The Handmaiden (2016)

A rough neighborhood in a city in Japanese-occupied Korea, 1930s. Sookee is the orphaned daughter of an infamous female thief. She lives with her adoptive mother, who deals in stolen goods; an adoptive brother who makes forgeries; and an adoptive sister who is a pickpocket. One day a suave, shady crook who calls himself Count visits them and invites Sookee to take part in a scam that will make her rich. The Count has made the acquaintance of a wealthy Japanese Lady named Hideko who lives on a vast estate and makes virtually no contact with the outside world. Her Uncle, an ambitious Korean man who married into her family, controls her every move and is obsessed with book collecting. Each month he invites men from aristocratic families to come listen to Hideko perform readings of rare books. The Count, who is no novice at seducing women, has hatched a plan to woo Hideko and elope with her to Japan. After marrying her and converting her fortune to cash, he then plans to declare her insane and lock her up in a madhouse. To make all this possible, Sookee is to enter Hideko’s home as the Lady’s maid, and secretly work behind the scenes to further the Count’s plot. Everything goes more or less according to plan. Sookee is dazzled by the opulence of the estate, and the beauty of her new mistress, but she sets the gears in motion. The Count arrives several weeks later, ostensibly to give the Lady painting lessons. Sookee is a diligent and resourceful maid, and as the days pass, she and Hideko share secrets and become closer. The Count makes his advances on the Lady, and the day of reckoning draws near, but Hideko remains curiously cold and distant.