... and, like the man said, never ask for whom it tolls. This is alleged to be the 10th version of Les Liasons Dangerouse and I haven't seen any of the previous nine. The main thing I took away from this version was elegance, stateliness, formality. Not unusual of course in a film emanating from the Eastern hemisphere. What it is, in fact, is a Comedy of Manners in top-to-bottom writing and no worse for that. Like most occidentals Asian names don't exactly trip off my tongue so I won't attempt to name the actors who I thought were uniformly excellent. I did find it singular to say the least that the leading man whose prowess at martial arts had been amply demonstrated would turn his back on an opponent who might have been down but was far from out. Although I'm woefully ignorant of Eastern mores I do know enough to realize that Honour is prized above most things and a man who has just spoken about the shame his family suffered at the hands of the leading man is not going to give up until he draws his last breath. It's just about feasible that the leading man wished to die/be killed but in that case why has he just kicked seven kinds of s*** out of his opponent instead of succumbing gracefully to the first blow. Overall it's a chocolate-box of a movie like Marivaux in Mandarin.

I was privileged to see "Untold Scandal" earlier this evening as a member of the Trenton Film Society. First of all, this is one of the best films of 2004, and I hope it gets a wider release in America. Why did the Korean film, "Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall...and Spring" get a significant release in the USA, but "Untold Scandal" has not? "Untold Scandal" is the far better of the two. Secondly, I felt this version of "Dangerous Liasons" was FAR superior to the American version that was made a number of years ago with Glenn Close and John Malkovich. This version was played more as a love story, more of a Shakespearean tragedy, and infinitely more heartbreaking. While all the performances are strong, the woman playing Lady Sook (the Michelle Pfeiffer role in the American version) was by far the most moving of all the performances. As someone noted earlier in their comment, I didn't see this as a comedy at all. But again, this was absolutely tremendous, and I hope it gets a wider release in America, so that more will have the opportunity to see it.

"Untold Scandal (Joseon namnyeo sangyeoljisa)" is the best all-around adaptation of "Les Liaisons dangereuses." Others have struck the right note with singular elements, but went flat on others. This has terrific, believable, very attractive casting -- from the young love-struck innocents to the older central cynics; an appropriate mise en scene of a rigid society with strict, hypocritical rules about women's behavior, here 18th century Korea; the epistolary format of the original to drive the machinations, helped by beautiful calligraphy and even writing positions; a varying tone that ranges from Shakespearean romantic comic bashing of human foibles to the diabolical thrusts that playing with people's hearts can really hurt, particularly communicated through the changing tone of the music. This very frank version is particularly good at closely examining the full ramifications of lust vs. love, chastity vs. celibacy, experience vs. naivete, foreplay vs. consummation, and of course, men vs. women. This is a battle of the sexes with a lot of sex. While it is a bit slow, the lush costumes, production design and settings fill the eye. Though the opening credits are translated into English, the closing ones aren't -- but you must stay past them as the plot concludes devilishly with closing images that demonstrate that the more things change, the more they stay the same. I wasn't sure about the accuracy of the English subtitles in describing the familial relationships among the characters as I was a bit confused about who was an in-law of whom how.

I was charmed by the eyes of Bae Yong Joon. They sometimes made me laugh, but sometimes held my heart so tightly. The movie showed us the way of thinking and the beautiful fashion of old Korean people. Strangely the music was western classic, though it matched the movie very well. The original story seems well-known because it was made into several movies already. I haven't seen them yet. But I think this Asian style version is a good work. I don't understand Korean language but the sound of it is very comfortable for ears to hear. So I was charmed through both the scenes of Bae Yong Joon's eyes' action and the voices of the actors and actresses. It is very sad love story. I liked it.