The Handmaiden
Moho Film (2016)
Drama, Foreign, Queer Themes/Interest, Romance, Thriller
In Collection
#821
8*
Seen ItYes
(10/19/2019)
043396492783
IMDB   8.1
144 mins South Korea / Korean
DVD  Region 1
Kim Min-Hie Lady Hideko
Kim Tae-Ri Sook-Hee
Ha Jung-Woo Count Fujiwara
Cho Jin-Woong Uncle Kouzuki
Kim Hae-sook Butler
Moon So-ri Aunt of Noble Lady
Lee Dong-Hwi
Tae-ri Kim Sook-Hee
Yong-nyeo Lee Bok-soon
Min-chae Yoo Ggeut-dan
Dong-hwi Lee Goo-gai
Hae-sook Kim Miss Sasaki
Min-Hee Kim Lady Hideko
Jung-woo Ha Count Fujiwara
Kyu-jung Lee Maid 1
Kim Si-eun Maid 2
Si-yeon Ha Maid 3
Rina Takagi Hideko's Mother
Jin-Woong Cho Uncle Kouzuki
Geun-hee Won Butler
Jong-Dae Kim Mansion Driver
Han-sun Jang Kouzuki Porter
Eun-yeong Kim Maid 4
Ri-woo Kim Japanese Officer 1
Shinsuke Fujimoto Japanese Officer 2
Katsuhiro Nagano Monk
Lee Ji-ha Female owner of ryokan
Tomomitsu Adachi Mental Hospital Doctor 1
Takashi Kakizawa Mental Hospital Doctor 2
Seo-Yoon Hwang Mental Hospital Nurse 1
Shin-hye Park Mental Hospital Nurse 2
Eun-hyung Jo Young Hideko
Director/Choreographer
Chan-wook Park
Producer Chan-wook Park
Syd Lim
Tae-sung Jeong
Wonjo Jeong
Writer/Composer Sarah Waters
Seo-kyeong Jeong
Chan-wook Park
Cinematography Chung-hoon Chung
Music Yeong-wook Jo


1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a young woman is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering uncle. But, the maid has a secret: she is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler posing as a Japanese count to help him seduce the heiress to elope with him, rob her of her fortune, and lock her up in a madhouse. The plan seems to proceed according to plan until the women discover some unexpected emotions.
Edition Details
Release Date 1/10/2017
Screen Ratio Theatrical Widescreen (2.35:1)
No. of Discs/Tapes 1
References
Streaming, VoD Amazon Prime
Lists ‡ Rotten Tomatoes: 200 Best LGBT Movies of All Time
QueerGuru Rating 9
Rotten Critics Rating % (2021) 95
Rotten Best Queer #1-200 (2021) 14

Notes

The Handmaiden certainly isn’t a straightforward film, and if you’re the sort of person who likes to know exactly what’s going on at all points in a movie, you may find it an extremely frustrating experience. But it is a wonderful experience. One of the best films I seen this year. The cinematography is near perfect. While you may pretty much have figured out where the story is going by Part Three, how we get there held me in suspense. There are some very erotic F/F scenes which surprisingly were engossing.