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Park Chan-Wook's The Handmaiden Streaming @ SBS on Demand

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From the director who brought you the story of a boy so old he could be considered a middle-aged man, vampires licking armpits and Decision To Leave (2022), comes this tale of forbidden love and suspense

For those of you who haven't already seen this on Blu-ray three times like I have and don't want to "sail the high seas" like all the very witty and relentlessly smug pirates on here, The Handmaiden has been added to SBS on demand where you can watch it for free

To my knowledge (could be wrong), this has not been available on any streaming services in Australia since its 2016 release (yay! the future!), despite being an Amazon studios production.

Top 5 Korean film of all time for me personally amongst the likes of Parasite, Oldboy, Burning and a fourth movie.

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  • +23

    The films on SBS are so much better than any of the other streaming services I use. Would love them to up the quality a bit but I guess you can’t complain when it’s free.

    • +11

      I swear iView has been upping their quality lately. They obviously have much less choice than SBS, but at least it is ad free and looks significantly better.

      SBS doesn't even have a functional search engine most of the time.

      • +3

        Yes, it has improved. SBS need to too despite everything.

      • +3

        iView needs user accounts now, for more than a year.

        I don't like having accounts, when I could have watched ABC and SBS for free-to-air,
        but I don't get the benefits of their shows (or any syndications), without needing to log in.

        • For ABC use a Kodi plug in, don't need an account.

        • -3

          I agree with general comments that 720p is pathetic for Australian streaming series, whether they be from the commercial networks or the govt funded and owned ABC and SBS.

          It infuriates me that their current managing direct of ABC (no Ita is head of the board and will be leaving shortly) but the guy, forgot his name is super keen to get people onto digital and use the iView platform for watching back content but the max resolution you get according to certain tool you can use to download the vast amount is 1280x720. And while SBS offers slightly higher I’m not sure they offer 1080p either, I think they too max out at 1280x720 with some expectations.

          The broadcast networks I haven’t looked at in a while but last time I checked those too are 720p with ads shoved in by a computer often with no consideration for where the story is up to.

          And it’s been like this for a while. I have some downloaded content from ABC iview from some years ago which was 320x280.

          TL;DR - NBN is a joke and is partially to blame for the shit we call broadband and we are one of the most expensive countries to sell broadband in the OECD.

          Again we are a laughing stock - as if our rubbish 60+ billion NBN was written down by 29.5 billion in late 2022, they are still trying to pay off the 29.5 billion loan they got from LNP to finish the NBN. Which they never did. At the end of 2020 there was still about 400,000 residential and commercial properties that weren’t connected.

          Victoria has paid them a massive bribe to get a lot of the new fibre being run coming hear earlier and giving a number of regional cities and towns with the “option” of FTTP as long as the average person connects at 100/20 for at least two years. In the real world if only one person in the street wants fibre, that a lot of gear they are putting in a P6 pit just for that one customer but unless that house is more than 40 years old good chance it has P20 conduit with the copper lead in cable and the fibre lead in can run down that same conduit as long it’s not compromised by and trees or other plants having breached the conduit.

          While I digress on the NBN, I just thought I’d mention there are a lot of Trucks around Bendigo at present and some of them are hauling green multi ribbon fibre down them.

          Though I haven’t stopped to talk to them yet suburbs of Bending are definitely on the list to upgrade as there’s a number of suburbs in Melbourne slated to get the option for FTTP as well.

          Really though I want to see the TV networks in Australia proving 1080p streams if people choose it. Maybe start off at 720p and let people increase it.

          I’ve heard stories that the cost of bandwidth is a killer for all of the broadcasters and that may have some truth to it. Surely they are smart enough to run their services on a CDN and yes, Peer IX has always been expensive in Australia so are out high speed plans.

          I’ve got 250/25 and two (yes, you read right, two RSPs) because in a ongoing dispute borderline legal battle with Telstra because the 3BEN POI doesn’t seem to be capable of providing consistent speeds, at any time of the day or night it’s not just me but my parents and colleagues who tell me they are getting “mountain range” like speeds regards the plan they are on the same as me and yet, I’ve prove with both Superloop and now AussieBB that they can provide a maxed out connection without much fluctuation in speed.

