History Film / TheHandmaiden

Count Fujiwara, a Korean ConMan who poses as a Japanese nobleman, recruits the low-level criminal and pickpocket Sook-hee to help him scam the wealthy but isolated Lady Hideko out of her vast fortune: Fujiwara will woo Hideko and convince her to marry him, assisted by Sook-hee who will pose as Hideko's maid and persuade her of his beneficent qualities, and after the wedding [[GoAmongMadPeople they will have Hideko committed to an insane asylum and disappear with her fortune.]] However, [[EvilerThanThou not only are there greater evils present in the mansion than Sook-hee imagines]], but the plan is complicated by her own [[InLoveWithTheMark growing attraction and empathy for the lonely, beautiful Hideko]].

* ShearMenace: {{Subverted}}. Scissors have been used as weapons in five of Park's previous films – ''Film/SympathyForMrVengeance'', ''Film/{{Oldboy}}'', ''Film/SympathyForLadyVengeance'', ''Film/Thirst2009'', and ''Film/{{Stoker}}'' – but not in this one, though it gets close. [[spoiler: In the climax, Kouzuki gets a pair of scissors to cut Fujiwara's genitalia off, but dies of the mercury smoke before he can do more than cut off his underwear.]]

** The pornographic story read by [[spoiler: Hideko's aunt]] in Part 2 was an excerpt from JinPingMei (''The Plum in the Golden Vase''), a Chinese erotic classic. [[spoiler: The ending has Sook-hee and Hideko re-enacting a scene from the book while on their journey to China.]]

* ADateWithRosiePalms: How the wedding night actually went - [[spoiler: Hideko pleasured herself, not even allowing Fujiwara to look at her naked body.]] Sook-Hee only heard the scream of ecstasy, while Fujiwara lied to Uncle Kouzuki, saying it was both too beautiful to describe and what kind of husband would tell a story about such an intimate moment anyway.

* TheLawOfConservationOfDetail: Numerous important elements aren't exactly ''shown'' in Part One, but only implied to be there. For example, when Hideko writes Sook-hee's name on a piece of paper, we aren't shown what she actually wrote - [[spoiler: it was "Countess Fujiwara Hideko"]]. The letter forged by Fujiwara as a recommendation? [[spoiler: Instructions for Hideko how to handle Sook-hee.]] The overheard wedding night? [[spoiler: ADateWithRosiePalms.]] And so on and forth. This allows to easily twist what audiences took for granted in Part Two starts, finally disclosing the entire charade.

* ChristmasCake: It's not really mentioned within the story, but Hideko is 25 and still unmarried. Considering her wealth and status (and combined with the time period) this is a ''huge'' deal... and it's a subtle sign that something is seriously wrong with the household.

* ObviouslyEvil: Kouzuki has "EvilUncle" practically written on his forehead from the moment he shows up. We find out that he's not only a BoomerangBigot with delusions of sophistication but also a disgusting sexual deviant and [[spoiler: killed his own wife]], harbors sexual desires for [[VillainousIncest his niece]], and has his basement converted into a torture dungeon, complete with body parts in jars, that's so horrible Hideko would [[FateWorseThanDeath rather]] [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled die]] than go back there...

* ZipMeUp: The lesbian sexual tension is ramped UpToEleven in an early scene where Sook-hee and Hideko are lacing each other into and out of corsets.

* MotorMouth: One of the maids speaks so fast everyone has a hard time following her. The official subtitles for her lines were deliberately further speed up, to make it harder to follow her.

** [[spoiler: Sook-Hee is a SatisfiedStreetRat, taking part in an elaborate scam that will end with the mark of it locked in the asylum and she will profit on the fact. But the longer the scam is going on, the more reluctant she is to go through with it and ultimately tells everything to lady Hideko, also preventing her suicide in the process]].

* ZipMeUp: The lesbian sexual tension is ramped UpToEleven in an early scene where Sook-hee and Hideko are lacing each other into and out of corsets.

* MotorMouth: One of the maids speaks so fast everyone has a hard time following her. The subtitles for her lines were further speed up, to make it harder to follow.

* LetNoCrisisGoToWaste: As a prank, other servants took one of Sook-Hee's shoes, embarrassing her during official presentation to lady Hideko. [[spoiler: Following instructions from the "reference letter" to incite the greed and desire for material comfort in her, Hideko instantly seizes the chance and offers Sook-Hee a pair of her own elegant shoes, but only after first showing her a content of an entire cabinet]].

