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movie story The Handmaiden (2016)



Component ONE

Set in Korea all through the 1930s previous to international war II, the film starts offevolved with a local Korean female named Sook-Hee making ready to transport far from her home and flow into the property of a jap heiress, woman Hideko. Sook-Hee is taken on a protracted journey until she reaches the large estate in the nation-state. A female greets her and offers her a tour of the grounds together with an annex which has been provided into a library. Sook-Hee is instructed that she wont sleep inside the servants quarters but close to the woman of the residence as she is her handmaiden. She calls Sook-Hee 'Tamako' and tells her that the lady is frequently tasked with reading for the grasp (her uncle) and that he loves books. Sook-Hee is then confirmed her room that is just throughout from the female's bedroom. Whilst left by myself, Sook-Hee tries to peek into the room however a noisy noise scares her lower back to her tiny cot.

Later inside the night, Sook-Hee awakens to pay attention the girl Hideko screaming. She rushes into her bed room and comforts her. Hideko says she had a nightmare and tells Sook-Hee that her aunt had hung herself from the huge cherry tree and on moonless nights, her aunts ghost dangles from the branch. Sook-Hee proves to be an amazing handmaiden as she comforts the girl by feeding her sake and singing to her.

Sook-Hee tells us (through voice-over) that we think she is a Korean handmaiden named Tamako but she's absolutely Sook-Hee, a pickpocket raised by a lady who teaches kids the way to thieve and dedicate forgeries. In a flashback, we see the residence takes in deserted newborns and sells them to Japan. A man enters the residence of thieves and tells them about an interpreter who bribed his way into a translating process for the excessive officials. He helps Japan annex Korea and then receives naturalized so he can marry the daughter of a jap noble. He builds a mansion, filled with books, and invites jap collectors to his library to hold readings of rare books and auction them off. Some of the books, he wishes to sell but does not need to lose possession so he hired this guy (telling the tale) to create forgeries he has satisfied the nobles he is remember Fujiwara from Japan. The collector's spouse died and not using a youngsters and her sister has died but his spouse's niece remains alive and employed to carry out e book readings for her uncle. Now an orphan, this woman is rich she has 1.Five million yen in cash and three hundred,000 yen in bonds -- and the person who calls himself remember Fujiwara plans to make her fall in love with him and after marrying her, hell declare her insane and have her locked up in a madhouse as a result inheriting her fortune. He wants Sook-Hee to work as her handmaiden so she will be able to persuade her to fall in love. Her uncle also wants to marry her for her cash but if Sook-Hee can persuade her to marry the be counted, hell provide her 50,000 yen and the dresses and jewelry. Sook-Hee needs one hundred,000 yen.

Sook-Hee goes to the estate to meet with the team of workers, to persuade them to hire her. The ladies who work on body of workers scouse borrow her footwear as a prank which angers her because it will make her appearance bad. She is amazed to see how stunning girl Hideko is. Sook-Hee offers her a reference letter from the closing woman she worked for however in truth, its a forgery by the person who is pretending to be depend Fujiwara. He has written it in japanese, which Sook-Hee can not examine or write. He has told Sook-Hee what the letter says "A maid is sort of a pair of chopsticks". Her presence is little cited, however her absence causes plenty distress. Female Hideko claims she has a headache from all the analyzing she has needed to do for her uncle and asks Sook-Hee to study it. Sook-Hee struggles to accomplish that from reminiscence, claiming it says she's like a spoon after which finally admits she is illiterate and can not even study in Korean. Lady Hideko stated she doesn't care if Sook-Hee curses or steals but she doesn't ever want to be lied to. She indicates Sook-Hee a picture of her mom and asks if she is as lovely. Sook-Hee tells her that she has heard the depend say he dreams of her face in mattress, her first try at planting a seed of a relationship.

Girl Hideko offers Sook-Hee a few footwear after which leaves to go to reading practice, which shell do by myself. Sook-Hee goes thru all the clothes to peer what clothes shell inherit after the woman is locked up. She unearths Ben Wa balls. After trying on hats, she reveals a rope in a hatbox. Sook-Hee is going outside and appears up at the cherry tree the female's aunt become stated to have hung herself from.

