'Dangerous Liaisons' returns to Joseon in Netflix’s ‘The Scandal’ with Son Ye-jin, Nana’s deeper bond

A classic tale of desire, seduction and deceit that has been adapted time and again — as a Broadway play, an Academy Award-winning film and a Korean cult classic — is returning to the Joseon era (1392-1910), this time as a Netflix series in the hands of a director known for his provocative work.

Jung Ji-woo, the filmmaker behind the R-rated features “Happy End” (1999) and “Eungyo” (2012), said he used the series’ longer runtime to flesh out its characters and plot in “The Scandal,” the upcoming adaptation of the French novel “Dangerous Liaisons” (1782). 

That included creating entirely new backstories for Lady Cho, the cunning noblewoman whose wager with a man from her past sets the plot in motion, and Hui-yeon, the naive widow drawn into her schemes, played by Son Ye-jin and Nana, respectively.  

Related Article

• Son Ye-jin begins her 'second chapter' after returning to the big screen and embracing motherhood

• Actor Ji Chang-wook reflects on reuniting with a familiar world for Disney+'s 'The Manipulated'

• Hero or heel? Nana's home invasion case reignites debate on Korea's self-defense laws.

"The relationship between Lady Cho and Hui-yeon [in 'The Scandal'] isn’t something that exists in the original novel.  It was very intentional on our part to make that relationship richer and more vivid," the director said at a press conference for the series in central Seoul on Wednesday, ahead of its global premiere on Sept. 18.

“The Scandal” follows Lady Cho, a brilliant woman whose ambitions are constrained by the rigid Confucian norms of Joseon society, leaving her confined to the role of lady of the house. She later reunites with her cousin Cho Won, played by Ji Chang-wook, who had long harbored feelings for her but has since become a notorious playboy.

The series borrows part of its title and the names of its main characters from the acclaimed 2003 film “Untold Scandal,” which first set the 18th-century story in the late Joseon period with a star-studded cast including Jeon Do-yeon, Bae Yong-jun and Lee Mi-sook. 

While Jung called the film’s original idea “truly remarkable and admirable,” he said he returned to the original novel — with its characters as the starting point for his own adaptation.

“From there, I began rewriting the three characters and their relationships, so I think viewers will find a great many differences," the director said of what sets the series apart.

Jung also pointed to the costumes and music as major standouts. The richly detailed hanbok (traditional Korean dress) came from Tchai Kim, a brand that has dressed K-pop stars including BTS and whose work has been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The series also makes prominent use of pansori, a traditional Korean form of musical storytelling performed by a singer and drummer and marked by extended vocal passages and expressive singing.

“We structured the series almost like a pansori performance, beginning with pansori and ending with pansori,” Jung said. “I wanted to show just how beautiful and compelling pansori can be.”

Son said the series gave Lady Cho a far more “layered” and “intricately drawn” arc, with greater detail around what drives her to rekindle her complicated relationship with Cho Won.

"Her hidden desires, born from being unable to realize her talents because of the constraints of the era, can at times seem twisted, and at others sad and heartbreaking," Son said. “If some characters can be stitched together quickly on a sewing machine, Lady Cho had to be made one stitch at a time, with an artisan’s level of detail."

Ji added that his version of Cho Won — whom Jung described as warm and humorous — was “extremely different” from the playboy seen in the 2003 film.

Nana, meanwhile, said she drew on memories of her painfully shy younger self to portray Hui-yeon, the widow drawn into Lady Cho and Cho Won’s wager.

“I was extremely shy and introverted, and I relied heavily on my parents. I was a little afraid of the world and wary of other people," she said. 

“My personality has changed a lot since then, and I’ve become much more outgoing, so those parts of me have mostly faded. But I tried to revisit the parts of my younger self that were similar to Hui-yeon.”

BY KIM JU-YEON [[email protected]]