The handmaiden is one of those film gems that I've discovered exploring the cinema of other regions and in other languages. Not in vain he won the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film this year.
This Korean film by director Park Chan-wook is difficult to frame within a single genre because it has a lot of psychological thriller, but also drama, erotic novel, gothic and romantic.
Seeing the film makes it clear that the story comes from Literature. The plot is inspired by the novel "Fingersmith" by the English writer Sarah Waters. Only that the United Kingdom of the Victorian era where the story takes place in the book is changed in the film by the occupied Korea in the decade of the 30s of the last century.
The film is divided into three parts, each centered on one of the characters and their relationships with the other protagonists. These parts don't follow a linear chronology, but go back and forth to reveal intentionally omitted parts of the previous parts, giving a new twist to the story.
A young Korean woman, Sookee, is hired as a maid in the mansion of a wealthy Japanese woman, Hideko. The latter lives under the influence and yoke of her uncle Kouzuki after the suicide of his wife. From this simple fact the whole plot is triggered. As the story progresses we realize that Sookee was not chosen randomly.
A con man, known as the "Count Fujiwara", whom Sookee already knows, is the one who recommends her and places her in that house with the intention of helping him to make Hideko fall in love with him, steal her inheritance and intern her in a mental hospital. Sookee knows this man because she herself belongs to his gang of smugglers with whom he has worked previously. The problem arises when from so much sharing Sookee and Hideko fall in love and make love passionately, starring in one of the most beautifully filmed erotic scenes I've seen (which is actually shown in the second part). As a result, Sookee begins to be consumed by the guilt of being fooling Hideko. But the plan continues as agreed, Hideko secretly marries the false Count and the three flee together. However, upon arriving at the madhouse, Surprise! They don't take Hideko but Sookee! We have been deceived! what happened? What did we miss? Who betrayed her?
It's the slowest part of the movie. It focuses on Hideko's childhood and shows how his aunt taught her to read under the strict supervision of her uncle. It also reveals a painful secret: the uncle has a huge collection of erotic books and makes Hideko's aunt read these books for wealthy collectors who then participate in the auction of the work. These exploitation sessions end up charging the life of the aunt and Hideko replaces her in the reading sessions.
We also see that Hideko's uncle is not only strict and abusive but he's also a con man. He hires an artist to decorate and create illustrations to those books that later auction as antique jewelry. And who is this artist? Fujiwara! And not only that. Then we see the Count talks to Hideko and offers her a plan to escape from his uncle: find a maid to help them, get married and after claiming the inheritance, intern the maid in a sanatorium with Hideko's identity. This explains the end of the first part, but before the end of this intermission we see Hideko torn apart by guilt (like Sookee before) and tries to commit suicide. Sookee saves her and between tears they both confess their respective plans to get the other out of the way.
Heart opened, they decide to take revenge of Fujiwara and the uncle, destroying the books of this last one. But did not we see Sookee being interned at the end of the first half? So, again, who betrayed who?
Story moves forward very quickly, as opposed to the intermediate. Sookee manages to escape from the madhouse during a fire caused by his friends in the gang. Hideko, in a hotel, adds opium to a glass of wine and offers it to Fujiwara, but when he refuses to drink it, she sips it and deposits it inside his mouth while she kisses him, seducing him. Fujiwara tries to rape Hideko but falls to the ground because of the effects of the drug.
After this Sookee and Hideko meet at the hotel and leave immediately, falsify passports and leave the country by passing one of them by a man.
Kouzuki casually finds Fujiwara and returns him back to his farm, tortures him and pressures him to obtain sexual details about his niece who has escaped despite his efforts to reach her. The fake Count asks him to light some blue cigarettes that he carries in his cigar case and starts telling him things while the blue smoke floods the room. Finally he reveals that the cigarettes have been tied with mercury and that the toxic gas inside the smoke is killing them both, ending at the same time with the oppressors of the protagonists who, in the last scene, make love with passion, tenderness and in absolute freedom.
For the beautiful photography, the well-cared spaces, the artistic treatment of the erotic scenes, the excellent performances and especially for the unexpected twists in the plot that make the almost three hours of duration fly by, I give this movie a score of 9/10 in my personal ranking and I highly recommend it.
