On September 18, Netflix premiered the historical drama «The Scandal» (스캔들). It is an 8-episode remake of the cult 2003 film «Untold Scandal», which in turn was based on Choderlos de Laclos's 1782 novel «Dangerous Liaisons».

The project is directed by Jung Ji Woo («Somebody», «Eun Gyo»). Starring Son Ye Jin («Crash Landing on You», «Something in the Rain»), Ji Chang Wook («Healer», «The Worst of Evil») and Nana («Climax», «Mask Girl»). All eight episodes were released simultaneously to subscribers, and the drama itself received a 19+ rating in Korea and TV-MA on Netflix.

The plot moves the action of «Dangerous Liaisons» to the Joseon era. Lady Cho (Son Ye Jin) is an aristocrat whose intelligence and talent are locked within the rigid confines of a patriarchal society. Unwilling to accept the fate reserved for women of her time, she initiates a dangerous game: she asks an old acquaintance, Joseon's most famous seducer, Cho Won (Ji Chang Wook), to seduce the young widow Hee Yeon (Nana), who has vowed to remain faithful to her late husband.

Cho Won, seeing this as a challenge to his mastery, accepts the bet, not suspecting that Hee Yeon will prove less pliable than he expected. Gradually, the boundaries between manipulation and genuine feeling blur, and all three are drawn into a dangerous emotional game in which desire, pride and vulnerability collide, and no one is guaranteed to emerge unharmed.

Director Jung Ji Woo emphasized that, unlike the two-hour film, the series format allowed for a deeper exploration of the characters and their motivations, as well as the addition of a new storyline - the relationship between Lady Cho and Hee Yeon, which was absent from both the novel and the 2003 film.

All three characters are oppressed. Lady Cho sees no outlet for her intellect and character, Cho Won has been stripped of a respected government post for harsh words addressed to the king, and Hee Yeon is forced to remain a virtuous widow after the death of a husband about whom nothing at all is known. All three characters struggle against the taboos that society imposes on them.

Read more: All Screen Adaptations of «Dangerous Liaisons»: From the US to Japan

Filming took place from April to September 2025 in South Korea.

The sense of immersion is heightened by voice-over readings of letters containing the characters' inner thoughts, while the unique aesthetics of the Joseon dynasty are fully brought out through skillful use of pansori (traditional Korean singing), folk painting, production design and props.

Particular attention was paid to the visuals: the hanbok worn by the characters was designed by Kim Young-jin, and the color palette of the costumes changed depending on the characters' emotional states. Thus, Lady Cho's outfits grew darker as her ambitions grew, while white tones in Hee Yeon's costumes emphasized her purity and vulnerability.

Son Ye Jin herself, returning to the historical genre for the first time in 24 years, admitted that wearing hanbok proved a difficult challenge:

«It looks stunning as soon as you put it on, but moving in it is almost impossible. I kept thinking about how aristocrats lived in this every day. The hardest part is the gestures. You cannot cross your arms or rest a hand on your hip; every movement must be restrained and straight. Maintaining such posture for months was hard»

In a promo video, Son Ye Jin said that her husband, actor Hyun Bin, helped her rehearse difficult dialogue. The actress expressed deep gratitude to her spouse for finding time in his busy schedule to support her.

At the same time, the project also faced criticism. The main topic of discussion was that Son Ye Jin, as a married woman and mother, agreed to explicit scenes in a drama rated 19+. Some viewers expressed bewilderment, while the actress herself had previously noted that she saw no reason to limit her career after marriage and that explicit scenes are part of her professional work.

As for viewer reaction, opinions were divided. Professional critics noted the visuals and Son Ye Jin's performance, but many reviewers agreed that the series lacks emotional tension.

JTBC writes:

«Perhaps because the story was stretched over eight episodes, the narrative is fragmented. Instead of the main characters striving toward a single goal, the narrative is more like an account of their personal backstories, which causes the story to lose its central point. It is not convincingly explained why Lady Cho and Cho Won, as relatives, would enter into such a dangerous bet. This point should simply be understood as «that is how the original work is structured». As a result, the drama's core becomes blurred.

«Dangerous Liaisons» has been adapted many times in many countries. Among them, the one most familiar to Korean viewers is undoubtedly the film «Untold Scandal». Given this, it is difficult to avoid comparisons between the series and the film.

Although it is the same story, they differ radically. In the film, Lady Cho and Cho Won are characters burning with desire. The film convincingly shows everything: from the beginning of the dangerous bet to Cho Won's transformation after meeting his true love, Hee Yeon.

Unlike the film, the series lacks the tension characteristic of a love triangle. As the story of Lady Cho and Cho Won develops, the relationship between Hee Yeon and Cho Won unfolds somewhat chaotically. The emotional impact of the heart-rending love story also falls short of the film.

At the same time, all three actors gave their all. They dared to take bold risks. In a position where they were inevitably compared with Lee Mi Sook, Bae Yong Joon and Jeon Do Yeon, they worked hard to create new images, each in their own way.

