Since diving into the world of Thai dramas, I’ve noticed a great imbalance between mlm content and wlw content out there in general and my search for more good wlw shows or movies (Thai or otherwise), while not completely fruitless, has been a little frustrating. So, when I stumbled across this movie, I was so happy. Not only did the quality and budget look great but it seemed to have an interesting plot. And this movie really impressed me, from its twisting plot to the complicated characters to the gorgeous dresses and beautiful music. The plot twists, though. Maybe I’m just blind because I did not see any of it coming but I am all here for where they took me because damn.
I generally prefer to avoid mentioning spoilers as much as I can but I’m afraid this time I can’t not talk about the two major plot twists so small disclaimer here.
But first, the plot: hired as an accomplice to by con man posing as a count, thief Sook Hee (Kim Tae Ri) embarks on a mission to pose as the new maid of a rich Japanese heiress Lady Hideko (Kim Min Hee) in order to trick her into falling in love and running away with the Count to get her fortune. Things seem to go smoother than expected until Sook Hee starts to realise that she doesn’t want Hideko to marry the Count due to her own blooming feelings for the heiress. Conflicted between love and greed, Sook Hee becomes tangled in a mess much bigger than she first realised as she fights for a happy ending amidst the plotting and desires of powerful men.
I swear it’s not a tragedy, despite what it says on the tin and the way things go like a third of the way into the movie. This movie really takes you on a journey back and forth in time where every detail counts.
One of the things I found interesting was how the film was structured. By that I mean we have a part one to start us off, followed by a part two that makes you question everything you have watched, and ended with a part three that somehow manages to catch you by surprise even more and ending things with an awesome and slightly gruesome bang. Thinking back over it trying to figure out the reasoning behind this structure and I sort of came to the conclusion that, you know, three parts, three main characters, right? And it kind of makes sense if you think about it, considering who exactly the main focus of each part is. Because what I really loved about this movie was how it played around with the power of perspective and how that perspective can mightily change the importance of something, or a particular scene. Sook Hee is the main character for the first part, diving into the plot just as ignorant and clueless as we are only to be slapped with the plot twist as we watch everything we thought we understood crumble at the end. Because then it’s part two and you realise that Hideko is a much more complex character than you first were shown and suddenly the stakes are a lot higher than before because there’s a new main character and a new villain to the story. Only, in part three, it turns out Sook Hee wasn’t as oblivious as we first thought, and maybe we weren’t seeing the entirety of Sook Hee’s perspective all of this time. Maybe it’s more complex than that because then it’s the Count whose turn it is to be oblivious. But even then, he’s not the real main character, not even in this part.
The way I interpreted the story was two women who had already spent their lives carving a place for themselves in a man’s world, finding their own happiness in each other away from men and their desires. Hideko is very much trapped by her uncle in his twisted stories, sexualising her as the other men do. She has no choice but to use it to survive even as it slowly drives her insane inside, becoming a twisted and more calculating version of herself. Sook Hee has always had to fight for survival, ready to take advantage of others to satisfy her greed and stay alive. She is not so much trapped by men’s desire in that she frees Hideko from it, showing her sex outside of the books she was forced to read, forced to embody. Even though I personally found the sex scenes a little much, I could kind of understand the significance of it towards the end. In a way, Sook Hee showed Hideko a world new to her where she could put her pleasure first, rather than having to “perform” for other people’s desires, as well as showing her what real love could feel like.
One of my absolute favourite scenes is when Sook Hee finds out all about the readings and all the sex books and “performances” and she just. Gets so mad. I felt like it was something I hadn’t really known how to feel about the entire time, and maybe Hideko had felt the same way, just letting it all happen with a smile because she had had no choice and had to lock her feelings inside. But when Sook Hee gets so angry, I was suddenly feeling all those emotions too because it is horrifying and that is exactly how it should be reacted to and I’m so glad that Hideko was able to see that. To be able to look back on all that abuse and treatment and realise just how much she had gone through. To have someone that could be mad for her even if she couldn’t, someone who cared about her enough to ransack that damn library and trash everything. I just know that as Hideko followed Sook Hee around while she rampaged, watching her silently, she was falling in love all over again.
Speaking of Hideko, in part one, I wasn’t a fan of her character. She was gorgeous but she felt a little empty and so I was wondering what exactly going to happen. Then in part two, a completely different Hideko was revealed, and it made so much more sense. I really thought she was an interesting character, more so than Sook Hee who, while being sweet and heroic, was a little naïve. Seeing Hideko grow up, it’s clear that she was a blank slate, absorbing everything around her until she became a mix of everyone she knows. Like when she slaps the maid to take out her anger from the forcefulness and punishment from her uncle. Like when she uses the Count’s own words against him. Like when she seems to carry her aunt’s depression with her and even tries to kill herself in the exact same way. Like when Sook Hee swears in front of her and Hideko picks it up and starts saying “fucking hell” on her own. Everything her uncle put her through, everything she silently observed and internalised, it all helped her to morph into her role and adapt for her own survival, twisting her into someone intelligent enough to play and manipulate everyone around her. It’s also a cool way of showing just what she’s overheard, just how much she knows and foreshadowing some of the plot twists. But in the end, most of all, I was just happy that she was able to be freed and find her happiness.
One little shoutout for the song at the end “The Footsteps of My Dear Love” by Gain and Minseo because it was beautiful and made the ending feel so satisfyingly epic, the perfect end to the legendary escaped lovers Hideko and Sook Hee.
A really good movie all around and I highly recommend although be warned there is explicitly sexual scenes as well as suicide, torture and er quite bloody dismemberment at one specific scene. Other than that, enjoy.
