There is a story behind the naming of all the main characters in The Handmaiden.
In The Handmaiden, the original names of the main characters in the play have a lot of meaning. Sook-hee, played by Kim Tae-ri, is named after the main character ‘Soo’ in the original novel ‘Fingersmith‘ by British writer Waters.
Hideko, played by Kim Min-hee, is named after Japanese actress Hideko Takamine, who is the muse of Japanese director Mikio Naruse whom Park Chan-wook respects. In the sense that the character shown by Takamine Hideko in Naruse Mikio’s film is a strong independent woman, he thought that this name will suit the character of Hideko in “The Handmaiden” well.
The name Kozuki, played by Cho Jin-woong, comes from the name of Sangwol, which means “above the moon”.
Count Fujiwara, the fake title of the character played by Ha Jung-woo, was said to be a dignified name that usually related to the surname of aristocrats. And Fujiwara’s real name, Gopandol, was taken from the setting of being a native of Jeju Island.
