Dir. Park Chan-Wook
has made a handful of excellent cinematic delights
in the past two decades
this includes 2009's Thirst
and what has come to be known as The Vengeance Trilogy from 2002-2005
Personally, 2003's Oldboy stands as one of my favorite movies of all time
You could hit me up with the:
"Come over"
"Oh I'm busy"
"I'm watching Oldboy rn"
and watch me Naruto run down a major road to your place
Although, evidently, Oldboy is on the forefront of my mind at any given moment
Park's The Handmaiden
is on the forefront of my SOUL
The Handmaiden GETS me
It gets what it feels like for a woman to love another woman
*confused stuttering*
LOOK AT THIS SCENE
Look at the way they look at each other!
Sook-hee's gay panic?
Bitch, me too
I might even dare to say that this is the best lesbian movie. EVER.
Even though
The Handmaiden isn't about lesbians
So no hard spoilers, but essentially,
The Handmaiden is a 3-hour long film heist film.
Park Chan-Wook saw that “be gay, do crime” post on Tumblr
and said “sure, why not?”.
The story is set in Japanese-occupied Korea, sometimes in the 1930’s,
where a cheeky little pickpocket named Sook-hee is hired by a conman going by “Count Fujiwara”
to execute the perfect gold-digging scheme.
The plan?
Get Sook-hee hired as a handmaiden (hey that’s the name of the movie!)
in the wealthy Kouzuki’s estate, become close to his niece Lady Hideko
learn about her,
and relay information to Count Fujiwara
so that he can simp for her-- with efficiency.
With Lady Hideko’s heart accounted for, it’s only a matter of time before Count Fujiwara marries her,
takes her inheritance,
and then dispose of Hideko at some insane asylum
so the two con...
CON-PERSONS!
can fuck off with all their gold and maybe-- just maybe--
make a dent in their college debt.
There’s only one problem, of course:
Sook-hee falls in love with Lady Hideko
Actually, that’s not true. There’s two problems:
that, and that Lady Hideko falls in love with Sook-hee back.
(Talk about fantasy movies, am I right...?)
Sorry I lied,
but I’m sure it’s fine since
Lady Hideko’s lying about something too
Oops! Spoilers!
So what makes a good gay film?
To preface, let’s consult the ever-reliable Dr. Google PhD on popular lesbian film:
Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)
and Alice Wu’s The Half of It (2020).
Although these two films, like The Handmaiden, are about two women falling in love,
they are ONLY about two women falling in love.
Such is the folly of most-- not all-- LGBT+ films:
when you have a queer protagonist,
their narrative can only ever be about their experiences being queer.
This is why The Handmaiden is so important to me,
and I feel, so important to queer writing in general.
Although it is a romantic movie--
an exceedingly sexual one at that
(I watched this with my dad, okay! That sex scene was hot as fuck but not the kind of thing I want to be watching in the presence of family!)
The Handmaiden is not about romance;
The Handmaiden is a psychological thriller
about betrayal,
abuse
class divide
politics
and Lady Hideko
being a
BOSS ASS
BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII--
And yet,
if Sook-hee were to be played by a boy, the plot wouldn’t budge,
it would still be effective.
Granted, we wouldn’t get the nuance of women-loving-women,
but the plot still works!
This is because the plot isn’t about Sook-hee being gay,
she just is.
And that’s just how people really are-- an amalgamation of different characteristics,
with their sexuality only being a facet of their persona.
Think about literally every other film ever:
Captain America has Peggy Carter, but it is not a romance movie.
Se7en has the relationship between Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow
as an incredibly important fixture in the plot,
but it is not a romantic movie…
However, you are totally free to tell you friends that it is when you recommend it to them,
and then watch as you’re never trusted again.
What I’m trying to say is:
Abolish the idea of “the gay friend”
they’re just your friend that happens to be gay.
Who people are, and the plot of The Handmaiden, is not fixed solely upon being queer.
I feel the same about the anime series Banana Fish and Devilman Crybaby, which both came out in 2018.
Both stories have queer characters,
and for one (Devilman), explicit gay sex,
but those two series are not necessarily about being queer.
One’s a crime-thriller and the other one a…
A...
Oh
Um
How do I expl...
IT'S SAD!
They're both sad!
But! The Handmaiden isn’t!
because-- spoiler alert--
it has a happy ending for the couple.
Albeit, not the one you saw coming…
But there is no grief and the idea of oh, what-could-have-been
those are the kind of tragedies that are ever so present in most depictions of gay romances.
Now, I’m not going to stand here and say that The Handmaiden is absent of grief and suffering…
No, I’m going to sit down and tell you that The Han--
I’m totally kidding, this movie is WEIRD.
The Handmaiden, a beacon of cleaver and exciting writing, is for all intents and purposes,
Super whacky, really pervy, kinda violent…
But its--
F...Fun...!
I had fun!
I had lots of fun!
(But maybe that says more about me than the film, now that I think about it)
If you can stomach some really harsh scenes depicting abuse, self-harm, harassment…
and if you can manage to sit down and watch a 3 hour movie without falling asleep,
I do recommend The Handmaiden!
It was so amazing, I didn’t even notice how long it was.
So back to the question:
What makes a good gay film?
I don't know. Why are you asking me?
But if you were to ask me:
I'd say that...
The Handmaiden is a GOOD film…
that just happens to be gay.
 
 
 
 
 
 
