MovieChat Forums > Ah-ga-ssi (2017) Discussion > Would anyone else have preferred (spoile...

Would anyone else have preferred (spoiler)...

posted 8 years ago by The-Social-Introvert
4 replies | jump to latest

...if they did actually end up locking The Handmaiden in the mental asylum i.e. the Lady betrayed her lover? That would have been brutal.

It’s a great film but what it lacks compared to the director’s other hits is an emotional kick-in-the-noggins kid of ending. Instead it’s rounded up quite in a bit of a contrived way, like the two villains dying in the same room at the same time. Obviously the story would require a bit of further development for this to work, like why she would choose the guy over the girl.

[–] Suso-Pedrosa 8 years ago

That would defeat the purpose of showing a beautiful love relationship between two women in societies that still are highly sexist and gender equality lacking to this day.

[–] The-Social-Introvert 8 years ago

Who said that was the point? As far as I know, the director was just trying to tell a satisfying story, not a political advertisement for gay rights.

[–] mdsc 8 years ago

That was definitely the point of the movie. It may not be a political advertisement for gay rights but the genuinely amorous relationship between Hideko and the handmaiden is the whole point of the story. Otherwise, the third act wouldn't have even happened. Hideko fell in love with Sookee, that is why she got so upset when Sookee insisted that Hideko would fall in love with the Count even though Hideko admitted loving someone else already (she was implying Sookee). Hideko almost hung herself, that's how torn up she was. Hideko getting Sookee in on the whole disappearing act con was because they had both fallen for each other. Sookee even admitted to the con when she saw Hideko hanging herself. Everything that they did from that point onwards was to fight to survive and end up together.

I can understand that you would have preferred a twisted ending with Hideko ending up in the asylum anyway but that is definitely not what the director had in mind nor the writer whose novel this was based on.

[–] tokoyo 8 years ago

Why would a story about two lesbians have an ending in which one of them chooses a man? As far as I know, artists try to make lots of points with their work, not just provide mindless entertainment. The story would need far more than "a bit of further development" for Hideko to betray her lover for the Count.

Also, the Count's death was pretty brutal, considering he never really harmed anyone.