Scarlet Innocence

"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!

Tons of faults in its narrative, but remains a treat for the eye for various reasons (lmao) and definitely deserves a watch, particularly from those that enjoy erotic thrillers.

Synopsis: 8 years ago, University Professor Hak-Kyu (Jung Woo-Sung) moved to a small town because of a scandal. He worked as a literature instructor at a culture center. He fell in love with a young woman, Deok-Yi (Esom), who worked at an old amusement park. Once, Hak-Kyu was reinstated at the university he left the town for Seoul and left behind Deok-Yi.

Now, Hak-Kyu is a popular writer, but his Cheong (Park So-Young) blames him for her mother committing suicide. Hak-Kyu is also losing his eyesight to a disease. He is barely able to see. At this time, Se-Jung moves in next door. Nobody realizes Se-Jung is actually Deok-Yi, the woman Hak-Kyu betrayed 8 years ago.

A Korean thriller has a good unpredictable story. And unusually for this kind of Fatal Attraction type thriller there is a feel good ending. Jung Woo Sung plays a flawed professor of literature who is a womanizer. He embarks on an affair with a student in a small town. But things take a tragic twist that's quite unexpected. The next part has an interesting revenge plot. Finally a twist that makes everything feel good kind of. You get a lot of bang for your buck here - maybe a bit too much. The love scenes are too protracted.

Worth a watch even in this well trodden genre.

This is definitely a disturbing title. Scarlet Innocence takes you through the mind of main character Se-Jung as she seeks revenge on Hak-Kyu for taking her innocence. Many hidden yet somewhat predictable twists appear throughout the movie, which adds a sense of uncomfort throughout. I found myself asking, "When is this twist going to reveal itself?" throughout the movie. The ending for me personally left me unsatisfied, however, it's certainly hard to put an end to a thriller like that. I would say 20% romance, 50% thriller, and 30% psychological horror.

Well if you missed my puns ... here they are. Those aside though, the movie is quite strong and takes us in different directions ... and really takes our feeling and spins them around ... and around ... and around. Korean cinema does not care what you expect or what you want to see on screen - it delivers on a different level.

Of course that may not be true of all the movies, but it true for the movies that really make an impact. Even more so than some movies do from other countries, where you can guess the direction the movie is going a few minutes into it. I doubt you could do that here - it may even surprise you in the final minutes to be honest.

That all said, there is a quite some sexual tension and some situations of that nature. Just in case that matters one way or another to you. But it is the human drama that really is the thing that will impact you ... you will be feeling different things ... and those feelings may contradict themselves too ... that is not a bad thing. Morally speaking the definition of good and bad may differ also ... obsession is never a good thing though - that is safe to say (again with the puns)