I was unclear about part of the ending… <SPOILERS>
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Handmaiden
uhrdavid — 9 years ago(November 13, 2016 09:28 PM)
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in the basement torture chamber Fujiwara asks for a cigarette (then a second). Prior to this, he comments about there being no windows down there. In the end Kouzuki (presumably) dies and we assume that Fujiwara does the same. Are we really supposed to believe that the cigarette smoke was intense enough to suffocate them both? As a former longtime smoker who has hot boxed in some pretty tight spaces in my day, I just want to call BS on that.
Is there any indication that Fujiwara might have poisoned his cigarettes prior to this incident? Earlier in the scene, he smokes 3 cigarettes at one time (in the car), but they were a different color. Possibly he is the kind of guy who would carry spiked cigarettes at all times, just in case? He also had a vial of pure opium earlier in the movie, just in case Hideko wanted to off herself. IDK if I buy it, but I like that scenario better than trying to pretend that you can die from smoking cigarettes in a closed room.
"We are here to help the Vietnamese, bc inside every beep there is an American trying to get out" -
kasperkatie — 9 years ago(November 13, 2016 11:26 PM)
At the end,
Fujiwara says that the cigarette is spiked with mercury which is deadliest in its gaseous state and that only one cigarette would have sufficed
. Some captions/subtitles are a bit different so that may not have been translated in the version you watched. I came across a leaked version online which had different lines than the one I saw in theaters a couple of nights ago, including those particular lines. The subtitles in theaters also distinguished between the languages spoken - a small detail which gives the film a whole extra dimension in my opinion.
Also, I think you're absolutely right about Fujiwara being the type of person who always made sure he had a way out. We are supposed to assume that
he smoked the three non-spiked cigarettes before he was forced into the basement to guarantee that he would effectively poison himself and Kouzuki later
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uhrdavid — 9 years ago(November 14, 2016 07:11 AM)
Thanks for this response. I definitely did not watch a very good translation. The part about the mercury was omitted completely. In the end Fujiwara said something like, "two should be sufficient," but it wasn't clear what he was talking about. This makes a lot more sense.
"We are here to help the Vietnamese, bc inside every beep there is an American trying to get out" -
ph75006 — 9 years ago(November 21, 2016 10:45 PM)
Yes, there was a scene earlier in the movie where you see the contents of his cigarette case and there were clearly 2 different colored cigarettes in there - 3 with white wrappers and 2 with blue. He takes the white ones and smokes all 3 at once in the car, leaving only the blue left in the case. At that point he already knew whatever was in store for him wouldn't be good. After all, he was escorted out by two fierce-looking guards with large swords. Leaving only the mercury laced ones in the case would guarantee death if the situation demanded it.