The Handmaiden
A cunning con man schemes to marry a Japanese heiress and steal her fortune, enlisting a conflicted pickpocket to manipulate her into compliance, but as loyalties blur and desires surface, the lines between deception and passion become dangerously intertwined.
“You're the one being tricked.”
Synopsis
In 1930s Korea, during the Japanese occupation, a young woman named Sook-hee is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, Hideko, who resides in seclusion on a large estate in the countryside, under the control of her influential uncle, Kouzuki. Sook-hee, however, is not what she seems. She is a skilled pickpocket working for a swindler who has introduced himself as a Japanese Count. His plan is to use Sook-hee to gain the heiress's trust and ultimately steal her fortune.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
A crew of 65+ credited
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Kim Jae BeomShot by Chung Hoon ChungScored by Cho Young WukDesigned by Ryu Seong Hie
Box Office
2016 · Box office
💰 Box-office hit — grossed 4.5× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$38.6M
US & Canada: $2.0M — 5% of worldwide · International: $36.6M (95%)
Opening weekend: $92K — 5% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.
Opening week (7-day): $135K — 7% of its US & Canada run.
Peak 5 theaters
Full synopsis
Also known as
- Agasside
- Die Taschendiebinde
- The Handmaidende
- Agassien
- The Handmaidenen
- La doncellaes
- Mademoisellefr
- The Handmaidenit
- 아가씨ko
Community tags
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Cast & Crew
65 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Kim Min Hee
as Lady Hideko
Ha Jung Woo
as Count Fujiwara
Kim Tae Ri
as Sook-hee
Cho Jin Woong
as Uncle Kouzuki
Moon So Ri
as Aunt of Lady Hideko
Kim Hae Sook
as Ms. Sasaki
Lee Yong Nyeo
as Bok-soon
Yoo Min Chae
as Ggeut-dan
Lee Dong Hwi
as Goo-gai
Kwak Eun Jin
as Kkeut-dan
Lee Kyu Jung
as Maid #1
Jo Eun Hyung
as Young Hideko
Supporting cast
44Rina Takagi
as Hideko's Mother
Han Ha Na
as Junko
Kim See Eun
as Maid 2
Ha Si Yeon
as Maid 3
Kim Eun Yeong
as Maid 4
Jeong Ha Dam
as Maid 5
Won Geun Hee
as Butler
Kim Jong Dae
as Mansion Driver
Jang Han Sun
as Kouzuki Porter
Kim Lee Woo
as Japanese Officer 1
Shinsuke Fujimoto
as Japanese Officer 2
Katsuhiro Nagano
as Monk
Lee Ji Ha
as Female Owner of Ryokan
Tomomitsu Adachi
as Mental Hospital Doctor 1
Takashi Kakizawa
as Mental Hospital Doctor 2
Hwang Seo Yoon
as Mental Hospital Nurse 1
Park Do Young
as Mental Hospital Nurse 2
Lee Ji Hye
as Young Hideko's Maid 1
Heo So Yeon
as Young Hideko's Maid 2
Lee Yoon Jae
as 'The Golden Lotus' Reading Guest 1
Choi Jong Ryul
as 'The Golden Lotus' Reading Guest 2
Kim Joon Woo
as 'The Golden Lotus' Reading Guest 3
Bae Il Hyuck
as 'The Golden Lotus' Reading Guest 4
Kim Soo Woong
as 'The Golden Lotus' Reading Guest 5
Jo Yong Hyun
as 'The Golden Lotus' Reading Guest 6
Park Kee Ryung
as 'The Whip Speaks' Reading Guest 1
Choi Byung Mo
as 'The Whip Speaks' Reading Guest 2
Han Chang Hyun
as 'The Whip Speaks' Reading Guest 3
Kim In Woo
as 'The Whip Speaks' Reading Guest 4
Kwon Hyuk
as 'The Whip Speaks' Reading Guest 5
Im Hyeong Tae
as 'The Whip Speaks' Reading Guest 6
Oh Man Seok
as 'Bells of Passion' Reading Guest 1
Kim Byung Gi
as 'Bells of Passion' Reading Guest 2
Kim In Su
as 'Bells of Passion' Reading Guest 3
Alexander Scarborough
as Pyeonghwa Hotel Restaurant Manager
Jin Chul Kim
as Pyeonghwa Hotel Restaurant Guest 1
Do Hyung Kim
as Pyeonghwa Hotel Restaurant Guest 2
Eun Ji Hong
as Pyeonghwa Hotel Restaurant Guest 3
Song Da Eun
as Pyeonghwa Hotel Restaurant Guest 4
Jeong In Kyeom
as Ronin 1
Nam Gyeong Min
as Ronin 2
Ahn Seong Bong
as Harbor Ticket Office Ronin
Seon Uk Hyeon
as Harbor Ticket Office Staff
Lee In Chul
as Photo Studio Owner
Directors
1Writers
3Producers
1Other crew
5Parents Guide
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