Sook-Hee finds lady Hideko analyzing inside the library with her uncle. She tries to method but is instructed now not to move beyond the snake. A gate is rolled closed, locking her out. She notices a statue of a snake on the floor, growing a boundary of limitations which she isn't always allowed to move.

Lower back in her room, Sook-Hee bathes lady Hideko, giving her a lollipop which she says she used on children to help them companion tub time with sweetness. Lady Hideko complains considered one of her enamel is sharp. Sook-Hee grabs a thimble and starts shaving it down. The two trade sexual strength while that is occurring. Sook-Hee admires female Hideko's bare breasts.

Count number Fujiwara arrives on the property to help with forgeries and requests the woman's handmaiden to run an errand for him. Sook-Hee and the rely discuss their plan in private. Sook-Hee tells him the woman is naïve and wont take the trace that he needs sex, even though he pulls on her nipples. Matter Fujiwara says Sook-Hee has to position it into her head that the female is plenty happier in view that he arrived. He additionally gives her a present to ship along. Sook-Hee presents the present sapphire earrings. Sook-Hee is happy that they'll be hers whilst the lady is despatched away to the madhouse. She additionally convinces lady Hideko that the rings are certainly spinel.

Woman Hideko arranges for Sook-Hee to be dressed up which is a brand new experience for Sook-Hee. Woman Hideko finishes off the appearance with the sapphire earrings. They button every others attire up that is depicted in a totally sexual way with Sook-Hee brazenly longing to the touch her. Sook-Hee asks if woman Hideko is making plans to marry her uncle. Hideko factors out that's what he raised her for, understanding he'd want access to her money in the future. Subsequently he'll placed his entire library up for auction because he cant have the funds for any more books.

The count number paints with girl Hideko, looking to be flirtatious. Sook-Hee watches, feeling sorry for lady Hideko for being duped. He tells Sook-Hee a peach is ripe that is the signal for her to start convincing the woman that shes falling in love with the count. After he leaves, Sook-Hee claims the girl's cheeks have grown flushed given that he arrived but the lady isn't always sincerely convinced.

Lady Hideko and Sook-Hee have a private conversation at the grounds, approximately how the lady's mother died in childbirth and its like she strangled her as punishment for being born. Sook-Hee takes this to heart and tells her no infant is responsible of being born and that her mother could possibly have been very glad to have given existence to her. This surprises and touches the female. The be counted arrives and steals the woman away, sending Sook-Hee to run errands so they can be alone. No longer wanting to depart lady Hideko with the count number, Sook-Hee rushes to seize things but whilst she returns, she sees the clothed female mounting the clothed count number, which makes her extraordinarily jealous.

Now Sook-Hee harbors anger at woman Hideko. At night, the servants bell is rang and Sook-Hee is referred to as into the female's bedroom. She asks Sook-Hee why she failed to greet her when she got back from her reading. Sook-Hee is obviously nonetheless sour that woman Hideko is falling for the rely but claims she certainly fell asleep. The lady says she will be able to sense a nightmare coming on and suggests Sook-Hee sleep in bed with her. After some time, she tells Sook-Hee that the remember requested to elope together with her when her uncle leaves to go to his gold mine. The woman says without a mother, shes in no way been advised what men want. Sook-Hee teaches her the way to kiss with the aid of demonstrating on her. Then she starts to make like to her below the context of displaying her what it will be like while she makes love to the depend. The 2 girls emerge as having sex for the primary time, both claiming it is clearly an preparation even though they both appear to be in love with the opposite.

The subsequent time the matter is portray with woman Hideko, he orders Sook-Hee to locate every other job to do. Sook-Hee follows in shape but then stops quick, saying she has no other task besides to look after the female. Out of doors the grounds, the count number yells at Sook-Hee for not helping him with his plan. He puts Sook-Hees palms on his crotch and tells her to sense how a whole lot he desires her fortune and tells her hes no longer going to permit her fuck it up. Sook-Hee threatens to inform her that hes only a pickpocket however he threatens, in go back, to tell her that Sook-Hee is a Korean farmhand and shaman. Sook-Hee cant go back domestic empty-passed, no longer providing for all of the human beings who have taken her in on account that she become a bit girl. Sook-Hee responds via saying female Hideko has no one in the world and if he frightens her, shell near up like a clam. She provides now not to ever placed her hand on his tiny funny story of a cock again.

