Upstairs, downstairs.
Throughout history there have been many, many renditions of this. Those hired to serve their masters. More or less freely. More or less diabolically.
Here the narrative is rooted in “the Far East”. Particular cultural prejudices abound that “outsiders” may or may not be familiar with. And, historically, the events unfold in the 1930s, in Korea, a nation at that time occupied by Japan. The plot is bursting at the seams with intrigue. In other words, a world where particular characters adopt particular personas in order to manipulate others into believing in a staged reality. Con artists in other words. Downstairs sorts trying to confiscate what those “upstairs” have. But only in the most cunning and sophisticated of ways.
The plot is narrated from different perspectives. A way of looking at the same events from unique points of view. Here revolving by and large around love and betrayal. And money. And lust. Lots and lots of lust in a clearly patriarchal society. That and the things that we will do in order to obtain and then sustain them. And always within each of us there is ample room for contingency, chance and change. We start out with one set of motivations, get swept up in the experience, and find those intentions being tugged in very different directions.
Most crucially, we see how any particular individual only sees another from a own point of view. Then we gain access to the actual life that person lived. The parts from the past that configured them into who they think they are today…but parts we were never privy to.
Basically, the film inhabits a wholly cloistered world/reality ever and always cut off from the rest of us. The stuff of fantasy by and large. And clearly a world only the very rich can sustain. Well, for any length of time.
From the director of Oldboy above, the film is described as an “erotic psychological thriller”. And who can ask for more than that?
IMDb
[b]The film title in Korean (Ah-ga-ssi) means ‘‘The Lady’’ referring to Lady Hideko, while the English/International title is The Handmaiden referring to Sookee.
Before filming, director Park sent the completed script to source writer Sarah Waters for comments. Waters liked the script but felt that it is more appropriate to say that the film was ''inspired by" the novel Fingersmith.
For the lesbian lovemaking scenes between the two female leads:
⦁ All the crew members were asked to leave the set and only a female staff holding the boom microphone was present. The scenes were filmed with a remote controlled camera.
⦁ On the date of shooting, all visitors were not allowed to be near the shooting area.
⦁ All male crew members had a day off on the shooting day.
⦁ The bathroom set in Hideko’s room was made into a resting area for the two actresses to relax between takes.
⦁ The bed scenes were shot during the early stages of the production as Park thought it was stressful and burdensome for everyone.
⦁ During pre-production, everything has been choreographed and discussed between Park and the two actresses who were fully-dressed.
Tae-ri Kim said she felt slightly insecure with performing the simulated lesbian sex scenes, but Min-hee Kim reassured and energized her.[/b]
trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt4016934/tri … =ttqu_sa_1
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaiden
trailer: youtu.be/IkvHtfRAKNk
THE HANDMAIDEN [Ah-ga-ssi] 2016
Directed by Chan-wook Park
[b]Sookee’s sister [at the train station]: I should be the one going. It should be me who’s going to that Jap’s household.
…
Mrs. Sasaki [to Sookee]: You may eat the Mistress’s leftover food. But the leftover tea must be brought to the kitchen. Leftover oil and soap should be brought to the steward. Anyone caught stealing is expelled that day.
…
Sookee [narrating]: You think my actual name is Tamako…But my real name is Nam Sookee. Once I was born, I was given away to the silversmith shop of my father. When I was 5, I could already tell the difference between fake and real money. Afterwards, I learned how to make fake signature stamps, and even picked up the art of stealing as well.
…
Fujiwara: I will make her fall in love with me and we’ll escape to Japan. There, we will get married, and once she receives her inheritance, I’ll say that my wife has gone mad and have her locked in an insane asylum. I want Sookee to be her maid. Every night to listen in on Hideko and afterwards, relay everything to me. Follow her every move all day and convince her to fall in love with me.
Sookee: A con-man knows how to love?
…
Sookee [to Fujiwara]: Fine, 50,000 accepted. Besides the jewelry and clothes, I want 100,000 on top of that.
…
Sookee [narrating]: Crazy? Not a bit. I’ll take my fortune and flee this country. Endure these country yokels a bit longer.
…
Fujiwara [reading his letter of reference aloud]: “Dear Miss Izumi Hideko, Count Fujiwara has informed me you are in need of a new maid. A maid is like a pair of chopsticks. When their presence is there it’s ignored, but when it’s not there you feel something missing.”
…
Lady Hideko: Reading can be learned, and I don’t care if you curse and steal. But don’t ever lie to me. Understood?
Sookee: Yes, Miss.
…
Kouzuki: The snake! The snake!
Lady Hideko: You must never pass that point!
Kouzuki: Be warned! The snake marks the bounds of knowledge.
…
Sookee [to Fujiwara of Lady Hideko]: She’s so naive, even if a man pulls on her nipples she won’t know what he wants!
Fujiwara: So it’s your job to tell her that everything is because of me. “Oh my, since the Count arrived, your toenails are growing much faster!”
