• Source: The Scarlet Letter (2004 film)

The Scarlet Letter is a 2004 South Korean erotic thriller film about a police detective who investigates a murder case while struggling to hang onto his relationships with his wife and mistress. The film's title is taken from the 1850 novel of the same name. It is the second film by La Femis-graduate and academic Byun Hyuk (Daniel H. Byun) after the Dogme 95 film Interview (2000), and starred Han Suk-kyu, Lee Eun-ju, Sung Hyun-ah and Uhm Ji-won. The film debuted as the closing film of the Pusan International Film Festival in 2004. The film is based on novelist Kim Young-ha's short stories A Meditation On Mirror and Photo Shop Murder.
The Scarlet Letter was released in October 28, 2004 on South Korea. The film was Lee's last feature-length acting performance before her death in February 2005.




Plot


Lee Ki-hoon is an alpha male homicide detective: intelligent and with animal instincts. His wife, classical cellist Han Soo-hyun, is submissive and seemingly perfect. Meanwhile, he is carrying on a passionate affair with his mistress Choi Ga-hee, a sultry jazz singer at a nightclub. Ki-hoon lives a double life by moving back and forth between these two women, who also happen to be schoolmates from high school. One day Ki-hoon goes to a murder scene and there he meets Ji Kyung-hee, a woman accused of murdering her husband.




Cast


Han Suk-kyu – Lee Ki-hoon
Lee Eun-ju – Choi Ga-hee
Uhm Ji-won – Han Soo-hyun
Sung Hyun-ah – Ji Kyung-hee
Kim Jin-geun – Jung Myung-sik
Kim Min-sung – Detective Jo
Jung In-gi – Detective Ahn
Choi Kyu-hwan – Detective Choi
Kim Hye-jin – Oh Yeon-sim
Do Yong-gu – President Han
Seol Ji-yoon – Madam




Reception


Despite Lee Eun-ju's prior experience with depicting sex and nudity in Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000), she came under the scrutiny of Korean press and netizens, for the highly emotional sex scenes and the notorious "trunk scene" in The Scarlet Letter which is regarded as "one of the most shocking and intense scenes in the history of Korean film." It is speculated her demanding role and its public scrutiny, had compounded and overlapped with an existing variety of family, financial, career, and insomnia issues. Her severe depression ended in suicide in February 2005, and the tragic conclusion has since become the central focus in popular perception and interpretation of the film, this particular one being her last.
Director Kim Ki-duk, no stranger to controversy over his own films, is quoted by Chinese film magazine "Movie Watch" (看電影) in singling out The Scarlet Letter as among the key Korean dramas from recent years. He subsequently cast Sung Hyun-ah, who rose to prominence with her role in The Scarlet Letter, as the heroine in his Time.
At the film's premiere in Japan, veteran actress Kumiko Akiyoshi praised the lead performances and likened the film to a landmark in erotic thrillers after Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction.




Awards and nominations


2004 Korean Association of Film Critics Awards
Top Ten Films of the Year
2004 Blue Dragon Film Awards
Nomination – Best Actor – Han Suk-kyu
Nomination – Best Actress – Lee Eun-ju
Nomination – Best Supporting Actress – Uhm Ji-won
Nomination – Best Music – Lee Jae-jin
2005 Baeksang Arts Awards
Nomination – Best Actress – Lee Eun-ju
2005 Grand Bell Awards
Nomination – Best Actress – Lee Eun-ju
Nomination – Best Art Direction – Kim Ji-soo
Nomination – Best Costume Design – Jo Yun-mi




References






External links


The Scarlet Letter at the Korean Movie Database (in Korean)
The Scarlet Letter at IMDb
The Scarlet Letter at HanCinema
Production company LJ Film's profile of Director Daniel H. Byun

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• The Scarlet Letter (film 2004)
• Han Suk-kyu
• Daftar film Detektif Conan
• Lee Eun-ju
• Meitantei Konan Hiiro no Dangan
• Emma Stone
• Kim Min-hee (pemeran, lahir 1982)
• Sung Hyun-ah
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Wim Wenders
• The Scarlet Letter (2004 film)
• The Scarlet Letter
• The Scarlet Letter (1926 film)
• The Scarlet Letter (1934 film)
• Scarlet Letter (disambiguation)
• The Scarlet Letter (miniseries)
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