Now Sook-Hee follows the plan thus, telling female Hideko that she (the woman) is falling for the be counted. However the woman says she's fallen in love with any individual else. Nonetheless, woman Hideko consents to marry the be counted if Sook-Hee can go along with them to Japan. The matter leaves the estate to go to his mine whilst the count pretends to go away but secretly hides so he can sneak off with lady Hideko. As quickly as her uncle is long gone, Hideko leaves with the matter and Sook-Hee on a ferry to Japan. Once there, Hideko and the count are married. The next morning, Sook-Hee stops with the aid of their room and finds blood on Hideko's sheets, alluding to having lost her virginity. The be counted watches the two women collectively. When he is no longer looking, Sook-Hee kisses Hideko.

By means of the stop of the week, matter Fujiwara is missing, claiming that he has long past to certify the marriage and convert the inheritance into cash. When he returns, Sook-Hee yells at him for taking her virginity and then leaving her on my own. She tells him to hurry up and throw Hideko in the madhouse.  Guys arrive at the resort and ask Sook-Hee what treatment she could advocate for Hideko. Sook-Hee says she wants her restricted to an area where no one can harm her and she can do no damage. The organization travels into metropolis, preventing at a mental clinic. Sook-Hee waits with the employees as they tell the Countess they're going to look after her but then they turn out to be grabbing Sook-Hee and taking her into the madhouse. She claims she isn't the Countess and they have the incorrect lady. The remember and Hideko do nothing to guard Sook-Hee as she struggles.

Element two

We now study the again tale of lady Hideko. As a bit lady, she has to put medal balls in her mouth (paying homage to Ben Wa balls) while she is hit time and again through her handmaiden for speaking back. She is then brought into her room wherein she's informed there's an ogre who lives outdoor her room who will burst in and smother her if she ever cries out. The aunt also stocks the photograph of Hideko's mom that we had visible her display to Sook-Hee.

Hideko's aunt instructs her in jap by way of studying books which emerge as being picture and coaching her words like penis and vagina. Her uncle comes by and grabs each of their faces, suffocating them earlier than allowing them to cross. We now see the younger Hideko slapping a servant for pronouncing horrific things approximately her in Korean, which she will talk. Her uncle tells her that she has a touch of lunacy that she were given from her mother and he'll attempt to educate her so she does not get despatched to a mental health center. The schooling consists of her being taught to study from his e-book series that's now discovered to be very explicitly sexual books. The younger Hideko reads from a photo tale and her uncle yells at her loss of articulation. We then see the person lady Hideko on the readings for creditors, analyzing from sexually express passages.

She flashes again to the day of her aunt's placing and the servants staring up at her. Meanwhile, the readings keep for the japanese ebook creditors and the tales are increasingly more picture. She also plays demonstrations of the fabric for the target audience she chokes herself; she is whipped; she sits on a wood puppet and is lifted to the ceiling. The books are auctioned off. One has misplaced its cost because the sexually explicit illustration has been ripped out. No one wants to buy the e-book, figuring that the instance changed into vital to depict what words by myself couldn't.

The man who pretends to be count number Fujiwara is worried in those readings, hired for forgeries. He tells Hideko's uncle how all the girls on the estate are attracted to him besides for one Hideko. He heard that her uncle is engaged to her and shows to him to move easy on her schooling or shell be lifeless interior.

Be counted Fujiwara and woman Hideko communicate over dinner. He tries to inform her he loves her but she knows he is lying. He admits to being the son of a Korean farmhand and he spent three years gaining knowledge of to paint forgeries so he would have get right of entry to to her and possess her father's inheritance. However he found out how clever she became after he met her and has any other deal to indicate hell rescue her from her uncle, they will break up the money. She says she would not want to marry absolutely everyone. He realizes she plans to kill herself however he says all her cash would visit a perverted uncle. She factors out that he'll locate them in the event that they eloped and take her to the basement where he tortures humans he has brought her there as a young female and showed her what he did to her aunt. Be counted Fujiwara offers her highly concentrated opium and says if she's ever caught, 3 drops will make her sleep, five drops will knock her out, and all of it'll kill her.