'''Hideko''': ...you think this is suffocating?

* BoomerangBigot: Kouzuki is Korean, but idolizes English and Japanese people and culture. He despises Korea and being Korean, and earned money and power by accommodating himself to the Japanese when they occupied Korea.

[[quoteright:259:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_handmaiden_film.png]]
[[caption-width-right:259:''"If she could be yours for ten minutes, what would you give in exchange?"''[[note]]''"Whatever your heart desires. Anything in this whole wide world."''[[/note]]]]

* TheComicallySerious: Lady Hideko’s deadpan reactions are humorously incongruous in several situations, including the dire ones.
** Her immediate dismissal of [[spoiler: Fujiwara’s compliments during their first actual conversation while mirroring back his exact same words that he said to her uncle,]] something that they’re both aware that she eavesdropped on.
** She used the full advantage of her appearance as a [[ZigzaggedTrope naively innocent virgin]] as she was seducing Sook-hee when it couldn’t be more blatant that she’s fully capable of seducing, and just as aware that she herself is being seduced.

--> Respected Uncle, [[spoiler:it always pained me to see you straining to speak flawless Japanese before the Count from Nagoya, and even to quiver your voice like a nobleman. So, I’m happy to inform you that you no longer need do so. That man is the son of a Korean farmhand. Oh, did my gift arrive safely? Please tell this to my gift in Korean: I’m afraid that in real life, no woman feels pleasure at being taken by force. But, for sending me Sook-hee out of all the girls in the world, I feel [[CallBack slightly]] grateful.]]

** Despite being from the city, Sook-hee is a naive, earnest young woman compared to jaded and fearful Hideko who has never gone out of her uncle’s estate since she was five.

* InterruptedIntimacy: After Fujiwara sends Sook-hee to replace the watercolour with oil paints, Sook-hee returns to see Hideko on top of Fujiwara, interrupting their moment. Part 2 shows that [[spoiler: Hideko and Fujiwara weren’t actually doing anything, just pretending to be intimate to make Sook-hee think her con with Fujiwara is working.]]

** Lady Hideko and Sook-hee’s ultimate goal is freedom, but their short-term goal involves the suppression of another’s freedom.
** Sook-hee laments that Hideko is contemplating the agony of falling in love leading her to think that she’s losing her heart to a fake thinking it was for the count. Later scenes show [[spoiler: Hideko’s perspective that her feelings for Sook-hee have deepened after the latter has comforted her over her mother’s death.]] Sook-hee is actually the “fake”.

** Fujiwara practices his reactions to Lady Hideko as being “flummoxed” by her beauty but [[spoiler: Sook-hee upon seeing Lady Hideko was completely caught off-guard that she can only articulate her feelings by using a word she’s heard just recently: flummoxed.]]
** Lady Hideko [[spoiler: is unable to deny Sook-hee’s beauty and elegance when she dresses her in her own clothes but wants to downplay it by repeating Fujiwara’s words which only emphasizes her sincerity and how enamoured she is that Sook-hee was left completely flustered and it broke her concentration as she was admiring her reflection.]]

* ViolinScam: In Part I, conman Fujiwara recruits thief Sook-hee to pose as a maid of the Japanese heiress Hideko, in order to convince Hideko to elope with him. Once Fujiwara obtains Hideko's inheritance, he will have her committed to an asylum and split the fortune with Sook-hee. [[spoiler:Part II reveals that Hideko is actually working with Fujiwara to convince Sook-hee that Hideko is the victim of their scheme. Sook-hee is the actual [[TheCon mark]] of the original plan. Then Sook-hee teams up with Hideko to run the con on Fujiwara, who does not know that his and Hideko's plan to con Sook-hee has been halted.

** While making the initial pact with Hideko, Fujiwara promises to give her [[spoiler: a fatal dose of opium that she can ingest to commit suicide if she's ever captured]], showing that he plans ahead for such outcomes. In the finale, he [[spoiler: commits suicide by using a lethal dose of mercury, which also kills Uncle Kouzuki.]]

