The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter
 
Starring:Han Suk-Kyu (President’s Last Bang, Forbidden Quest),
Lee Eun-Joo (Lover’s Concerto, “Phoenix”),
Seong Hyeon-A (Time, Woman is the Future of Man),
Uhm Ji-Won (Running Wild, Over the Rainbow)

Directed by: Daniel H. Byun (Interview)
Written by: Daniel H. Byun
Genre: Thriller
Year: 2004
Runtime: 117
Rating: 7    
 
Synopsis

by Simon Booth, edited by MJ07 and jiejunwoo
THE SCARLET LETTER begins as a murder/detective film, with an opening scene of  a woman drenched in blood stumbling through the streets before finding a pay-phone and calling the police. Detective Lee Ki-hoon (Han Suk-Kyu) arrives and examines the scene and the blood-stained wife of the victim. Initial evidence points to the notion that the wife Ji Kyung-hee (Sung Hyun-Ah) is in fact the murderer, but as he investigates further he gets drawn into her world,  and realises that his own life is far from a clean, cosy and neat one. His own relationship with his wife is complicated by more than just the affair he shares with her friend and his lover, Ka-hee (Lee Eun-Joo). This love triangle is the main focus of the film, with parallels in the murder story throwing his own troubles into focus.

Review

The classy cover art and cast photos on the packaging do not really give an adequate impression of THE SCARLET LETTER as a film. Although it is sophisticated, with superb direction and camerawork, it is a much grittier film than the case implies. The film opens with a car parked by a lake side, quiet and serene, until two bullet holes appear in the trunk, from inside. This event is not explained until much later, as the film then goes back in time to the blood-drenched new widow mentioned earlier. The narrative does not progress in an entirely linear fashion, occasionally taking obtuse paths through history and the present, marking the film as clearly more than (or at least different to) a standard murder-mystery. At times it was difficult keeping track of characters and their relationships, possibly because I misidentified the actresses in some scenes and hence got a muddled impression of the relationships they all had with Detective Lee Ki-hoon (Han Suk-Kyu) and the rest of the world.
What the film is really about is how fickle and cruel people can be, and how relationships rarely follow anything like the trajectory the average romantic comedy or drama would have you believe. As the film progresses, relationships become more fraught and painful, and emotions become increasingly turbulent and raw. The actors all do a great job in showing their characters descent into pain and violence of one form or another, but particularly Han Suk-Kyu and Lee Eun-Joo, whose inner agony is given external expression in a number of scenes, particularly an extended and traumatic final 20 minutes or so. The film is definitely not a feel-good experience, and the rawness and intensity calls to mind Park Chan-Wook’s highly lauded films OLDBOY and SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE in its unflinching look at the darker side of the human condition.
It is this, more than the sexual scenes (which are not particularly explicit, though they also exhibit an uncommon emotional realism and honesty), which I suspect gave Lee Eun-Joo such trouble after the film was completed. To give the kind of gut-wrenching performance she does, she must have got very deeply into character and experienced some very dark emotions. Horrible as it is to contemplate, perhaps she simply couldn’t escape from the places where her character took her. It gives enormous credit to her talent as an actress that she was able to make herself suffer so deeply for her job, but the realisation that this may have killed her is an appalling one.
Not that watching THE SCARLET LETTER is an entirely traumatic film. The level of talent and craftsmanship that went into every aspect of the production is as satisfying as it is with any well-made film, regardless of its positivity or otherwise. It is not quite a masterwork on the level of OLDBOY, for instance, as it can be a little bit opaque and confusing, especially towards the end, and hence does not quite immerse the viewer as fully. It’s always hard to be completely immersed when you have to stop periodically and try to remind yourself what is going on, even so, it’s still very accomplished and I’m glad that its existence was brought to my attention, even if it was under very sad circumstances.
It’s impossible not to take those circumstances into account when watching the film, and to feel regret that an actress with as much talent and potential as Lee Eun-Joo will not be making any more films. Definitely a star that burnt out much too soon. One could argue that the world would have been a better place had she never made THE SCARLET LETTER, if it had meant her living longer and producing more and greater films. Given that this will not be the case, though, it is some consolation that at least we have a great final film to remember her by.

Related links:

Global YesAsia
http://global.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/code-k/section-videos/pid-1003926063/
YesAsia
http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/code-k/section-videos/pid-1003926063/