They plan to discover a handmaiden for her who they will ship to a madhouse underneath Hideko's name. They dispose of her vintage one after she is stuck having sex with the matter. We now see Sook-Hee's arrival from Hideko's angle. When Sook-Hee attempts to peek in her room, she bangs against the wall, scaring her. She watches Sook-Hee undress for mattress. Then she screams to get Sook-Hee to come back, claiming she had a nightmare. Hideko reads a letter from depend Fujiwara telling her to reveal Sook-Hee her clothes at each possibility due to the fact this is part of what she will get hold of for assisting him out (if she wasn't being duped). He points out she wont be capable of examine the letter she's studying due to the fact she's illiterate. Consequently her asking Sook-Hee to study the advice out loud she knew she couldn't read it. Hideko also is going out of doors and scolds her servants for stealing Sook-Hee's shoe, pronouncing if she runs away, shell throw them out. In the next flashback, we see Sook-Hee bathing Hideko and fixing her teeth however now we see this was observed through Hideko inviting Sook-Hee to sign up for her within the tub.

Whilst Sook-Hee presents the jewelry to Hideko, count number Fujiwara wrote her a letter warning her that Sook-Hee might fake they have been faux because she desires them but they're genuinely Hideko's very own rings. He tells her, to maintain her from getting suspicious, they ought to occupy Sook-Hee with the undertaking of seeking to convince Hideko to marry him and that she should not fall in love with him too without problems. As before, Hideko gives Sook-Hee the earrings and admires her while she is dressed up. Also as earlier than, Sook-Hee may be very kind towards Hideko when she discusses dropping her mom in childbirth, main Hideko to experience a companionship closer to Sook-Hee.

Count Fujiwara and Hideko certainly don't like each different and both most effective tolerate the alternative to go with their plan. Sook-Hee now mopes around, angry, looking a flirtatious exchange among Hideko and the count; now we listen them overtly discussing their dislike for every other. Sook-Hee becomes jealous which Hideko notices. As before, while she is away strolling errands, Sook-Hee rushes lower back to discover a clothed Hideko mounting matter Fujiwara at the grounds. Now we see that they staged that pose simply to persuade her they had been falling in love.

We see Hideko giving the readings of sexual literature to the japanese guys. She reads about Ben Wa balls. The men applaud.

Subsequent, we see the scene again where Hideko and Sook-Hee have sex, below the pretext of teaching Hideko on the way to please a man. But now the lesbian intercourse scene is prolonged and extra photo, showing both girls taking turns orally pleasuring every other (cunnilingus) as well as fingering in addition to grinding. Sook-Hee tells Hideko that she is a natural with appearing the intercourse.

An afternoon or  later, remember Fujiwara yells at lady Hideko, telling her if she scares Sook-Hee, shell near up like a clam. The girl feels bad approximately arranging to have Sook-Hee locked up in a madhouse but he tells her that Sook-Hee stated woman Hideko became so dense, she wouldn't recognise someone wanted intercourse despite the fact that they pulled on her nipples. Even as it's miles true Sook-Hee said this early on, it was while she turned into now not fully invested in female Hideko's companionship and attempting hard to go with the plan notwithstanding her evolved attachment. However, it's far sufficient to dissatisfied lady Hideko who is now convinced Sook-Hee would not without a doubt have feelings for her. In her room, Hideko asks Sook-Hee if she nonetheless thinks she need to marry the matter, even though she (the girl) finally ends up having feelings for a person else. Whilst Sook-Hee says yes, Hideko slaps her and shoves her out of her room. Then she grabs the rope that Sook-Hee found in the hatbox in advance and is going to dangle herself from the same tree her aunt had, saying she needs she'd never been born. (we're supposed to trust this is why she lets in Sook-Hee to be sent to a madhouse regardless of falling in love together with her).

However whilst placing from the tree, before she will fall, Sook-Hee appears, retaining Hideko via the legs. She right now confesses to the entirety, how she turned into seeking to trick her into marrying the rely and they have been going to ship her to the madhouse. Hideko asks, Sook-Hee, are you worried approximately me? And Sook-Hee asks how she knows her call seeing that shes pretended to be a handmaiden named Tamako. Hideko confesses her plan to ship Sook-Hee to the madhouse. Now Sook-Hee writes home and tells the woman who raised her to be a thief there is a alternate of plans and that they need her help with a forgery.