Son Ye Jin demonstrates many facets of her talent. She moves freely from a woman oppressed by her time to a woman of mysterious charm who makes dangerous offers, and then to a woman who will stop at nothing to achieve her goals.

Ji Chang Wook is the actor who invested the most in this work. Just as Bae Yong Joon took a risky role in the 2003 film, not fearing to break his image as a lyrical melodramatic hero, Ji Chang Wook gave himself fully to the role of the womanizer Cho Won and added his signature subtle humor.

Nana overcame her fear and performed in explicit nude scenes. Her character evolved from a widow bound by tradition into a lovely woman who ultimately could not hide her feelings and finds true love»,

Sport Today writes:

«Although the level of explicit content that raised concerns appears periodically starting with episode 3, it never becomes vulgar enough to disgust. It defines the relationships between the characters and sparks curiosity about how they will develop»,

The Fact writes:

«While watching «The Scandal», one constantly has to take a step back. Undoubtedly, there are characters who arouse curiosity, and stories that are yet to be revealed. In particular, the relationships between the three main characters continue to fuel interest. However, as soon as you begin to take an interest, the directing either intervenes or steps forward to assert itself.

As for Cho Won, director Jung explained at the press conference that he cast him expecting to see «a tender Ji Chang Wook». There is a strong possibility that the tenderness viewers expect will emerge in his feelings for Lady Cho in the second half of the series. We have yet to see what Lady Cho means to Cho Won and why he so persistently approaches Hee Yeon.

However, the seduction process is another matter. It is doubtful whether actions such as entering someone else's house, closing the distance and aggressively imposing one's will can really be regarded as the charm befitting «the greatest romantic of the Joseon era». From today's perspective, some moments resemble coercion more than skillful seduction.

What is interesting is how the characters reveal their thoughts and views through the exchange of letters. The realities of the Joseon era are used not simply as decoration but as a means of connecting the characters with their worldview.

Also noteworthy is the attempt to demonstrate the culture and moods of the Joseon dynasty. The use of pansori at the beginning of the story, from the very first episode, is not an entirely new device, since it has been seen before. Nevertheless, it is important in that it presents a Korean atmosphere, with pansori combined with modern cinematic grammar.

However, unfortunately, this technique is repeated in every episode. Although the use of pansori is understandable in itself, because it appears in almost every scene, at some point it begins to feel less like a technique for creating the atmosphere of the work and more like a technique for creating the cliché «Korean flavor».

It is not only about pansori. Since the mise-en-scenes, colors and various directorial choices, in which the features of Joseon-era culture and ideas are clearly traced, are repeated, one involuntarily gets the feeling that the entire work is deliberately trying to demonstrate the «style of Korean content». Each element in itself is quite attractive. However, even successful techniques become excessive when they are repeated and layered on top of one another».

A note from Fanasia. Reading this long review, it was at this phrase that I noticed a similarity between this critique and a very old story: the release in Russia of Nikita Mikhalkov's «The Barber of Siberia». Back then, in the late 1990s, everyone said roughly the same thing: what appeared on screen was a storybook imperial Russia - not a real one, but a stylized one. Still, if you rewatch this film apart from its time and the director's personality, it holds up quite well even now.

Back to The Fact review:

«At the production press conference, director Jung said he focused on showing the history of relationships between the characters. And indeed, this is the most intriguing aspect of the work. The backstory of the relationship between Lady Cho and Cho Won, the new relationship between Hee Yeon and Cho Won, and the thoughts of these three revealed through letters make one curious about how they will intertwine.

However, the camera intervenes at every moment when the actors build the narrative through their performances. Ultimately, in a work whose defining feature is «a story between characters», there are moments when the directing effectively drowns out the characters' emotions.

The secondary storylines are also disappointing. There is a sense that the main narrative is interrupted whenever the stories of So-ok (played by Shin Yun Ha) and Kwon In-ho (played by Chani) appear. If we consider only episodes 1 to 4, their scenes do not seem as gripping as the stories of the three main characters. We will have to wait and see what role their story plays in the remaining episodes, but for now it would have been better to devote more time to the relationships between the main characters.

Ultimately, in episodes 1-4 of the series «The Scandal», the impression is that, despite good material and interesting characters, the creators do not fully believe in them. The camera pulls the meaning toward itself, ignoring the subtle nuances of the relationships created directly by the actors, and tries to emphasize something other than the characters' emotions».

What is there to say after reading the critics' articles, speaking directly and responsibly as an editor who has run a drama news site for years? This: rarely does any series provoke such extensive and ambiguous reviews on its very first day of release. As they say, old-timers do not recall such a thing, though they should... These are not just a few quick paragraphs in the press, the standard response to any drama. These are long, serious texts.

So the drama needs to be watched. At least in order to form a precise opinion about the use of pansori as a connecting element between scenes in the series:).

Sources 1, 2, 3, 4