The Handmaiden: lesbians scamming men and staying together is my favourite movie genre

 As it turned out, it was quite a difficult task for me to find a piece of gay cinema I mostly enjoy and which doesn’t leave me crying or worked up after the end credits start to come up. The Handmaiden, however, is one of these rare movies. Even though there are many scenes that aren’t enjoyable to watch, seeing how the story plays out and its fascinating character dynamics are what makes it one of my most rewatched movies.

So what kind of movie is The Handmaiden exactly? It’s one of the many masterful original Korean movie productions which received international spotlight in the 2010s. It is undoubtedly also a great drama and a prime example of complex storytelling, which hooks you from the first plot twist on until the satisfying ending.

Story

The story is divided in three acts, all set in the 1930s in a Korea occupied by the Japanese. The protagonist of the first act is Sook-hee, a young female delinquent, who gets approached by the impostor Fugiwara at the begin of the story. Fujiwara offers her a job as a handmaiden at the estate of Lady Hideko, a rich young countess, who is permanently supervised by her uncle, who plans to marry her to get to her money. As her personal handmaiden, Sook-hee should influence the countess to fall in love with Fujiwara, who pretends to be a count himself. In return, she would get the countess’ jewels and money. At first, their plan seems to succeed, but Lady Hideko turns out to be mentally unstable and by comforting her, Sook-hee and she come closer, which is where the original plan begins to crumble. In the second act, a complete change of narrative occurs, before all elements tie together in the final third act. It is by no means an easy watch in the first two acts or even a no-brainer, The Handmaiden is a movie that demands your full attention and psychological durability, but the happy ending makes up for it.

Why rewatch it?

After watching The Handmaiden for the first time, there are multiple reasons that make you want to rewatch it immediately. First off, the plot is filled with so many unforeseeable twists you’ll want to find out more about, since it’s almost impossible to catch everything during the first watch-through, which makes the characters and their behavior even more entertaining. Besides that, you’ll know when to skip the gruesome and explicit scenes of the movie and will not be caught off-guard by its violence anymore, as those scenes are not pleasant for the majority of viewers. Nevertheless, the harmless scenes, especially between Sook-hee and Lady Hideko, overweigh and there is nothing more enjoyable and comforting than watching two women who have been mistreated, underestimated and abused getting their well-deserved revenge and burning down a library in the process, for example. 

 written by Pius Hartmann