Cop: We Got A Call That You Had Pot In Your Car

Cop: we got a call that you had pot in your car

Yuqi: [pulls out flower pot] oh you mean this?

Cop: [laughing] my mistake, what are ya growing?

Yuqi: weed

[&] — HaSeul

if kylie doesn't win as6 im gonna be v mad

u know what im kinda tired of hearing people say they want kylie to win as6 because "we need a trans winner". don't get me wrong that would be awesome and so important, but i want her to win because she's super talented and amazing and she's a beautiful person inside out, but most importantly because she totally deserves it, not "just" because she's trans.

The Handmaiden 아가씨 (2016) dir. Park Chan-wook | dop. Chung Chung-hoon | based on Fingersmith, novel writ. Sarah Waters

Genres: Gothic Romance, Psychological Revenge Thriller, Erotic

Rep: Lesbian characters (with an actual happy ending!)

Languages: Korean, Japanese

CW// Nudity, Explicit Sexual Content, Sexual Abuse, Suicide, Death, Torture, Blood, Male Gaze, Japanese Imperialism

—Symbolic props—

The Handmaiden adopts a non-linear narrative that consists of three acts, in which the props perform as an important device of foreshadowing and connection between acts, as well as symbolism.

At the beginning of Act I, Sook-hee is given a broken hairpin. Later on, in the scene that reveals Sook-hee as a pickpocket, the hairpin appears again being used by the fake Count Fujiwara as a tool —manipulated to crack a lock— just as how he exploits Sook-hee in a scheme to defraud Lady Hideko of her inheritance.

Next is the earrings Lady Hideko wears which are revealed, in the library scene, being painted in a picture of octopus by the Count. The earrings portray as a symbolism of “invitation” for the male gaze that is practically imposed on women by men themselves. It implies that Hideko has been transformed (by men) into an unattainable object of desire who exists for male enjoyment.

Both the hairpin and the earrings symbolize how the two women have been exploited by the patriarchal system.

Following, the metal bells have appeared several times throughout the acts. It is revealed in Act II as an instrument of punishment for Hideko by her sadist uncle. It is also mentioned during one of the obscene soirees, in which Hideko is forced to read out, to her uncle and his guests, a story about women achieving pleasure with such bells.

The bells are a symbolism of torment for Hideko. However, in the final scene in Act III, it ends as a toy for Hideko and Sook-hee as mutual female fulfilment and their pure pleasure, which represents liberation from male domination.

Nonetheless, this scene visually reenacting the story from the soiree, the one they no longer want to participate in, seems to recuperate the demeaning context of pornographic spectacle. It may also be regarded as insensitive considering that Hideko has not been given enough time to process her trauma.

In scenes such as these, the film at once invites and mocks the questions that tied the viewers of Blue Is the Warmest Color in knots: for whom are these sex scenes intended, and from whose perspective are they being recorded? But such questions lose their feminist edge in the film’s recurrent, ironic suggestions that one must never underestimate the skill and energy with which these women have molded their settings to satisfy their own inward wants.

cont. in Part II