Overview of The Handmaiden

‘The Handmaiden’/ ‘Ah-ga-ssi’ is the South Korean movie adaptation of the 2002 novel ‘Fingersmith’ by Welsh writer Sarah Waters. The movie is a masterful erotic psychological thriller with a pinch of dark humour and horror elements. Even-handedly applauded by the viewers and critics, this peculiar period piece was also released at The Cannes Film Festival on 14 May 2016. The magical hands of the director, Park Chan-wook, have added an intense visual charm to the nearly three-hour-long entertainer.

Profile

• Movie: The Handmaiden
• Genre: Thriller/Romance
• Director: Park Chan-wook
• Writers: Yoon Suk-Chan, Jung Won-Jo
• Producers: Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim
• Production Films: Moho Film, Yong Film
• Cinematographer: Chung Chung-Hoon
• Release Date: 14 May 2016 (Cannes), 1 June 2016 (South Korea)
• Distributor: CJ Entertainment
• Language: Korean
• Duration: 144 minutes
• Country: South Korea
• Box Office: $38.6 million

Cast

Main

• Kim Min-hee as Lady / Izumi Hideko
  A Japanese heiress with immense wealth. Being under her uncle’s house arrest for the past 10 years, she is unaware of the world around her and is deprived of freedom. She is depicted as a naive aristocratic orphan at the beginning part of the movie but later transforms into a strong independent character.

• Kim Tae-ri as Maid / Nam Sook-hee
  A Korean pickpocket is appointed as the handmaiden of Izumi Hideko to deprive her of the wealth she possesses through a masterplan. Nam Sook-hee has a knack for forging stamps and doing petty thefts. She is an orphan bought up by her aunt, Miss Boksun. Count Fujiwara hired Sook-hee, to be the maid of Lady Hideko. Sook-hee, a.k.a. Tamako, a.k.a. Okju is seen as a fiery character with an ambitious outlook.

• Ha Jung-woo as Count Fujiwara
  The cunning Count is a devilishly attractive con artist who plans to marry the Japanese heiress and inherit her wealth. He got into the close circle of the greedy nobleman Kouzuki, Hideko’s evil Uncle, as an artist to forge the paintings in books. Originally a Korean, Fujiwara intends on eloping to Japan. He hires Sook-hee as his wing-woman to seduce the wealthy Japanese heiress. His suave but fraudulent nature is seen whole along the length of the movie.

• Cho Jin-woong as Uncle Kouzuki
  Uncle Kouzuki is Hideko’s evil uncle. An eccentric masochist with a fetish for Japanese literature. He sided with Japan in the Korean invasion in exchange for a gold mine. Being a black-tongued man with hedonistic behaviour, he plans on getting married to Hideko and inheriting her unparalleled wealth. He shows deviant tendencies and holds a library filled with pornographic content.

Supporting

• Kim Hae-sook as Madame Sasaki
• Moon So-ri as Hideko’s aunt, Miss Bakson
• Lee Yong-nyeo as Bok-soon
• Lee Dong-hwi as Goo-gai
• Jo Eun-hyung as young Hideko
• Rina Takagi as Hideko’s mother
• Han Hannah as Junko
• Lee Ji-ha as Owner of Ryokan
• Jeong Ha-dam as Housemaid
• Choi Byung-mo as Audience member

Synopsis

The movie is multilayered and is divided into three parts.

The story is set in Japan-invaded Korea in the 1920-30s. It opens up with the entry of a con man who is disguised as ‘Count Fujiwara’ to the den of Miss Baksun. They are a hideous group of petty thieves. One day, Count Fujiwara makes an entry and discloses his plan about double-crossing a Japanese heiress to the group. Miss Baksun’s niece, Soek-hee is chosen to be sent to the plutocratic mansion of Kouzuki as the handmaiden of Kouzuki’s niece, Izumi Hideko, whom he plans to espouse.

Count Fujiwara wants Sook-hee to coerce the noblewoman into marrying him. Thus, he would be left with the colossal riches the lady possesses, robbing the chances of Kouzuki acquiring it. After ingeniously marrying her, he plans to dump her into the madhouse. Thus, having all the assets to himself and acquiring the family name of Kouzuki, Fujiwara plans on migrating to Japan.

Kouzuki is an eccentric hedonist with a frantic adoration for Japanese literature. He holds a huge library in the confined spaces of his mansion, filled with erotic literature and conducts literary reading sessions for the noblemen. Izumi usually conducts these reading sessions. His craze for rare books drives him to create forgeries.

All these years he has been grooming his own niece to become his wife. Fujiwara convinces him that he is an artist from an extremely noble family which is now in ruins. Kouzuki hires him to work on illustrations of the fake books he is planning to sell as originals.