…
Lady Hideko: I think I know what the Count meant. Your face…Each night in bed, I think of your face.
Sookee [feigning shyness]: Don’t be silly, Miss.
…
Sookee [narrating]: For now, the Lady needn’t go read to the sick fuck who wants to marry his wife’s niece. Instead, the fake Count goes to the library to make fake books…Poor girl, losing her heart to a fraud.
…
Lady Hideko: It would have been better if I was never born. To have never taken a breath.
Sookee: No baby is ever guilty of being born. If your mother thought you could understand, this is what she would have said. That she was so lucky to have you before dying.[/b]
Is she acting now?
Sookee [narrating]: The lady sits, shy and trembling. The gentleman is persistent. The perceptive maid has stepped out for a moment. All is well, Sookee. Everyone’s performing their roles well…I see that I should not have come here. It was wrong to come.
Though by now we see that not all of them are.
[b]Sookee [narrating]: I need to remind myself that I want to be rich. And then travel somewhere far eat foreign foods, to buy bright shiny things and… most importantly…not think about Hideko.
…
Lady Hideko [to Sookee]: He proposed to me.
Sookee: What did you say?
Lady Hideko: I said I wasn’t sure.
Sookee: Why?
Lady Hideko: I’m scared.
Sookee: Of your Uncle’s anger?
Lady Hideko: Of the Count.
…
Lady Hideko: [lying in bed next to Sookee…whispering]: What does a man really want?
Sookee: What?
Lady Hideko: What I mean is the wedding night. How would I know? I’m practically a child. I grew up without a mother to teach me. I have no idea about any of this.
[pause]
Lady Hideko: Probably kissing first?
Sookee [voiceover]: Alright. Let’s try to put her to sleep. So adorable. In a foreign country and without a mother. Alone in this giant mansion. Reading useless books. And learning nothing of value, not a single useful skill.
[Sookee kisses her on the lips]
Lady Hideko: How do you know? Have you done this before?
Sookee: My friend Kutan taught me.
Lady Hideko: Taught you? By describing?
Sookee: Yes, only by words.
[They kiss passionaitely]
Lady Hideko: So this is the feeling!
…
Fujiwara: Come over here, Tamako.
[Sookee walks over, Fujiwara puts a coin in her hand]
Fujiwara: Find some other thing to do. You catch my meaning?
[Sookee looks down at Lady Hideko, grabs the coin and goes to the door. Then she stops, turns around, walks back and returns the coin]
Sookee: I’ve no other job to do. My job is to look after the Lady.
…
Fujiwara [grabbing Sookee by the wrist]: I spit it out without chewing. All because of you! She’s fully ripe! Fully ripe!! If I miss this fortnight, I’m finished!
[he yanks her hand and puts it in his groin]
Fujiwara: Can you feel it? How much I want it? After fighting so hard to escape my garbage heap of a life, you think I’ll let you fuck it up, you bitch?! Shall I tell the Lady you’re nothing but a lowly pickpocket?
Sookee: Fine, I’ll have something to tell her too! That you’re nothing but the son of a lowly Korean farmhand and shaman!
Fujiwara [forcing her hand to stroke him]: Sookie, think of your family at home. Boksun raising babies with her bad back, and those two halfwits. How will they feel if you go home empty-handed? Want to shit on your mother’s legend? You should go home in glory!!
Sookee [yanking away from him]: Don’t push Hideko too hard. She’s got no one on this earth. If you frighten her, she’ll close up hard as a clam…And please don’t ever again put my hand on your tiny joke of a cock.
…
Lady Hideko: Even if I say I don’t love him, if I say I love someone else. Me, who has no one on this earth. I could be happy if I stay here with you. Do you still want me to marry him?
Sookee: You will love him.
[Lady Hideko slaps her twice across the face, then pushes her out of the room]
…
Sookee [narrating]: In the end, Hideko accepted his proposal, provided that I came to Japan, too. The Count, after feigning annoyance nodded his head. On the day her uncle went to visit his mine, the Count pretended to go back to Japan and hid nearby.
…
Sookee [narrating]: From morning to night we see no sign of the Count. Certifying the marriage and converting the inheritance to cash requires much work, he says. The Count bribed the temple owner to keep an eye on us. Afraid that we would run off together.
…
Sookee: How can you be so cruel? You plucked the flower, now replant it.
Fujiwara: What do you want?
Sookee: Hurry up and throw her in the madhouse!
…
Sookee [to Fujiwara after realizing that she is the mark]: You scondrel!!
…
Lady Hideko [to the asylum attendants]: My poor Lady, she’s gone mad. If it’s any help, this is from her mother, and she used to cherish it…
[she looks over to Sookee]
Lady Hideko: … before going mad.
