling in love with Hideko and vice versa. Will she still carry out the Count’s plan or does the ultimate plot twist await us all?

One thing about Korean full movies as opposed to the series is that you tend to see everything happen way too fast for comfort. Not like you lose track necessarily of the occurring events, but the plot is thickening and things are more or less spiraling out of control. Sometimes, it adds to the thrill of the movie, or in other times, like this one, it feels like you’re missing out on some part of the plot.

I loved the movie's premise, and from the beginning, I was hooked and eager to see how it would all pan out. The nudity fazed me a bit, I’m not going to lie. Even though this is so popular with Korean single films, I’m still used to their somewhat conservativeness, so I was taken aback by it all and just watched until the end, skipping parts that felt too uncomfortable.

What I was not expecting was those plot twists. Movies usually have one killer plot twist, but here, there were two killer twists that had my head reeling in shock. It wouldn’t have made sense for the first plot twist to signify the end. It would have been rather cruel even. So, I’m glad that the last plot twist did justice to things. The ending was kind of gory, and yeah, I’m a scared cat, so I closed my eyes a bit. It didn’t have to be like that but it was rather satisfying but cruelty should meet cruel ends, not so?

Would I be recommending this film to you all? Yeah, that’s the whole essence. It’s quite a beautiful film and quite unique as well. But as you can tell, it’s not a family watch, so keep that in mind, yeah? Have a wonderful week ahead and don’t forget to join the $GIFU discord and not miss out on all the exciting possibilities our new token holds.😉

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