          Sorry I know this is about streaming but I hate NBN with a passion partly because it took 18 months to get Fibre though a bunch of house like mine where all beyond the 1100 metres service qualification list.

          It must have cost then a few hundred grand to run Skinny Fibre to around 80 houses but then they tried to deny tge project's existence, except I’d spoken to the project manager got the project number and then also sent photos off of the fibre gear and the cables in a P6 pitt and the “NBN FIBRE OPTIC CABLE” hanging around my Madison box.

          Why there are only 7-8 houses in my immediate area who using FTTP in my area and if you drag your mouse over the NBN map and during some time in 2023 all the properties show FTTP but it’s in a purple FTTN area so those non technical could easily miss it. It should showing up as brown iirc, these small skint fibre runs don’t show on the map as they should.

          That does not go along with NBN emailing me saying they would mail everyone in the anrea in early 2019 advise everyone to upgrade to FTTP. Most of the houses around me are getting speeds like 20/1 because they are between 1200-1600 from the closest node. This area was not design for data even house in 2008 ADSL2 was available in man places across Australia. Telstra also installed CMUX equipment which is like a fibre optic extender from the closest exchange and then provides PSTN phone and ADSL2.

          I certainly wasnt going to lie down and be steam rolled buy one of the most hate conputanied in Australia so I spent time getting an NBN senior customer complaints resolution manager (which is not small feet considering NBN doesn’t like tdealing with the public) however the person whom I was assigned, I had to very frequently calling, emailed and even texting as I had her mobile phone number.

          She kept telling me she has escalated the issue to the deployment team to change my Service Class from 12 to 1 (PCD at Premises, requires an ONT) forgive me if I got that wrong. Pretty sure you can Google all the service classes and at least one or more have them on their web sites)

          I don’t know whether it was the fact that I got the details for head of customer complaints and bothe their work a mobile number. I never abused or coerced or bribed anyone at Customer Complaints Resolution - I just spend an inane amount of time trying to get in contact with them and of course I did my best to be a thorn in their side, so that would hurry up, as the initial conversation indicated that it should be a relatively easy process but I also learned along the way that NBN departments don’t often contact each other or have any reason to interact.

          It might have been my next step, a voicemail to the senior VP of customer complaints which maybe have worked, or it’s possible the deployment team also got a message saying fix this that line of text in the NBN database to read Service Class 1.

          I will spare you the difficulties I had with Telstra trying to tell me I was still on 24 month FTTN contracts and they were going to charge me to move my service to FTTP except Siebel, their CRM system doesn’t have an easy way to migrate customers between different NBN technologies. (Hey what about the Technology Choice Program????!!!!

          There was also my ongoing fight with Telstra but I connect myself up Superloop and with 45 minutes I had an active connection and it was solid and none of this up down up down speed problem which to this very day are still goongbwa massive issue for me and for a few other POIs around Australia and yes I tested from both remote and in person, other FTTN on either 50/20 or 100/40 and download files and I had 1GB, 5GB and 10GB sitting on Amazon Cloud, One Drive, G Drive and Dropbox. I have screenshots into the thousand of Telstra and then Superloop, and now AussieBB.

          I can’t give them anymore evidence and still both Telstra AND NBN refuse to acknowledge there is a problem. It’s not my house or my cabling and I brought in another 10 people onto this case so Telstra would get more heat about it, from peopl who use 3BEN AS their POI.

          So given how hard it was for me to get fibre connected, and the time that it took I’d love to know how the other few people got on FTTP this custom/bespoke fix for a problem which is affecting a huge account of FTTN customers across those a number of areas. .

          NBN don’t answer to the ACMA or the TIO so, the only time they answer questions, is to Senate Estimates and a large number of those questions put to NBN’s executive team taken as a “questioned on notice” allowing them six months or longer to come back with an actually some convoluted answer.

          As I mentioned earlier NBN was written down in vale by 31.5 billion in late 2022 treasury apparently only valued their overal value at $4.5 billion. That was quite some time ago and a long time before they finished.

