Movies Like The Handmaiden

Frequently asked about The Handmaiden

Common questions people search for, with answers written by us at MoviesPack.

• How explicit is The Handmaiden?▾

  The Handmaiden contains several extended, graphic sex scenes with full nudity between its two female leads, as well as scenes of sexual coercion, fetishistic reading of erotica, and brief torture. It is unrated in the US but was released as an NC-17/18-equivalent film in most territories, and Park Chan-wook also released a slightly longer Director's Cut with additional explicit material.

• Why is The Handmaiden so good?▾

  The Handmaiden is widely praised for Park Chan-wook's meticulous direction, Chung Chung-hoon's lush cinematography, and a three-part structure that retells the story from shifting perspectives to reveal new layers of deception. It transposes Sarah Waters's novel Fingersmith to Japanese-occupied Korea, blending psychological thriller, dark comedy, and a queer love story, and the lead performances by Kim Min-hee and Kim Tae-ri are frequently cited as standouts.

• Who is really running the con in The Handmaiden?▾

  The film gradually reveals that Sookee (Nam Joo-hee) was not merely a naive accomplice to Count Fujiwara's scheme — she and Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee) eventually turn the tables on both the Count and Uncle Kouzuki. By the final act, Hideko has been a willing participant in escaping her uncle's control, and the two women conspire together to ensure Fujiwara is committed to a psychiatric asylum rather than profiting from the plan.

• What is the significance of the books Hideko reads aloud?▾

  Uncle Kouzuki forces Hideko to perform erotic readings from his collection of rare Japanese pornographic literature to wealthy male collectors, a ritual she has been groomed into since childhood. These performances are central to Kouzuki's control over Hideko and to his obsessive project of cataloguing and possessing forbidden texts. The readings also foreshadow the film's themes of storytelling, performance, and who controls the narrative.

• How does the film's three-part structure change the story?▾

  The Handmaiden is divided into three parts, each replaying or extending events from a different character's perspective. Part one follows Sookee's point of view; part two shifts to Hideko and reveals information that recontextualises what Sookee — and the viewer — thought they understood; part three resolves the story from a broader vantage point. This structure means scenes that appear straightforward in the first act carry hidden meanings exposed only when the same events are revisited.

• What happens to Uncle Kouzuki at the end?▾

  Kouzuki is tricked by Count Fujiwara into signing documents that transfer his entire library and estate, then realises too late that he has been deceived. Hideko had secretly collaborated with Sookee to sabotage both men's plans. In the film's climax, Kouzuki is left humiliated and ruined; the fate of his prized book collection — his life's obsession — is destroyed along with his authority over Hideko.

• Is the romance between Sookee and Hideko genuine or part of the deception?▾

  The film strongly presents their relationship as genuine love that develops despite — and eventually through — the layers of deception surrounding both women. Hideko initially plays a role to survive her uncle's control, and Sookee enters the household as a spy, but their intimacy grows into authentic feeling that ultimately motivates them to abandon their respective con schemes and flee together. Park Chan-wook frames their bond as the only honest relationship in a story otherwise built entirely on manipulation.