Sook-hee is promised the spoils of the deal and thus takes up the challenge and sets on the journey to the secluded mansion of the Japanese heiress, Lady Hideko. She is welcomed by Madame Sasaki who enlightens her with the strange and enormous, half western-half Japanese architecture of the abode.

The plot then visualises the bond that swells up between the lady and her maidservant. Sook-hee is now Okju, and takes care of Izumi. Her main duty is to help Izumi prepare for her recital lessons. She sings to her, gives her candy, crawls into bed when she is scared by nightmares and comforts her. All this gets twisted once both of them experience a rush of lustful passion. They become so close that one day after the recital lessons they start making love. After their intimate night, Sook-hee had second thoughts about the plan. Fujiwara pays a visit occasionally posing as Izumi’s art teacher.

One day Sook-hee saw Count Fujiwara and the lady in an intimate frame. She was displeased. Still, she stood her ground when the lady herself told about her disinterest in the Count. Izumi slaps her and violently throws her out of the room when Sook-hee disregards her confession. Flaccidly, Izumi agrees to elope with Count Fujiwara on the next full moon day, when Kizouki departs for a meeting.

Sook-hee also joins them on the journey. After cashing out the assets, the Count, the lady and Sook-hee visit a mental asylum. Unexpectedly, the plot takes a bend here as Izumi switches identity with Soek-hee and it seems that the whole narrative was mapped out by Count Fujiwara and Izumi.

The storyline then shifts to the perspective of Izumi Hideko. It seems that the guileless outlook of Izumi was all part of the play crafted by herself and Fujiwara. Hideko’s aunt endured the abuse of her Uncle Kizouki. He was obsessed with erotic art and literature and made her read erotic literature to a room full of Japanese erotic literature lovers. So, Hideko’s aunt gives up on life and hangs herself.

Since then, Hideko has been under supervision and practising reciting pornographic readings. She also sustains molestation by her uncle and tries to run away and that is when she finds out that Kizouki actually murdered his wife for doing the same. On one such recital session, Izumi meets Fujiwara. He tried to pursue her romantically, but the lukewarm attitude of Izumi did not seem to change. Fujiwara then approached her with a plan that would reap benefits for both of them.

He orchestrates the tactic of hiring a handmaiden for Izumi, who’ll act as a cupid to cushion the rock-solid heart of the lady. Izumi would pose as an innocent being refusing every act put forward by Fujiwara. As the time comes, Izumi would swap herself with the maiden and admit Soek-hee to the asylum. They agree upon splitting her inheritance. A vial of opium is given by Fujiwara to Izumi as a ‘wedding present’ in spite of her fear of being taken down to the basement where Kouzuki threatens her of inflicting physical and mental torture.

Unfortunately, for Fujiwara things did not turn out well. Sook-hee and Izumi fall in love with each other. That night when Sook-hee persisted in her stand of Hideko committing to Fujiwara, Hideko was deeply hurt and she went on to commit suicide. Both of them became clear about their master plans on tricking each other.

To escape the malicious hands of the men who control them, they devised a plan. Sook-hee let her relatives know about the plan and asked for their help. They started off by destroying Kizouki’s collection of porn literature. For time’s sake, everything went on as planned by Fujiwara. Sook-hee plays along and creates a scene at the asylum.

After admitting Sook-hee to the asylum, Izumi and Fujiwara have lunch at a high-class restaurant. He then proposes to her after opening up about his real self. Hideko, using her seductive powers, drug him by adding opium, enough to knock him off, in the wine. She runs off with her share of the money. Meanwhile, Sook-hee breaks off the lock of her dwelling with the earrings Hideko had gifted her. A fire is set in the place by her group from town. Both of them meet and flee the territory.

Kizouki is back from his business meeting and finds out about the bad omen that has happened to him. He dispatches his men in search of Count Fujiwara and Izumi. They bring Fujiwara to him and he is tortured in the basement by Kizouki. In the end, Fujiwara tricks him into smoking the mercury-dipped cigarettes he had got in his pocket. The airtight basement chokes both of them to death.

The ending scene shows the lovemaking between Izumi and Sook-hee. This marked a new future for the two women who escaped the patriarchal ways.

Feminism in The Handmaiden

Sarah Water’s ‘Fingersmith’ follows a labyrinthine plot. Park Chan-woo filmed the intricate structure of the plot successfully. The story showcases the potential of feminine sexuality with subtle projections. The use of sexual imagery and metaphors is seen wisely in each scene. The film explores and pleasurably depicts the autonomy and sexuality of women. The women in movies are always shown through the spectacle ‘male gaze’.

This very patriarchal tradition is demolished by Park in the film. The aesthetic and raunchy sex scenes are contrary to sexual content usually devoured by the majority of the audience, which often sexualises females. The power of female sexuality is underlined in different parts of the film with subtlety.

