Movie Review: The Handmaiden (2016)
Ref: The Handmaiden (2016)
Content Warning: This film contains nudity and explicit content.
Content Warning: This film contains nudity and explicit content.
Alright guys, wow. This film turned out to be a bit more than I had expected but in a good way. I loved it and thought it was a very interest story, something unlike any other. I have so much to talk about for this film specifically but I will give it my rating of 8.5/10 or even 9/10.
“The savior that came to tear my life apart”
“Love? What does a crook know about love?”
“Imagine the torment of having so many women make advances on me, when I couldn’t afford to buy them a glass of burgundy”
“If I gave her the right signal, she would knock on my door without her underwear” and a quote in response to this “My thoughts exactly”
Content
So the story deals with this building intimacy, love, and sexual affection between two distinct counterparts or like opposites (I’ll just call it that for now) and very unusually but not in a bad way, it deals with two females and not the typical man and woman. I found a good chunk of the plot to be very complex and at many times I became confused and asked so many questions at once but as the story continued on, all of my questions were answered. What I loved so much about this film are the major twists and turns the plot continued on with. And it became nearly impossible to predict what was gonna happen next (at least for the most part) and the plot became so complex because not only does it have a separation of parts: part 1 and part 2 but it also deals with perspective and is adjusted by whom the main character of each part talks to and interacts with so we’re all seeing an entire story kind-of controlled by these interactions that like though you are following one story, there are like 2 or 3 different stories going on at the same time and that fascinates me because of the many levels the complexity of this film took (and I may just be a person that’s like easily amused or something who knows).
[SPOILER ALERT]
Knowing that this was a film produced and created in Asia, specifically South Korea, I was not so surprised that the element of sex would show up but it caught me slightly off guard how intense this element became as the film went on (LMAO as amazing as that sounds) and it didn’t bother me but at some points you really begin to question some of the things that were happening in the film. What I found myself questioning a lot was the Uncle’s mindset and the creation of his character because his character was kind-of based off of a very cynical, twisted, and very perverted idea. He was engaged to his wife’s niece, forced his wife and her niece to read aloud pornographic novels to men and collected them all in a library, forced his wife to hang herself, allowed the sexually exploitation of his niece and wanted detailed descriptions of how good it was doing her and like WOW okay. Like literally the poems read aloud were clear-cut descriptions of what a vagina looks like and men would come and listen to these readings.
Cons and Nitpicking
I’d say the only thing that really bothered me was the constant switch between languages at the beginning of the film. Now if you don’t know any of the languages and are just solely stuck to reading the subtitles, you wouldn’t find this to be as difficult to chew but as a person who is at the least pretty familiar with both Japanese and Korean, I found myself being pulled in two directions because of that little constant change in languages. I felt a bit discombobulated and it was a bit hard to concentrate on in the beginning because it’s like “oh she’s speaking Japanese” and then it’s “oh okay so he responded in Korean” and you use like several different parts of your brain at once, I was a mess but I’m good now.
I’m not even sure if this is something of a con or something that like bothered me or anything but I felt like the Count’s sexuality was very emphasized, he didn’t seem like a very stable character and he kept confusing me with what he really wanted concerning the Mistress because in most points, he would put his foot in as “hey I want sex” and then the next is him saying the word “love” but maybe that was used to make a point about why she didn’t really love him and why she loved her handmaiden more? The film really made out all of the guy characters to be mentally guided by their sexual prowess and if I have to say anything “guided by their penises” and so it felt like a very feminist-guided plot (which I mean I wasn’t so much bothered by but it could turn off some viewers if they do get that sort of vibe and don’t enjoy it).
Conclusion
It was sick, it was twisted and yet I enjoyed this film so much. Like first off, it explored a near genre that was inclusive of LGBTQ and open to gay sex, let’s clap on that one. Another thing is the complexity of the plot and how detailed it got; as the plot continued on and more details started to get added in, we’re given a more defined idea of what’s going on and I loved that ambiguity for the most part, terrific. Technicalities were fantastic and unique and god I love them. I felt like this film had a lot to do with psychology and the clockwork of each of the characters in the film so not only are we given the perspective of the main lead and her secret partner but we are also given the mindset of the crook and the uncle. It wasn’t a typical story and I loved that entire aspect of it, how unique it was and how good it set itself apart from being the usual, the bad people or the corrupt people have a change in heart and it turns out to be good and happy and they show love and compassion, it was way way way wayyy more than that.
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Some quotes before we start:“The savior that came to tear my life apart”
“Love? What does a crook know about love?”
“Imagine the torment of having so many women make advances on me, when I couldn’t afford to buy them a glass of burgundy”
“If I gave her the right signal, she would knock on my door without her underwear” and a quote in response to this “My thoughts exactly”
--------------------------
[SPOILER ALERT]
Concept and Perspective
I didn’t think too much when choosing this film. I’d previously watched a trailer for it and had decided on watching it when it came out in theatres due to the unique style of cinematography, and just solely for this reason (which I will go on about in just a second). This film plays with a lot of elements from both horror and thriller as a drama/mystery film and makes it work in their favor, touching on sound design and cinematography specifically, there were many of these elements that added to it’s eerie atmosphere and allowed the plot to transform several times and at several different points making it almost nearly impossible to predict what’s going to happen next (at least in my eyes). The concept of the film is very interesting as it takes the theme of very subtle intimacy between two people and allow these emotions to show growth as the story progresses on and especially being a film from Asia where things like gay sex and even close-intimacy between two guys and or two girls is seen as very taboo and forbidden, I found this story to add a nice touch of rebelling and distinction from what is normally being made in the Asian film industry.