          ALP gave then NBN another 2 billion recently to keep up with the new Fibre rollout

          When UK, much of the EU and most large international cities (and they don’t even have to be that large to get 1Gbps Symmetrical Fibre, I work with several colleagues who have 1/2/5 GBps Symmetric fibre and a colleague in Portland, OR, he recently had XG-PON RUN AND TERMINATED on his house and he didn’t even ask for it. That can do 20Gbos now and faster in the near future.

          The USA isn’t a great example as there are plenty of places where they are still on VDSL2 (almost the same as out FTTN). Or they use Starlink in remote areas.

          For the record FTTN was nearly 15 years old when they got Alcatel to make some modifications to the 7330 RSDLAMS - not long after the LNP committed to a staggering number, some bright spark suggested, what if we pow out those 800 metre concentric circles to 1200 metres knowing full well that the Govt Mandated 25Mbit (shakes my head in disgusted) wouldn’t even work in a number of locates as they were supposed to overlap each other within the 1100m Service Qualification.

          These are threads on Whirlpool, some more than five years old of the same thing that happened to me, also as belligerent and trying to deny upgrades that they themselves cause but cutting corners.

          I’m going to stop now because there is still lots to this story, but if there are people out there who worked for ISGM/Tandem or Telstra and knows different facts from what I’ve written and researched and experienced, please feel free to correct me.

          • +19

            @dman1:

            The author expresses frustration with the low resolution (720p) of Australian streaming series, particularly on platforms like ABC iView. They criticize the National Broadband Network (NBN) in Australia, calling it a joke and blaming it for poor broadband quality. The author highlights ongoing issues with NBN infrastructure, delays in connecting properties, and challenges in upgrading to Fiber to the Premises (FTTP). They also touch on the high cost of broadband in Australia and question the efficiency of NBN's operations. The text delves into personal experiences, including struggles with Telstra and efforts to upgrade to FTTP. The author emphasizes the need for TV networks to offer higher quality (1080p) streams and questions the alleged high cost of bandwidth for broadcasters. The overall tone reflects dissatisfaction with the state of broadband and NBN services in Australia.

            Thanks ChatGPT!

          • @dman1: That's a lot of tax just so we can watch TV on demand instead of lining up our lives (or VCR) to the tv guide. Speaking of VCRs is there a working sbsnapper? Would love it for the long train rides with patches of no internet.

            • @Popo: TarTube or various yt-dlp GUI front ends.

              And Link Gopher in your browser to find the URLs for multi episode TV shows.

  • +15

    SBS on demand has no right being as amazing as it is for free

    • +9

      In terms of content it is second to none (at least for my taste), but the trade off is obviously quality and ads

    • +3

      Not free
      Your taxes pay for it

    • It's not free, Australian taxpayers are 100% funding the service.

  • -5

    do i bring a box of tissue and some oil with me?

    • +1

      wat? oh, the name checks out.

    • While I had a laugh, Park Chan-Wook is one of the bigger directors in korea these days.

  • +6

    Top 5 you have.

    no one does dark thriller better than korean cinema

    • depends on the story, i like old hong kong movies or some japanese ones ley lines was a good example. Some taiwanese movies are pretty good too but the country has changed so much its hard to relate and modern taiwanese movies just churn it out and dont focus so much on quality.
      I used to like korean movies they were really stylistic and daring 20 years ago, nowadays they all seem to taste the same.

      • -4

        Generalisations at never helpful

        • All generalisations are incorrect.

          • @whyisave: All generalisations come from somewhere

          • @whyisave: i would guess that being a generalisation its purpose is not to be accurately correct, like a range is not an exact number, yet does that mean they are all incorrect hmm maybe not (on the basis of the monkey typewriter story)

        • its just an opinion, dont stress :) I dont mind if other people like korean movies better

          • +1

            @juki: @Headless , @juki

            If you re-read what I wrote,
            you will see that the statement in itself,
            is a self-defeating statement.

