Scarlet Innocence (2014)

Small-town girl Deokee is abandoned by university professor Hak-kyu after a lusty affair, and vengefully approaches him 8 years later when he starts suffering from blindness.

Director:

Pil-sung Yim (as Pil-Sung Yim)

Writers:

Yoon-Mi Jang, Pil-sung Yim (as Pil-Sung Yim)

Stars:

Woo-sung Jung, Esom, So-young Park

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Woo-sung Jung	...	Hak-kyu
Esom	...	Deokee / Se-jung (as Som E.)
So-young Park	...	Chungee
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Gwi-hwa Choi	...	Gambler
Kim Do-Yeon	...	Innkeeper
Do-won Jeong	...	Big man at gambling place (as Jung Do-Won)
Han Joo-Young	...	Ji-Eun
Hee-won Kim	...	Mr. Choi
Hyun-sook Kim	...	Student in novel club
Chang-Hoon Lee	...	Dong-Woo
Sang-Hwa Lee	...	Middle-aged man in novel club
Pal-Young Park	...	University President
So-dam Park	...	Cheong-Yi's friend at club
Sukku Son	...	Man In Club
Jin-woo Yang	...	Ophthalmologist (as Yang Jin Woo)

Storyline

20-year old Deokee's quiet small-town life gets exciting when a former university professor, Hak-kyu, moves in, running from a sexual harassment allegation. Mutual attraction leads the pair into a lusty affair but when the fall semester begins, Hak-kyu returns to his family in the city. Deokee refuses to let the relationship die, and a confrontation between them turns tragic when Hak-kyu's wife commits suicide. 8 years later, Hak-kyu, now blind and estranged from his daughter Chungee, befriends a new neighbor: Se-jung. He gladly accepts her help and Chungee becomes attached to her, neither realizing she is in fact Deokee and that she is on a quest to destroy them. Her plan sets off a vengeance-fueled chain of events that ultimately sets the three bitter, angry and desperate schemers on a twisting collision course with each other.

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Plot Keywords:

suicide | male nudity | female frontal nudity | female nudity | author | 

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Genres:

Romance | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Release Date:

2 October 2014 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Ai no tario

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$7,713

Company Credits

Production Co:

Animal Planet

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Don't be blinded by love, don't be obsessed in revenge!

"Scarlet innocence" is a romance-thriller movie that is loosely based on a Korean Pansori folklore tale "Simcheongga" which mainly tells a story of a daughter's devotion to her blind father. But this director and script writer was crazy enough to blend different genres into one movie focusing a woman Deokee who seduced or was seduced by that father Hak-Kyu and the tone of an ancient story is just freakishly changed. I took it for a look mainly for the appearance of handsome hero of "Daisy" Jung Woo-Sung. The movie's currently got an average mediocre rating of 6/10 from 225 users on IMDb, so I was even doubtful if the movie was actually worth watching. However he played here the role of a professor who went to small town after being accused of sexual harassment. There he met an innocent looking girl, fall in passionate love with her and then their relationship blossomed with suspense, betrayal, revenge and other controversial issues.

The two leading Jung Woo-Sung and Esom revealed during promotion of film that they had consulted with their father and mother before shooting those close scenes. Esom later said that her mother was so convinced by her performance as pitiful Deokee that she cried a lot (One netizen commented on the news- "If it was me, my mother would kill me right there-LOL!") However a BTS also revealed that they were actually playful and enjoyed the shooting. Perhaps that's why good chemistry was developed under optimized direction & overall acting was that realistic even from the professor's daughter and other side characters' side. Jung as an experienced actor met up expectation from his controversial role charmingly. And Esom being a newbie actress portrayed duality of leading lady role (innocence & femme fatality) who was once betrayed by her love and then sought for sick revenge very judgmentally and that was one of the strongest part of this thriller along with some colorful cinematic visualizations and movements – she was really worth of her nominations as best new actress for that realistic and touching performance.

Don't be blinded by love, don't be obsessed in revenge- otherwise some shitty things can happen and if the total storyline is presented realistically with some beautiful cinematography, so many turns in the plot, natural acting and insane direction, I who wasn't prepared to be haunted by such thriller with erotic tone can give it a damn solid rating of 8. OK, now for God's sake, I wanna get rid of such gratuitous realism!