ok clarification for those of yall who seem confused: the handmaiden is a korean movie, not japanese. japanese is sometimes spoken bc the plot takes place during the japanese occupation in korea, and back then, the korean language and culture was marginalized. the japanese govt illegalized the korean language and made japanese the official language of korea
and also, some ppl on tumblr are claiming that the movie is racist bc it casts korean actors as japanese characters, which would be completely valid criticism if the charas were rlly japanese. but they’re not. from what i know the charas are ethnically korean. the reason why some of the charas have japanese names is bc there was a law in 1940 that forced koreans to abandon their ethnic surnames and take a japanese ones instead, bc the japanese govt wanted to force koreans to completely assimilate into japanese culture
edit: few corrections to this post, bc I just typed it out with info I knew off the top of my head when I first made it:
lady hideko is in fact japanese, altho her uncle (the guardian) is korean. it is not racist to cast asians interchangeably (for ex: casting a korean actor for a japanese character) in an east asian context. east asian media often intersects, and the race dynamics are just different there.
also, the movie takes place during the 1930s, which would mean the name change law was not in effect yet. during the 1930s, koreans would change their names to japanese names in order to mask their korean heritage and escape discrimination, not because they were forced to by law