            So, there's actually no need to to reply to it, hahaha

            • +1

              @whyisave: yeah i know i'm shaking my fist at clouds too, i just like rambling

  • vampires licking armpits

    wtf?   (  '-'  )

    Decision To Leave was so good though. Man what a movie that was.

    • Check out Thirst

    • +1

      Decision to Leave is also on Kanopy.

  • -1

    I love Korean

    • BBQ ?

      • the chicks arent too shabby

  • This is an excellent film and I highly recommend it. Park Chan-Wook is a very very good director and the cinematography is exquisite.

    If you’re still making up your mind, have a look at the trailer, which is a piece of art in itself. Hypes you up for the movie but gives none of the plot away: https://youtu.be/whldChqCsYk?si=B14gj89odKRygwHq

      • What is a tracker?

        • +2

          If you look at URLs,
          you will see "?<something=>".

          You can remove this <something=>,
          and that URL will still work.

          That <something=> tells the server 'some information',
          eg.
          it could be
          about who is clicking the URL,
          where the URL was from,
          where the location of the clicker is,
          which browser they used (and the browser 'fingerprint'),
          etc. etc. etc. etc.
          It could be any metric.
          We don't always know.

          If you see "?FBCLID=" , then that's FB tracking people.
          If you see "?GCLID=", then that's G00gle tracking people.

          In this case, Youtube is tracking people with that "si=" in the URL part.

          • +1

            @whyisave: Amazing, didn’t know that, thank you!

  • -5

    What bargain is this? Wrong post!

    • +14

      You've been here since 2015 and used one of your 77 comments to make a barely legible heckle on an inconsequential post

      👏👏👏

  • did not get the rave reviews of this and The Wailing. kinda boring tbh

    • -4

      Requires emotional awareness 🤷🏻‍♂️

      • Any other Korean films you would say requires emotional awareness?

        • Anything by Lee Chang-dong and Hong Sangsoo 🤷🏻‍♂️

    • +4

      That's why its 85 on metacritic and 84 on user score…

      I think marvel has a new TV show you might wanna check out

    • if only it was marvel movie 212 it would be much more in the comfort zone. easier to grok after watching 212 times.

    • +2

      You are biased, sadly, you don't know what you're missing out on. Hollywood is churning out the same kind of (lackluster) movies nowadays. South Korean cinema (and media in general) offers a new world of media beyond Hollywood. Feels a bit like an alternative universe, except more fresh.

      They're belatedly getting the recognition they deserve - Parasite got many awards, even the Oscars' highest Best Picture in 2020. And that movie, in my opinion, isn't even that good compared to Bong Joon-ho (director)'s other movies.

      (I haven't seen THIS movie though, so can't recommend, but can recommend you to be open minded)

  • +3

    Here are all the other movies in the SBS On Demand 'Summer of Movies' collection: https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/summer-of-movies

  • Was the male character died in real life last month?

    • +3

      *Did and die

    • Parasite actor

  • SBS demand? Who subbed it?

  • +2

    This is on Kanopy as well for anyone who has a subscription. No ads and higher quality.
    @ninternet: Did you figure out the 4th film? Memories of murder, Train to Busan? Mother?

  • +2

    If anyone else is looking for recommendations:

    Mother (2009)
    Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2013)

    It would be a disservice to spoil even the premise. I highly recommend going in blind.

    • +1

      Add to that I Saw The Devil and Tale of Two Sisters

    • Miracle in Cell No. 7

      "Hope" and "Silenced" as well

      • Pretty sure they're not on SBS

        • thought they were just recommending since Mother isn't as well

          • @follow: Mother is frequently on SBS. I thought it was still there. Maybe not 🤔

    • +2

      I haven't seen too many, but these are what I usually based on what I've watched:

      • Mother (2009)

      • Memories of Murder (2003)

      These two movies were directed by Bong Joon-ho (Parasite guy), and honestly they're better than Parasite (2019) by miles in my opinion - Parasite just felt like a belated recognition. The two movies are very gritty from the start and the pay off is amazing, absolutely an experience.

