"I wish I'd never come here. It was wrong to come."
—Sook-hee, feeling either guilty or jealous
"I wish I'd never been born."
—Hideko, in sadness and in rage
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| Not rated. There's nudity, sex, violence, sweary bits, depictions of death, child abuse, etc. |
Without further procrastination—because it is now the 31st of December which means that I left writing this to the last possible minute—let's talk about The Handmaiden. Inspired by Sarah Water's "Fingersmith" and directed by Park Chan-wook (who also directed Stoker and Oldboy), this film is stylistically what I'm all about. You know those films where pretty much every frame is a work of art? Yeah...Park knows his stuff. In fact...I'm going to present a series of images and let them help me tell the story. It's not because I am so out of practice that I cannot be bothered to string the narrative together with words alone. Wait, no, that's exactly why.
Sook-hee sets out on her flawed hero’s journey, leaving the dismal squalor of her home behind. We do not know anything about her other than we are super glad that she doesn’t have to spend any more of the movie in this crap-hole of a village. The story takes place during the 1930s in Korea under Japanese occupation. Occupied nations tend not to, uh…do too well, as evidenced by poverty, hunger, famine, too many babies, general oppression—you know, the usual. Three cheers for Sook-hee leaving this awful, awful place for a much brighter future! Fewer cheers for those who remain behind to take care of all those screaming babies. :(
‘Count’ Fujiwara is a con man through and through, in the
game only for the money (or so he likes to tell himself). His latest scheme is to seduce
an insanely rich heiress named Lady Hideko in order to marry her, obtain legal claim
to her fortune, and then commit her to an asylum. To help achieve this
dastardly dream, he uses the talents of Sook-hee—orphaned pickpocket mentioned
above—to pose as Hideko’s new handmaiden. Sook-hee wriggles her way into
Hideko’s life in order to gain the woman’s trust and use it against her,
planting seeds about what a cool guy Fujiwara is: Wow yeah you should definitely
marry him. BUT WAIT THERE’S A TWIST. Oh, and then another twist. Two
twists? Whoa. But before we get to that…check out Fujiwara’s amazing mise-en-scène.
The guy’s a poseur (huhuhu see what I did there huhu).
Sook-hee’s life is looking up! She is now living at the manor, a decadent structure with architecture that is half European-half Japanese and damn it would be pretty cool to live there if you were into having a library filled solely with ancient erotica in a room featuring rearrangeable floorboards concealing tiny...swimming pools?…and a cursed snake statue thing of which I do not fully understand the origin and/or meaning. Anywho, the manor is this dope because it belongs to Hideko’s uncle, Kouzuki, who got rich by colluding with the Japanese pre-invasion so that he might be granted rights to a gold mine. Feels bad, man. Kouzuki is straight up the worst, and you will never convince anyone otherwise. His ew factor may be off the charts, but the dude is loaded, so he owns extensive land and a few gardens. Don’t blame the gardens for his creepiness, just enjoy frolicking through the sculpted greenery like dear ol’ Sook-hee.
Here’s the library I was talking about. I’m a librarian (#secondmentionmeansitsbragging), and I like a well-organized collection with grandiose pillars 'n' shit just as much as the next person, but even I gotta admit that this room has a funky vibe. And when I say ‘funky’…turns out it is also a stage for Hikedo when she performs her…'readings'…for Uncle Kouzuke's exclusively male guests. >_>
Quick! Let’s move on to Hideko and Sook-hee’s blossoming
romance! It’s not all gross weirdness, see?! I mean, it’s kind of weird because there’s a double-cross (oh, no!) and then a
triple-cross (wait, really?), but if the love these two share cannot withstand
the emotional repression and stifling gender-based expectations so
innate in a patriarchal society during early 1900s Japanese-Korean culture, then I just don’t think
that there is anything worth believing in anymore. Anyway, they both deserve better than what the world has planned for them,
and gosh dang it they’re going to find a way to be happy! Hideko with her
innocence and individualism stripped away at such a young age deserves happiness.
Sook-hee with her personal growth and eventual redemption deserves happiness.
Go get it!
Yeah alright I admit that there are some odd vibes around these two, too. Honestly, I think the mood is just used to set up some foreshadowing, but the uncertainty of what is going to happen to either of these women hangs heavy over many scenes. Check out the super suss The Double shit right here. And I don’t mean the one with Richard Gere, I mean the one by Richard Ayoade. Trivia fun fact! The film's English title is"The Handmaiden," meaning Sook-hee, but the Korean title is "The Lady," i.e., Hideko. Are they so easily interchangeable? Let's find out.
The only thing I have written down in my notes for this image is "dressed in virginal white." If I am remembering it right, this is when Count Fujiwara is seducing Lady Hideko. Soon, they will elope. Yes—they tie the knot, which is not a good thing for at least 2/3 of the parties involved.
At this point, I was getting tied up in the story, so my notes dwindle down to just a couple of words per thought. Here, I jotted down "behind glass." Thanks, past Rachel, that is super helpful. The sentiment is obvious, though: Hideko and Sook-hee are women in a time period when aesthetic beauty was aligned directly with their worth. They are groomed into sculpting themselves for the enjoyment of others, a carefully dressed display. Even Sook-hee starts out by viewing her mistress as more of an object than as a person ("Of all the things I've washed..."). But for these two, a crack is starting to spread in the glass. Oof. Metaphors were never my strength.
Forgot to mention an important part: Hideko's aunt—Kouzuki's wife—is dead, purportedly by suicide. She is said to have hanged herself from a large cherry tree within view of the manor house. Indeed, as Hideko leaves once and for all with Sook-hee to elope with the Count, they make their way across the grounds of her uncle's estate, a noose swaying from one of the tree's branches in the foreground. More like 'in the foreshadowing', amirite? Interestingly, Sook-hee tells Hideko that her own mother hanged herself...and then she giggles about it. The hell? Turns out her mother was caught stealing and was actually hanged as a punishment. "Did she cry? She laughed!" Sook-hee laughs to cover pain, too, it seems.
Hideko's aunt was one of the few people who was kind to her as she grew up, and there are a lot of parallels between them. "Did the big house make her go mad?" Mmmm, in a way, yes. The idea of insanity is toyed around with in this film in each act. Sook-hee, still conspiring with the Count to have Hideko committed after their honeymoon, fears that the poor girl "might truly go mad." Given the life that Hideko goes through, I don't see how she wouldn't lose her mind. Even as a young girl coming into womanhood under her uncle's thumb she realizes that "I was going a bit crazy," so she decided to do what she could to make those around her go crazy, too. Fair do's, kid.
Don't look too closely at what's inside the glass jars. If you think Uncle is terrible toward children and women, just imagine what he is going to do to Fujiwara when he learns of his con. Anyway, this is officially a Park Chan-wook appreciation post, so check out that sick framing. Unf.
Another sexy shot. And...a happily ever after? Well, I doubt it given the tumultuous time in which the story is set, but the sense of closure is solid. That's more than can be said about this post. Yeesh.
Happy new decade, everybody.
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