The females in the movie stand on two opposite poles; the not-so-innocent yet fragile Hideko, who is deprived of knowledge about the world around her and the feisty con artist, Sook-hee. Despite their vast disparities, what brings them together is their femininity, what they have to break apart is the iron twines of male dominancy. Their emotional bond grows over things as small as corsets, pins and sandals, unlike men who find pleasure in gold mines and extravagant erotic libraries.

The intimate scenes are shot in such a way that it patronizes the female body in its raw form, unlike the female anatomy idolized by Kuzouki’s tuxedo-worn men in their imagination. Towards the end of the film, it is seen that after Sook-hee starts burning down the library, Hideko gains power and independence to destroy her uncle’s most priced possession. This is also a metaphor outlining Hideko’s own way to freedom.

Awards

• Alliance of Women Film Journalists (2016)
  Best Non-English-Language Film – Park Chan-wook
• Austin Film Critics Association (2016)
  Best Film – 4th place
  Best Foreign Language Film
• Blue Dragon Film Awards (2016)
  Best Actress – Kim Min-hee
  Best New Actress – Kim Tae-ri
  Best Art Direction – Ryu Seong-hee
• Boston Society of Film Critics (2016)
  Best Cinematography – Chung Chung-hoon
  Best Foreign Language Film
• Buil Film Awards (2016)
  Best Art Direction – Ryu Seong-hee
  Buil Readers’ Jury Award – Park Chan-wook
  Best New Actress – Kim Tae-ri
• Busan Film Critics Awards (2016)
  Best New Actress – Kim Tae-ri
• Cannes Film Festival (2016)
  Vulcan Award – Ryu Seong-hee
• Chicago Film Critics Association (2016)
  Best Adapted Screenplay – Park Chan-wook and Chung Seo-kyung
  Best Foreign Language Film
  Best Art Direction
• Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association (2016)
  Best Foreign Language Film
• Director’s Cut Awards (2016)
  Best Actress – Kim Min-hee
  Best New Actress – Kim Tae-ri
• Florida Film Critics Circle(2016)
  Best Foreign Language Film – Runner-up
  Best Cinematography – Chung Chung-hoon – Runner-up
• Korean Association of Film Critics Awards (2016)
  Top Ten Films of the Year
  Best Cinematography – Chung Chung-hoon
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association (2016)
  Best Production Design – Ryu Seong-hee
  Best Foreign Language Film
• New York Film Critics Online (2016)
  Best Foreign Language Film
• San Francisco Film Critics Circle (2016)
  Best Production Design – Ryu Seong-hee
  Best Foreign Language Film
• St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association (2016)
  Best Production Design – Ryu Seong-hee
• Women Film Critics Circle (2016)
  Best Foreign Film by or about Women
• Apolo Awards (2017)
  Best Song – ‘The sound of you coming’ (Gain and Minseo)
  Best Production Design – Ryu Seong-hee
  Best New Actress – Kim Tae-ri
• Asian Film Awards (2016)
  Best Supporting Actress – Moon So-ri
  Best Newcomer – Kim Tae-ri
  Best Production Designer – Ryu Seong-hee
  Best Costume Designer – Jo Sang-kyeong
• Baeksang Arts Awards (2016)
  Grand Prize – Park Chan-wook
• Dorian Awards (2017)
  Foreign Language Film of the Year
• Houston Film Critics Society (2017)
  Best Foreign Language Film
• National Board of Review (2017)
  Top 5 Foreign Films
• Online Film Critics Society (2017)
  Best Foreign Language Film
• Saturn Awards (2017)
  Best International Film
• Seattle Film Critics Society (2018)
  Best Production Design – Ryu Seong-hee
  Best Costume Design – Jo Sang-kyeong
• British Academy Film Awards (2018)
  Best Film Not in the English Language

Interesting Facts about The Handmaiden

1. The Handmaiden was pre-sold to 116 countries, including the US Amazon Studios.
2. The location of the movie was set in both Korea and Japan.
3. It became the third best-selling Korean movie in the UK in 2017.
4. The movie was shown with subtitles in two languages; Japanese and Korean.
5. There is a four-part BBC mini-series named ‘Fingersmith’ narrating the same story as ‘The Handmaiden’ in a different backdrop.
6. The budget for the movie was nearly ₩ 10 million.
7. The original setting of the movie is changed from Victorian-era Britain to Korea under Japanese colonial rule.

   

FAQs

1. Who is the Director of ‘The Handmaiden’?
   Park Chan-wook is the director.
2. What’s the Korean title of the movie ‘The Handmaiden’?
   The film title in Korean is ‘Ah-ga-ssi’, which means ‘The Lady’.
3. How much does ‘The Handmaiden’ gross at the Box Office?
   ‘The Handmaiden’ is estimated to have collected approximately 38 million won at the Box Office.
4. What is the Instagram ID of Kim Tae-ri?
   kimtaeri_official is the Instagram account of Kim Tae-ri.