      • Escape from Mogadishu (2021) - movie set in the 70s or 80s, in Ethiopia or something, when North Korea (communist / dictatorship) was actually doing better than South Korea (and even China). War breaks out in their host nation, and it becomes a bit of an action / political movie. No doubt the 'easiest' movie for action thriller people (but it is deeper than that, or I wouldn't recommend it).

      • Burning (2018) - A weird movie compared to the above, i'll get to that below. I watched this (or started to) on a Qantas flight many years ago (available to watch on the flight, watched until the sex scene wtf… kids!)… and watched the rest later. It is a weird movie - not in the funny sense at all, but makes you think about how things are in the world. There's no action etc. or a sense of story. If you have a slow day, watch this fully and it will stay on your mind for some reason, and after a month or so you'll feel compelled to rewatch it again. "What does it mean… Why can I relate…" etc.

      • A Taxi Driver (2017) - South Korean history, based on their fight for democracy in the 80s. Gives you a sense of what they fought for (to reach 'full democracy' status today, from authoritarian). Very well made, not much to say, recommended.

      NOT recommended among famous movies:

      • Oldboy (2003) - yes, controversial I know, so many recommend thi smovie. I did not enjoy this movie, just too gritty and too human / emotional / over acting? (It was remade by Hollywood later, and that I hear was horrible, watch the original Korean if you're keen).

      • Train to Busan (2016) - I don't get why this is so famous. It's a zombie thriller but I prefer the ones from Hollywood. The sequel (Peninsula, 2020) was simply trash, I left the cinema halfway.

      • The Host (2006) - by the Bong again. I don't get this movie, couldn't watch it all.

      I want the other famous ones like Broker, Tale of 2 Sisters, I Saw the Devil etc.

      I wrote too much and have too much time - let me know if anyone has any questions. But don't think I can add any more. Definitely glad we have the South Korean option beyond Hollywood.

      • +2

        A Taxi Driver (2017) was amazing, I can't believe I forgot to mention it in my earlier comment. Thank you for sharing such a varied list of recommendations!

        • +1

          Alternatively I recommend all the ones ram4ram doesn't. Haven't seen Escape From Mogadishu or A Taxi Driver though.

  • licking armpits?! whats that about

  • SBS was great once-upon-a-time, until the much viled adverts arrived and ruined the fun mostly for everyone. Will gladly pay for a small sum to have the option to have them banished to oblivion.

  • +1

    This is the movie that started it all for Kim Tae Ri

  • Fantastic Movie! Have seen already

  • When are they making a movie for the assassination of Kim Jong Un‘s half-brother? It’s so surreal.

  • Great movie, seen it before.

    p.s. Calamari anyone?

  • +2

    Omg my partner and I were shocked at the "scissors scene" 😂
    We cant look at Kim Tae-ri in other dramas the same way anymore 💀. This is after watching Mr. Sunshine

  • Cool… will have a watch this weekend thanks

  • +2

    Love the film but would note that the SBS version has been censored quite a bit to get it down to an MA.

    • Oh really? That sucks

  • +1

    Thank you for the post Ninternet. The Handmaiden was on my list to rent from Apple so you’ve saved me some money. And thanks also to TurnipHead as I have Kanopy but didn’t think to check it out for K-drama. There’s a good collection and better picture quality and no ads and free for library members.

    • +1

      I've been interested in Kanopy for a while, but my local library doesn't support it. A few minutes down the road does, but requires being a resident of another state afaik.

      • +2

        Might be worth asking. Sometimes there’s flexibility across state borders when the towns are close by.
        I’m hoping to join a library in another region so I can get access to Beamafilm.

      • what state are you in? Quite a few libraries in Victoria let you join if you live anywhere in the state and you can do so online.

        • In Vic. That’s great. Thanks.

  • Try Whitehorse Manningham, they have both kanopy and beamafilm

    • Not familiar woth Beamafilm. What's been your experience with that?

    • City of Melbourne library also has both. Many only have Kanopy.

  • I prefer Kanopy but sometimes beamafilm has something the others don't have
    For example, I would highly recommend C'mon, c'mon on Beamafilm which is a fairly recent release

  • Beamafilm seems to have more Australian content.

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