Hideko's uncle drives away to go to his gold mines. He warns lady Hideko about the basement, meaning if she ever betrays him, he's going to punish her with torture like he has achieved to circle of relatives contributors earlier than. With him long gone, Sook-Hee is ultimately capable of explore the library. She sees the uncle's collection is all perversely sexual literature. Offended that Hideko had been pressured to examine it, she tears pages and illustrations out of all the books and then dumps them within the indoor ponds under the floorboards.

The two women are in the end loose, making ready for Hideko to elope, and we see them walking through the fields, laughing. Reduce to Sook-Hee being placed inside the madhouse. As opposed to disappointment, Hideko is seemingly unaffected and says she's hungry.

Element three.

Hideko and matter Fujiwara dine at a pleasant eating place, their plan having worked. Meanwhile, Sook-Hee laughs hysterically whilst consuming dinner at the mental sanatorium. At a pictures studio, matter Fujiwara explains that they'll replace Sook-Hee's image on her identity with Hideko's so she will tackle her identity and Hideko can be declared in a mental organization, letting them recoup her inheritance with out being stuck with the aid of her uncle. The remember confesses he would possibly truly like Hideko and shows they get married again, now that shes stolen Sook-Hee's identification. She inquires whether or not he feels regret approximately having locked Sook-Hee in a madhouse by myself however he says she's naïve and deserves her destiny.

In the madhouse, a fireplace is set allowing Sook-Hee to break out.

Back at a hotel, Hideko dips the opium the depend gave her right into a wine glass. They kiss and he makes a decision he wants to have intercourse. She liquids from her wine glass, hoping hell observe in shape, however he does not. She lets him kiss her breasts after which they kiss however he nonetheless does not drink the wine. Ultimately she liquids from his glass and kisses him, transferring wine from her mouth to his. He then receives truely aggressive toward her sexually, mentioning the books she examine out loud that broadcasts girls like being taken forcefully. However earlier than he can harm her, he passes out from the opium within the wine.

Whilst he wakes up, he's being taken by way of two thugs someplace into metropolis.

Now Sook-Hee and Hideko have reunited. Sook-Hee has taken a photo of herself dressed as a person and uses her forgery talents to update the picture in rely Fujiwara's identity, taking over his identity. Hideko sends a letter to her uncle, telling him that the japanese count number who he had been trying to affect for years is without a doubt the son of a Korean farmhand and he or she drops him off together with her uncle as a gift. She also tells him to inform the count number that, outside of books, no girl loves to be taken by means of pressure. Now that he knows he's been betrayed, the uncle takes the person who pretended to be remember Fujiwara to his basement and tortures him, reducing off his arms with a paper trimmer. The matter asks for a cigarette.

The two girls go to the educate station. The uncle's goons are there, checking for any women travelling collectively who are trying to go away town. The women cross undetected in two methods; they buy a price tag to a nearby town after which alternate it to Shanghai, paying the distinction; and Hideko is presently disguised as a man in order that they are not visible as  ladies.

In any other flashback, we see that the matter failed to really take Hideko's virginity. She broke her very own hymen with a butter knife, resulting within the blood Sook-Hee noticed the subsequent morning. In present day, Hideko's uncle asks about all of the information about his niece's wedding night time, exposing that he had a perverted fascination with his younger niece and wasn't absolutely after her money. He asks graphic questions about whether or not he touched her breasts or her vagina. Whether or not her vagina had many wrinkles and the appearance of her vaginal secretion. He admits he is just an old man who likes dirty memories. The remember ignores him, requesting a cigarette to help his memory, which Hideko's uncle grabs from the count number's clothes and he smokes.

The 2 ladies have made it to the ferry. Hideko gets rid of her fake mustache now that they are correctly en route to Shanghai. In the meantime, Hideko's uncle cuts off the remember's underclothes as he lays bleeding from dropping his hands. Earlier than the torture can maintain, the count says that the cigarettes had been filled with mercury and that they each at the moment are poisoned from the smoke. The uncle dies. The count inhales the air so that you can kill himself.

Within the very last scene, Sook-Hee and Hideko are in their stateroom on the deliver as they tour to their new domestic. Now unfastened, they undress and kiss and have a long sexual revel in (they've greater lesbian sex; but this time they're each surely affectionate and in love). They put the Ben Wa balls in their mouths after which interior every others vaginas. The very last shot suggests the steamer ship crusing away into the night.


The Handmaiden (2016) Trailer