History Film / TheHandmaiden

* RuleOfSymbolism: [[spoiler: When Sook-Hee and Hideko run away from the mansion, Hideko is unable to cross the stone wall surrounding the park by herself. Instead, Sook-Hee builds a ladder out of their suitcase and helps her climb over it, thus allowing her to reach true freedom]].

(GilliganCut to Hideko lacing the corset tighter with a foot on Sook-Hee back, while she can't catch her breath)

* AscendedExtra: Maud's EvilUncle is a fairly minor characer in the novel. Kouzuki is the BigBad here.

* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:Fujiwara criticizes Kouzuki's obsession with sex with Hideko, claiming that a gentleman would never tell him the details he wants. When Kouzuki succumbs to the mercury smoke in the room, Fujiwara then begins taking deeper and deeper breaths himself [[MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes and thinks back on time he spent with Hideko]].]]

* ParentalIncest: Hideko's parents are dead, but her guardian (Her mother's brother-in-law) is planning to marry her for her fortune, and he also forces her to read from pornographic novels--and even reenact certain scenes--for other rich men.

* SettingUpdate: From Victorian London to Japanese-occupied Korea in TheForties.

** [[spoiler: The butterfly hairpin that Boksun bequeathes to Sook-hee was used by the latter to pick the locks on her leg cuffs which enabled her to escape the asylum.]]

* NightmareFetishist: Kouzuki, who writes increasingly perverted erotic fiction and delights in forcing Hideko to read and reenact its content in front of an audience. [[spoiler: The briefly-glimpsed contents of his dreaded basement suggest a deeper level of vileness to Kouzuki's predilections - we get to see various human body parts preserved in jars, among them a vagina. Then there's the octopus...]]

** [[spoiler: Fujiwara's cigarettes.]]

** Fujiwara's counterpoint Gentleman was the BigBad of the novel. [[spoiler:In the film, he helps the women escape, and takes out Kouzuki himself.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When Uncle Kouzuki leaves the estate on business he tells Hideko that that with him gone she has a week of freedom, but that she must always remember "the basement". [[spoiler:"The basement" is the torture chamber where Kouzuki murdered Hideko's aunt, and which he showed her with the threat that he would bring her down there if she ever tried to escape. It is Fujiwara who winds up in the basement at the end of the film, after he helped Hideko escape Kouzuki but was unable to keep her from escaping him as well.]]

* BlackComedy: Hideko is ultimately DrivenToSuicide and attempts to hang herself, only for Sook-hee to literally catch her and hold her suspended. In their ensuing conversation Sook-hee is so overcome with emotion that she drops Hideko, so Hideko completes her fall and begins to strangle on the rope and trash about. It takes a few seconds for Sook-hee to remember her and rush to pick her back up.

** Hideko fears "the basement" so totally that she will not do anything to defy Uncle Kouzuki. Fujiwara offers her a vial of concentrated opium to persuade her to assist him, a few drops of which will render her unconscious for hours, and the whole bottle of which will kill her painlessly and quickly.
** Fujiwara has mercury-impregnated cigarettes prepared in the event that things do not go according to plan. [[spoiler:When Uncle Kouzuki catches him, Fujiwara waits until he is in "the basement" with him before lighting them, [[TakingYouWithMe allowing him to kill Kouzuki as well]].]]

* BlackComedy: Hideko is ultimately DrivenToSuicide and attempts to hang herself, only for Sook-hee to literally catch her and hold her suspended. In their ensuing conversation Sook-hee is so overcome with emotion that she drops Hideko, so Hideko completes her drop and begins to strangle on the rope and trash about. It takes a few seconds for Sook-hee to remember her and rush to pick her back up.

** Hideko keeps a length of rope in her room for her own eventual suicide, to emulate her aunt. [[spoiler: She does tie the knot and jump when the guilt over her plan to betray Sook-hee grows too much, [[SubvertedTrope but Sook-hee catches her and confesses her own plan]].]]

** When Fujiwara is advising Hudeko on her painting, at points during these lessons she is shown to be sketching Sook-hee.

* FateWorseThanDeath: "The basement", which Uncle Kouzuki uses to hold Hideko completely under his thrall. [[spoiler:It contains printing equipment that he uses as torture devices, along with a tank holding a giant octopus. It is never explicitly addressed, but the implication is that Kouzuki uses the octopus as well.]]
* {{Fingore}}: [[spoiler: Uncle Kouzuki cuts off the fingers on one of Fujiwara's hands]] with a paper cutter.

* ImpaledPalm: [[spoiler: Uncle Kouzuki drills a hole into the hand of Fujiwara]] that did not [[{{Fingore}} have its fingers cut off]].

* IntimateArtistry: Fujiwara's rationale for staying at the estate is to coach Hideko in her painting. At points, during these lessons Hideko is absentmindedly sketching Sook-hee.

-->What I desire is, how shall I put it...the manner of ordering wine without looking at the price? [Nods to the waiter to pour the wine without looking at the price] Something like that.

* FateWorseThanDeath: "The basement", which Uncle Kouzuki uses to hold Hideko completely under his thrall. [[spoiler:It contains printing equipment that he uses as torture devices, along with a tank holding a giant octopus that it is implied he uses on women.]]

* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:Fujiwara waits until he is with Uncle Kouzuki in "the basement" before lighting his mercury cigarettes so that he can kill Kouzuki at the same time]].

* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: [[spoiler: Fujiwara [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled kills himself]] [[TakingYouWithMe and Kouzuki]], so Sook-hee and Hideko are able to escape without needing to kill either of them directly]].