Untold Scandal- ‘Les Liasons Dangereuses’
is a story about aristocratic libertines who have nothing
better to do than to amuse themselves with cruel wagers.
Untold Scandal is a movie based on the original plot of
Les Liasons Dangeruese, but it instead of taking place in
16th century France, it takes place in Korea during the
Chosun Dynasty.
The main character is Lady Cho, an ajuma with a noble bloodline.
She’s as elegant as she is heartless. Her cousin,
Cho Won, is the eldest son of a wealthy family. He’s
a notorious womanizer who seduces women with poetry and
after the fact, he likes to paint his sexual escapades.
Because the main characters are rich and live a life of
leisure, their boredom drives them to find amusement in
wrecking other people’s lives. They especially find
joy in sexual conquests. As an act of revenge, Lady Cho
wants Cho Won to devirginize and perhaps impregnate a 16
year old who is to be her husband’s new concubine.
He feels this is too easy. Instead, his goal is to deflower
a chaste widow whose husband died before they had a chance
to consummate their union. Their conniving plots lead to
ill-fated consequences.
This movie is interesting for several reasons. First, the
movie was worth watching for of the historic sets and sumptuous
costumes. The brilliant cinematography also added to the
beauty of the film. Second, it was interesting to see how
the same story was adapted into two different eras and cultures.
The movie gives an interesting insight into the Confucian
culture of the Chosun dynasty. Men and women were not openly
allowed to talk to each other and everything was always
going on behind closed doors. In one scene, the husband’s
future concubine reads and except from a book for virtuous
women “A woman’s husband is her heaven. She
must serve him like she would her father. She must not be
absurd, be virtuous always and not make herself important.
She must be obedient and not contradict or betray him.”
After reading this aloud, she yawns. Later on, Lady Cho
enlightens the future concubine about the hypocrisies of
noble society. “Common people don’t know this,”
she says “but all ladies of nobility have a secret
lover or two. Books are books, but reality is different,
just as a woman’s reality is to wed a man she doesn’t
love. Everyone knows it, but no one speaks of it.”
Despite the beauty of the movie and it’s intriguing
plot, this movie was met with mixed reviews in Korea. Perhaps
Korean audiences didn't like it because they thought it
shed the wrong kind of light on their culture.
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