…
Aunt [Reciting]: “When Jinlian finally took off her clothes, Ximen Qing examined her Jade Gate, discovering the Secret Well to find it hairless, white as snow, and smooth as jade. Tight as a drum, and soft as silk. Once he drew apart the curtains of flesh, a scent of well-aged wine emanated from within, and on fold upon fold of the red velvet interior, beads of dew were forming. Its centre was dark and void, yet as if it had its own life, it twitched and twitched…”.
…
Fujiwara: Why this urge to become Japanese?
Kouzuki: Because Korea is ugly, and Japan is beautiful.
Fujiwara: Some Japanese say Japan is ugly and Korea is beautiful.
…
Fujiwara: I heard you are engaged to Lady Hideko. If I’m not mistaken, you are yet to have intercourse.
Kouzuki: Her eyes have no desire, It means her soul is dead inside.
Fujiwara: You should go easy on her training. Unless you enjoy making love to a corpse.
…
Fujiwara: You are mesmerizing.
Lady Hideko: Men use the word “mesmerizing” when they wish to touch a lady’s breast. I’m familiar with Western conversational etiquette.
…
Lady Hideko [through the door]: Consider your reputation as a nobleman.
Fujiwara [confessing at last]: I’m no nobelman. I’m not even Japanese. Think it was easy for a farmhand’s son to reach here? Fifteen hard years in Japan before hearing about you. Another three years to prepare. I studied bookmaking and learned to paint forgeries. All so that I could meet you. To seduce and marry you, to possess your father’s inheritance, and then probably to get rid of you. But I knew as soon as I met you for a man to seduce you would be…
[she opens the door]
Lady Hideko: …impossible.[/b]
So, instead, he offers her a proposal. One she cannot refuse – rescuing her from her Uncle.
[b]Fujiwara: Most marriages are prison, but this one will free you. I’ll rescue you from here, take you far away, and give you freedom. Of course, we’ll split the money.
Lady Hideko: Nonsense.
Fujiwara: Marrying an old man with a black tongue at your tender age makes sense?
…
Lady Hideko: Men are disgusting. Why do you always think of those things?
Fujiwara: You’re asking me about how I think? You think that all I’m interested in is your body? Is that so? You definitely have been reading too many of those erotic writings! If there’s anything I do want from you it’s not your eyes, hands, or ass, but your money.
…
Lady Hideko [after a flashback with her uncle]: That day I just watched and listened. But if I ever end up in that basement again…
[he shows her a small vial]
Fujiwara: Highly concentrated opium. Three drops you will sleep all day. Five drops will knock down a horse. If you crave death within five minutes, drink it all. If you carry this, he can never take you to the basement. At least not alive.[/b]
The plot thickens: Sookee becomes the mark.
[b]Fujiwara: You see? If you don’t give the impression you want this marriage, she may throw another fit and refuse to go forward. Be more convincing when you pretend to love me.
Lady Hideko: I can’t do it.
Fujiwara: What?
Lady Hideko: I want to quit.
Fujiwara: You feel sorry for her? What is it with women? You know what that poor Sookee said about your Ladyship? That you’re too dense to get it when a man pulls on your nipples. That she was nice out of pity, but you ate it up.That you were so gullible!
…
Lady Hideko [dangling from a noose tied to a tree limb]: Let go of me.
Sookee [holding her up and weeping from the ground below]: Miss, I’m sorry!
Lady Hideko: Let go!
Sookee: I’m sorry, Miss! Don’t die. I’m sorry. I tried to trick you into marrying that bastard. I was going to put you in a madhouse and run off. Don’t die. Don’t get married, Miss.
…
Lady Hideko: Sookee, are you worried about me?
Sookee: Yes.
Lady Hideko: I’m worried about you.
Sookee [suddenly realizing…]: How do you know my name?
Lady Hideko: You think you’re triclking me? You’re the one being tricked. You’re the one bound for the nuthouse.[/b]
The plot thickens. Again.
[b]Lady Hideko [narrating]: The daughter of a legendary thief, who sewed winter coats out of stolen purses. Herself a thief, a pickpocet, swindler My saviour who came to ruin my life. My Tamako, my Sookee.
…
Fujiwara [to Lady Hideko]: Me, a colonial boy working as a tout in a brothel. Some Englishmen who frequesnted the brothel recognized me. I thought they’d call the maitre d’ and kick me out. But what do you know? They were amused I’d spend a month’s pay on one dignified meal. They started calling me Count and taught me manners to go with the name. Frankly, I’m not interested in the money itself. What I desire is, how shall I put it, the manner of ordering wine without looking at the price?
…
Lady Hideko: Poor Sookee, in a place like that all by herself. Did such a thought ever cross your mind?
Fujiwara: Not at all. Why should I pity her? Where I come from, it’s illegal to be naive.
…
Kouzuki: It’s odd. Your smoke. It’s cold, blue…and strangely beautiful.
Fujiwara: You too have become soft, slow and dull. Mercury is most deadly in its gaseous state. One cigarette would have sufficed.
[Kouzuki falls to the floor poisoned]
Fujiwara: At least I will die with my cock intact.[/b]