(no subject)

[skygiants]

For Equinox this year, I made a vid for Park Chan-wook's The Handmaiden (if you missed that movie, it's the Korean lesbian gothic period drama based on Sarah Waters' Fingersmith) for caramarie set to Billie Eilish's "bad guy".

...I feel a bit bad about this because I, perpetually behind the musical times, had actually never heard "bad guy" until snickfic linked to a lot of Billie Eilish music in a great post which called out in particular Billie Eilish's non-sexualized personal image and then I made a vid ... for The Handmaiden .... I APOLOGIZE.

"Bad Guys" (Watch on Vimeo)

(on AO3)
(on tumblr)

Comments

[osprey_archer]

I have been meaning to see this movie and now I want to see it even more. It looks kind of Gothic Korean Agatha Christie from this vid - is that accurate? (Actually if it's based on Fingersmith, presumably the time period is earlier. Maybe I'm just easily confused.)

[skygiants]

No, you're right, the time period for the film is shifted forward - the book takes place in the Victorian era, but The Handmaiden is set during the Japanese occupation of Korea, which does more or less line up with the classic Christie period! Which is one of several adaptation choices that I think work really well for the film, though there are a couple others that ... well, I mean, the ending gets a little gory but honestly from what I know of Park Chan-Wook's other work The Handmaiden is actually pretty restrained so I'm not going to complain that much.

[snickfic]

OMG, that's delightful, and I am even more delighted to have been a little bit responsible for it. :')

[skygiants]

you really were, I had spent DAYS listening through my music trying to find a song that said anything interesting about this film and then literally as soon as I started listening from your link I was like "oh no, this is the one!"

[thistleingrey]

I actually never want to see the film entire, and I'm fine with that, but TBH crossing Billie Eilish with it seems ... totally okay to me...?

[skygiants]

I mostly just felt a little sheepish that I read snickfic's post about enjoying the lack of objectification in Eilish's videos and was immediately like "ah yes, I'm now going to use this song to vid a movie that walks a very deliberate and uncomfortable line around explicit sexual objectification and the reclamation thereof ..."

(and then in no way went as hard on that as the movie does, because a.) I had two minutes and b.) I'm not super interested in vidding erotica even in the interests of making a point about how we define 'bad women', but I didn't know how it was going to play out when I started.)

[snickfic]

In your defense, Billie Eilish's video is very lacking in sexual objectification, but the song itself is still pretty sexual!

[thistleingrey]

Yes, what snickfic says, and anyway, transformative works....

[lirazel]

Oh I love it! How is this movie so vid-able? I've seen so many great vids of it and I'm so glad to see this one too!

[skygiants]

It's really fun to vid because it's got so many great and interestingly evocative visuals -- all the visual doubling, the use of mirrors, the shots of characters watching and being watched that ensure the camera is going to have a lot of motion that you can then map to music ... also! Kim Tae-Ri's amazingly expressive face!!!

[lirazel]

I am also a Kim Tae-Ri fan. Have you seen Little Forest? It's a very slow movie, but I enjoyed it a lot.

I like how you communicated the energy and the complexity of the film in this vid. Thank you for sharing it!

[skygiants]

Oh, I haven't, but I should! I'm rewatching Mr. Sunshine with shati now and being impressed all over again by how much presence and personality she's got in every scene. And thank you -- I'm glad you liked it! :D

[aamcnamara]

aahhhh I like! Well done! And "bad guy" is a great choice because, look, EVERYONE in that film is a bad guy (in negative or positive ways).

[skygiants]

Thank you so much, I'm glad you like it! :DD And yeah, that was the key for me -- I was listening through songs but none of the other ones I'd tentatively earmarked gave me a way to show the shifting perspective (... and also none of them gave me the opportunity to show how funny Kim Tae-Ri is ....)

[littlerhymes]

Oh wow, I love it! Great vid for a great movie.

[skygiants]

Thanks, I'm really glad you like it! :D