Movie

The Handmaiden

Name: The Handmaiden
Released: 2016

2016 • Drama, Romance, Thriller

Woke Score

out of 10

Plot

1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl (Sookee) is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress (Hideko) who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering Uncle (Kouzuki). But the maid has a secret. She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler posing as a Japanese Count to help him seduce the Lady 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 Sookee and Hideko discover some unexpected emotions.

Overall Series Review

The Handmaiden is a complex thriller set in 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea about a pickpocket hired to con an heiress, only for the two women to develop a secret romance and turn the tables on their male manipulators. The narrative structure explicitly layers colonial oppression, class hierarchy, and gender subjugation as the primary obstacles the protagonists must overcome. The film frames the union of the two women as an act of powerful liberation from an entirely depraved and corrupt male-dominated world. All male characters are predatory, abusive, or bumbling figures whose control must be violently overthrown to achieve freedom and love. The central plot is an explicit celebration of alternative sexuality and the rejection of all existing societal norms, presenting an unapologetic vision of feminine and queer autonomy. The story culminates in a triumph of personal, subjective liberation over all forms of tradition and institutional power.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics9/10

The plot's central conflict explicitly operates on the intersectional hierarchy of class, gender, and national/racial identity in a colonial setting. The power dynamics are continuously explored through the differences between the Korean handmaiden and the Japanese heiress, whose bond represents a 'decolonization' of hierarchy. Language use (Japanese versus Korean) signifies cultural power and privilege. The main male antagonist is a Korean who has appropriated Japanese culture to gain imperial power, placing the film's focus on systemic oppression.

Oikophobia7/10

The narrative frames the aristocratic family's household and its customs as fundamentally perverse, depraved, and abusive. The film is a critique of a specific local 'tradition' that enables abuse and subjugation, and the two protagonists achieve liberation by running away from this home and destroying the symbols of its heritage. The house and its institutions are portrayed as a structure of bondage to be escaped, not a shield against chaos.

Feminism10/10

The entire story is framed as an 'insurrection against a patriarchal society' and a 'thesis on feminism'. All significant male characters are depicted as toxic, manipulative, depraved, or simply incompetent conmen. The female leads are intelligent, cunning survivors who join forces to outsmart and destroy their male oppressors to achieve liberty. The plot culminates with the women actively destroying the patriarchal symbol of knowledge (the erotic library) and escaping the restrictive gender roles.

LGBTQ+10/10

The core of the narrative is the passionate and liberating romance between the two female protagonists, Sookee and Hideko. Their relationship is explicitly portrayed as a subversion of 'heteronormativity' and 'dominant male power'. The embrace of their queer identity is the direct source of their agency, freedom, and the foundation for their new life together. The film's conclusion centers entirely on this alternative sexual pairing, which provides the 'subjective freedom' they desire.

Anti-Theism8/10

The film does not focus on the vilification of Christianity specifically, but it champions a moral viewpoint based on 'subjective freedom' and self-defined liberation over 'traditional ethics' or objective moral law. The women’s path to freedom involves criminal acts ('be gay, do crime') and destruction. The narrative promotes a moral relativism where the actions of the protagonists are justified solely by their goal of escaping the power dynamics of their male oppressors.