|
Untold Scandal
(2004, Korea, 124 min)
Directed by: E J-Yong
Starring: Bae Yong-Jun, Lee Mi-Sook and Jeon Do-Yeon
www.scandal-movie.com | www.kino.com/untoldscandal
Trailer: Low Res | Hi Res
I'll be honest. I wasn't too excited in seeing this film, especially after eagarly anticipating the relase of Taegukgi for so many weeks. To add to that, the production stills showed a cast of characters dolled up in an ancient times garb that reminded me of those dramas that my grandparents and relatives used to watch on video, which I restlessly sat through so I could watch the latest Top 20 Korean Music Video Countdown (remember Music Tank?!). And to top it all off, the movie was based on Les Liaisons Dangereuses by French novelist Choderlos De Laclos, the story more popularly known among Americans as
Dangerous Liasons, or Cruel Intentions, depending on how old you are. Great, I thought, another unoriginal story, made by Koreans, whom already are notoriously infamous for copying everything—from Prada knockoffs to the American pop songs (or even Chinese pop songs, as in the case of Roo'ra). But hell, I sat through train wrecks like Wild Card and excruciatingly soapy Korean dramas, so why not give E J-Yong's version of this countlessly retold story a shot?
Thankfully enough, I found Untold Scandal more so than less, to be worthy company among the ranks of the other wonderful adaptations of this story. The film explores the relationship between Cho-won (Bae Yong Jun), Chosun Dynasty's premiere casanova, and his married cousin, the spiteful Lady Cho (Lee Mi Sook). Cho-won, confident in his ability to seduce any woman, takes on a challenge set by Lady Cho to deflower and impregnate her husband's soon-to-be concubine, So-Oak (Lee So Yeon), with the prospect of bedding privileges with herself as a reward. But what Cho-won desires most is to charm the affections of devout Catholic and not mention, very prim & proper, Lady Chung (Jeon Do-Yeon), who has remained celibate for nine years since her husband's death. This initiates an ensuing web of deceit, love, and revenge between the three that stays true to the plot of the original, but shaped to conform to fit in accordance with the cultural and social evironment of aristocratic 18th-century Korea.
And by setting the story during this timeframe, E J-Yong only adds more depth to the story. Noble society, in accordance with Confucian tradition, were to be exempleary in being virtuous. But by contexualizing the age old story during Victorian age in Korean history, and a period of time which modern day Koreans have historically perceived as an age of innocence, he toys with the historical validity of this claim. Lady Cho, while exploiting Cho-won's carnal lust for her in her challenge, has sexual trysts of her own with young lovers as well. Enhanced by traditional contrasting perceptions of sexuality, especially those that of women,—either you are a virgin or a whore—her actions become downright controversial for time when women's virtuousness and fidelity was considered sacred. At many instances of the film, a character's reputation of virtuousness was held at stake as blackmail for favors. Married women were not to be seen in public fraternizing with single men as rumors of infidelity or promiscuousness would be disastrous to her reputation.
Even if this story were to be set against a more contemporary backdrop of Korea today, a period which media is commercializing women's bodies (albeit many times, misrepresented by the American media), remnants of stereotypes of how a woman should be still reverberate in a society that encourages individuals to be less unique and more like the group. This societal "gang mentality" existed not only in ancient Korea, but is omnipresent today, as evidenced by the Koreans' embacement of everything from the latest trends in pop music to religion. In addition, sexuality is still repressed in women today who are burdened by ideals of "purity". To seek sexual pleasure, women risk becoming wayward members of their sex. To simplify things, although the gestures of sophistication adorn the story from top to bottom, traditions in Korea have not drifted that far as many believe. Women still strive for an image of chastity in a still male-dominated society (the Equal Employment Act, which prevents discriminatory practices against female workers only recently passed in 1987).
Untold Scandal features scenery lucsciously decorated with impeccable attention to detail that is a feast of colors for the eyes stylized in a similar vein to that of Zhang Yimou's landscapes in his epic films. This elaborate set design is truly the most remarkable aspect of the film, whereas it falters in some other areas such as extended dialogue sequences. As complex a story it is to illustrate, trimming down the monologues of Lady Cho affirming her guiding principals of life could probably have been substitued with more subtle behavior and simple positionings of body posture. But these aspects of the film are more minor annoyances than significant distractions that do not detract so much that the film becomes less a epic in its storytelling of a historic era not so far removed from today.
—ubn
|