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'Scandal' spices up Joseon affairs.
(From The Korea Herald)
By Kim Jin The Joseon Dynasty was an age of stuffy scholars who got their topknots all bunched up about sexual matters. So we thought. The new film "Scandal" opening tomorrow puts forth a different view: Beneath the mannered surface, it was an age of bedroom Machiavellians and heaving bosoms.
The historical drama is based on "Les Liaisons Dangereuses," the 1782 novel by Choderlos de Laclos that created, suitably enough, a scandal at the time of its publication by portraying the heartless decadence of the French aristocracy.
The latest "Scandal" begins with an ancestor worship ritual held outdoors while a couple is knocking boots indoors. Is the film criticizing the hypocritical Korean aristocracy? Or condemning the oppressive Joseon Dynasty social order? These are just some of the interesting questions ignored in the disappointing hours to follow.
In the film, Lady Jo (Lee Mi-suk) assigns her cousin Jo Won (Bae Yong-joon) to seduce an innocent girl to deny her husband the privilege of taking a virgin as a concubine. Lady Jo offers an incestuous union with herself as the wrinkly reward.
Jo Won, a shameless Casanova more into drawing dirty pictures than reading the Confucian classics, sets his eyes instead on a Catholic cold fish (Jeon Do-youn) who presents more of a challenge.
Unlike the vicious and merciless novel, the film depicts the wicked schemes of the jaded strategists with a playful tone. They don't make your skin crawl, they make you smile. It reduces the film to an elegantly costumed trivialization of the novel. Moreover, it sinks the ...
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