Technicalities and Functioning
From the first moment that I watched the trailer, I knew that it had something very great to offer in terms of technicalities. There were many shots in this film that I thought were beautiful and well composed. In many places, the film gave off a sort-of Citizen Kane vibe with its DP work because of it’s unique crane shots and great use of blockage and frame-in-frame. I also found it very interesting where there were many times that even without any narration or dialogue, there were big chunks of visual depiction and the film showing us and not telling us; very vividly are we, as the audience, given the plot through the lens and by what we see and not by what we hear. I don’t think I have a “favorite scene” for this film because I really enjoyed the establishing shots and how fluid and steady they were. The composition of each shot was very impressive to me as well because it allowed the film to take on either very familiar places and locations and make them seem unreal and made up, in a sense. I’ll say that one of these include the near-beginning scene of the handmaiden’s first entrance into the Mistress’ house, that scene was very unique and beautiful and I loved how we could see them even enter and walk through the house and see them from the outside and then also from the inside. Reflective photography has always had a very big spot in my heart and to see the technique used in this film made me smile so much. There were also many shots that were canted and didn’t use the familiar like center framing or ⅓ framing technique or anything like that and just overall, it was beautiful piece as a whole and I very much enjoyed how unique the style of cinematography was. I didn’t think too much when choosing this film. I’d previously watched a trailer for it and had decided on watching it when it came out in theatres due to the unique style of cinematography, and just solely for this reason (which I will go on about in just a second). This film plays with a lot of elements from both horror and thriller as a drama/mystery film and makes it work in their favor, touching on sound design and cinematography specifically, there were many of these elements that added to it’s eerie atmosphere and allowed the plot to transform several times and at several different points making it almost nearly impossible to predict what’s going to happen next (at least in my eyes). The concept of the film is very interesting as it takes the theme of very subtle intimacy between two people and allow these emotions to show growth as the story progresses on and especially being a film from Asia where things like gay sex and even close-intimacy between two guys and or two girls is seen as very taboo and forbidden, I found this story to add a nice touch of rebelling and distinction from what is normally being made in the Asian film industry.
Technicalities and Functioning
Content
So the story deals with this building intimacy, love, and sexual affection between two distinct counterparts or like opposites (I’ll just call it that for now) and very unusually but not in a bad way, it deals with two females and not the typical man and woman. I found a good chunk of the plot to be very complex and at many times I became confused and asked so many questions at once but as the story continued on, all of my questions were answered. What I loved so much about this film are the major twists and turns the plot continued on with. And it became nearly impossible to predict what was gonna happen next (at least for the most part) and the plot became so complex because not only does it have a separation of parts: part 1 and part 2 but it also deals with perspective and is adjusted by whom the main character of each part talks to and interacts with so we’re all seeing an entire story kind-of controlled by these interactions that like though you are following one story, there are like 2 or 3 different stories going on at the same time and that fascinates me because of the many levels the complexity of this film took (and I may just be a person that’s like easily amused or something who knows).
[SPOILER ALERT]
Knowing that this was a film produced and created in Asia, specifically South Korea, I was not so surprised that the element of sex would show up but it caught me slightly off guard how intense this element became as the film went on (LMAO as amazing as that sounds) and it didn’t bother me but at some points you really begin to question some of the things that were happening in the film. What I found myself questioning a lot was the Uncle’s mindset and the creation of his character because his character was kind-of based off of a very cynical, twisted, and very perverted idea. He was engaged to his wife’s niece, forced his wife and her niece to read aloud pornographic novels to men and collected them all in a library, forced his wife to hang herself, allowed the sexually exploitation of his niece and wanted detailed descriptions of how good it was doing her and like WOW okay. Like literally the poems read aloud were clear-cut descriptions of what a vagina looks like and men would come and listen to these readings.
Cons and Nitpicking
I’d say the only thing that really bothered me was the constant switch between languages at the beginning of the film. Now if you don’t know any of the languages and are just solely stuck to reading the subtitles, you wouldn’t find this to be as difficult to chew but as a person who is at the least pretty familiar with both Japanese and Korean, I found myself being pulled in two directions because of that little constant change in languages. I felt a bit discombobulated and it was a bit hard to concentrate on in the beginning because it’s like “oh she’s speaking Japanese” and then it’s “oh okay so he responded in Korean” and you use like several different parts of your brain at once, I was a mess but I’m good now.
I’m not even sure if this is something of a con or something that like bothered me or anything but I felt like the Count’s sexuality was very emphasized, he didn’t seem like a very stable character and he kept confusing me with what he really wanted concerning the Mistress because in most points, he would put his foot in as “hey I want sex” and then the next is him saying the word “love” but maybe that was used to make a point about why she didn’t really love him and why she loved her handmaiden more? The film really made out all of the guy characters to be mentally guided by their sexual prowess and if I have to say anything “guided by their penises” and so it felt like a very feminist-guided plot (which I mean I wasn’t so much bothered by but it could turn off some viewers if they do get that sort of vibe and don’t enjoy it).
Conclusion
It was sick, it was twisted and yet I enjoyed this film so much. Like first off, it explored a near genre that was inclusive of LGBTQ and open to gay sex, let’s clap on that one. Another thing is the complexity of the plot and how detailed it got; as the plot continued on and more details started to get added in, we’re given a more defined idea of what’s going on and I loved that ambiguity for the most part, terrific. Technicalities were fantastic and unique and god I love them. I felt like this film had a lot to do with psychology and the clockwork of each of the characters in the film so not only are we given the perspective of the main lead and her secret partner but we are also given the mindset of the crook and the uncle. It wasn’t a typical story and I loved that entire aspect of it, how unique it was and how good it set itself apart from being the usual, the bad people or the corrupt people have a change in heart and it turns out to be good and happy and they show love and compassion, it was way way way wayyy more than that.
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