* InterruptedIntimacy: After Fujiwara sends Sook-hee to replace the watercolour to oil paints, Sook-hee returns to see Hideko on top of Fujiwara, interrupting their moment. Part 2 shows that [[spoiler: Hideko and Fujiwara weren’t actually doing anything, just pretending to be intimate to make Sook-hee think her con with Fujiwara is working.]]
* InterruptedSuicide: Hideko, [[spoiler: riven with guilt over the plot to chuck Sook-hee into an asylum, goes to hang herself from the tree at the edge of the garden. She drops from the branch, only to be caught in mid-air by a tearful Sook-hee, who confesses her part in what she thinks is the plot to chuck Hideko into an asylum. Hideko promptly confesses the ''real'' plot and her part in it, which leads to a little BlackComedy when Sook-hee flips out in rage at Fujiwara, causing Hideko to choke on the rope for a little bit before Sook-hee remembers and helps her down.]]

* MaleGaze: Park made a conscious attempt to avoid this. The [[spoiler: love scenes with Sook-hee and Hideko]] were filmed remotely, with only female crew members allowed on set.

-->'''Sook-Hee''': [The brassiere]'s suffocating. How do ladies wear such things?
-->'''Hideko''': ...you think this is suffocating?
-->(GilliganCut to Sook-Hee shrieking as Hideko laces her into the full corset, steadying herself with a foot on Sook-Hee's back and yanking the lace)
-->'''Sook-Hee''': Miss, you're killing me!

* SheCleansUpNicely: When Hideko dresses Sook-Hee in one of her costumes, styles her hair and gives her her earrings, she looks just ''gorgeous''. Hideko agrees, commenting that all dressed up, Sook-hee looks like a lady like her.

%%* ViolinScam: [[spoiler: Hideko is working with Fujiwara to convince Sook-hee that Hideko is the victim of their scheme. Sook-hee is the actual [[TheCon mark]] of the original plan. Then Sook-hee teams up with Hideko to run the con on Fujiwara, who does not know that his and Hideko's plan to con Sook-hee has been halted. %%Please add more context. What is the scam?

* ShearMenace: {{Subverted}}. Scissors have been used as weapons in five of Park's previous films – ''Film/SympathyForMrVengeance'', ''Film/{{Oldboy}}'', ''Film/SympathyForLadyVengeance'', ''Film/{{Thirst}}'', and ''Film/{{Stoker}}'' – but not in this one, though it gets close. [[spoiler: In the climax, Kouzuki gets a pair of scissors to cut Fujiwara's genitalia off, but dies of the mercury smoke before he can do more than cut off his underwear.]]

* TaintedTobacco: Fujiwara prepares a self-inflicted variation, always carrying cigarettes that are poisoned with mercury, so if things ever go ''really'' wrong for him, he can [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled light one up and die on his own terms]]. [[spoiler:In the end, he pulls a TakingYouWithMe when he knows he's lost and will be murdered (slowly and painfully) by Kouzuki--once they're both locked down in [[TortureCellar the basement]], he asks for permission to have one last smoke.]]

* WoundedGazelleGambit: [[spoiler: Hideko]] is anything but the sweet, naive girl Sook-Hee initially takes her for.

%%* ViolinScam: [[spoiler: Hideko is working with Fujiwara to convince Sook-hee that Hideko is the victim of their scheme. Sook-hee is the actual [[TheMark mark]] of the original plan. Then Sook-hee teams up with Hideko to run the con on Fujiwara, who does not know that his and Hideko's plan to con Sook-hee has been halted. %%Please add more context. What is the scam?

* TheMark: There are four different 'marks':
** Hideko is the ''direct'' mark. Fujiwara will marry her in order to steal the fortune she inherited from her parents. [[spoiler: She is actually a fake mark who was in on the plan the entire time, targeting Sook-hee]].
** Uncle Kouzuki is the ''indirect'' mark. He is planning to marry Hideko himself so that he can combine her fortune with his own, and would lose that fortune if Fujiwara is successful.
** The end of Part 1 reveals that [[spoiler: Sook-hee]] is the ''real'' mark of the scam at Hideko's estate. [[spoiler: She is ''also'' a fake mark, running a double scam with Hideko against Fujiwara after Hideko decided that she could not continue with the original plan.]]
** The end of Part 2 reveals that the final mark is [[spoiler: Fujiwara]].

** The second love scene ends on a quietly powerful, sweet note, then the scene cuts to [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Hideko's art.]]

** The implication of how absolutely evil and depraved the uncle is from his mere introduction is somewhat lost to non-Korean audiences, as it might have less impact on them how he helped Japanese to annex the country or how bad it was to collaborate with Japanese colonial government. Sure, it sounds bad, but in eyes of Koreans that makes him a pure demon. Him trying to pose as Japanese and get naturalized just seals it. For Western audiences, this would be something like a French Jew trying to become a German Nazi aristocrat during the occupation of Paris.