Will Son Ye Jin and Nana’s New Relationship Change Netflix’s The Scandal?

Director Jung Ji Woo says the relationship between Lady Cho and Hui Yeon will distinguish the Netflix series from both the 1782 French novel and Korea’s acclaimed 2003 film.

The central love game in Netflix’s The Scandal already involves three people, but director Jung Ji Woo has revealed that its most significant new relationship may not be the one viewers expect.

At a press conference held in Seoul on September 9, Jung repeatedly emphasized the connection between Lady Cho, played by Son Ye Jin, and Hui Yeon, portrayed by Nana.

Their relationship did not appear in Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 1782 novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, commonly known in English as Dangerous Liaisons. It was also absent from Untold Scandal, the acclaimed 2003 Korean film that previously moved the French story into the Joseon era.

“My starting point was the original novel,” Jung explained. “I rewrote the three characters and their relationships, so viewers will feel many differences.”

He added that creating a fuller and more vivid relationship between Lady Cho and Hui Yeon was one of his main intentions.

Those comments have already prompted speculation about whether the series could introduce romantic or sexually charged tension between the two women. However, neither Jung nor Netflix has officially described their relationship as a same-sex romance.

What has been confirmed is that the women will share a substantial new storyline rather than existing only as rivals connected through one man.

Son Ye Jin Controls the Game

Son Ye Jin plays Lady Cho, an aristocratic woman whose intelligence and ambition exceed the narrow life permitted to her by Joseon society.

With her abilities restricted by gender and rigid social rules, she directs her energy into a dangerous game of desire. She challenges Cho Won, Joseon’s most notorious seducer, to win the affection of another woman.

Ji Chang Wook plays Cho Won, a wealthy and charming libertine who treats romance as conquest. The pair’s provocative wager places Hui Yeon, a widow determined to protect her chastity, at the center of their scheme.

Nana’s character initially appears to be the target of the bet. Jung’s comments, however, suggest that Hui Yeon will become much more than an innocent woman trapped between two experienced manipulators.

If her relationship with Lady Cho has been expanded, the balance of power could change considerably. Hui Yeon may develop her own understanding of the game, confront Lady Cho directly or form an emotional connection that complicates the original plan.

Does This Mean a Romance Between the Two Women?

Not necessarily.

Korean headlines have begun asking whether The Scandal will contain a “same-sex romance,” but the director did not use that label at the press conference. His comments referred to a relationship absent from previous versions of the story, not a confirmed romance.

“Relationship” can include rivalry, fascination, solidarity, emotional dependence or mutual recognition. In a story built around seduction, several of those possibilities may exist simultaneously.

Still, the speculation is understandable.

Netflix describes the series as a sensual period romance about forbidden desire, while its promotional material places Lady Cho, Cho Won and Hui Yeon inside the same dangerous emotional triangle. If the relationship between the two women becomes as important as Jung suggests, it could introduce an attraction or intimacy that deliberately resists a simple label.

The more interesting question may not be whether Lady Cho and Hui Yeon “become a couple.” It is whether Hui Yeon remains an object in someone else’s wager or develops a relationship with the woman who placed her there.

How the Original Story Treated Its Women

Dangerous Liaisons centers on two aristocratic manipulators, the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, who use seduction to exercise power and destroy reputations.

Their targets become pieces in a contest shaped by vanity, revenge and desire.

The novel has inspired numerous adaptations, including Stephen Frears’s 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons, the modern American teen drama Cruel Intentions and Lee Jae Yong’s 2003 Korean film Untold Scandal.

The Korean film transformed the French aristocrats into members of the Joseon elite. Lee Mi Sook played Lady Cho, Bae Yong Joon portrayed Cho Won and Jeon Do Yeon appeared as Lady Suk, the virtuous widow targeted by their bet.

That version was celebrated for showing how desire and hypocrisy operated beneath the strict moral order of Confucian society.

Jung Ji Woo’s new series returns to the French novel instead of simply extending the 2003 film. By rebuilding the relationships across eight episodes, he has more room to explore the women’s interior lives and what happens when the intended victim meets the architect of the game.

Why Lady Cho and Hui Yeon Could Transform the Story

Traditional versions of Dangerous Liaisons often devote their greatest psychological attention to the two manipulators.

The new series appears ready to redistribute that focus.

Lady Cho and Hui Yeon occupy different positions within the same patriarchal society. Lady Cho refuses to accept the limitations placed on her intelligence, while Hui Yeon has attempted to survive through strict virtue and restraint.

One woman responds to confinement by secretly controlling others. The other initially protects herself by obeying the rules. Bringing them into direct contact could reveal that neither strategy offers genuine freedom.

Their expanded relationship could also prevent Hui Yeon from becoming merely the respectable woman who exists to be seduced, tested and punished.

That change would make the adaptation feel contemporary without removing it from its historical setting. Rather than forcing modern attitudes onto Joseon, the series can ask how two intelligent women might recognize different forms of captivity in each other.

Three Actors Enter a More Complicated Triangle

The casting adds another layer of anticipation.

Son Ye Jin returns to a darker form of romance after becoming globally familiar as Yoon Se Ri in Crash Landing on You. Lady Cho allows her to exchange that character’s emotional openness for calculation, restraint and hidden desire.

Ji Chang Wook takes on the role of a seductive nobleman whose confidence turns intimacy into competition. His Cho Won may begin the series believing he understands every form of attraction, only to discover that the women around him have emotional lives he cannot fully control.

Nana enters the game as Hui Yeon, but the director’s comments suggest that her performance will not be limited to innocence or victimhood. The character’s evolving connection with Lady Cho may become the element that most clearly separates the series from earlier adaptations.

Netflix’s official synopsis describes all three as people drawn into a provocative and dangerous game of love in an era defined by repression and taboo. Netflix

Director Jung Ji Woo Is an Intriguing Choice

Jung Ji Woo has repeatedly explored desire, power and relationships that challenge social expectations.

His filmography includes Happy End, A Muse, Heart Blackened and Netflix’s Somebody. His work often approaches intimacy as something capable of exposing class, violence, obsession and unequal power.

That makes him a natural fit for Dangerous Liaisons, a story in which seduction is rarely separate from manipulation.

His interest in Lady Cho and Hui Yeon also suggests that the series will not treat its female characters as opposite stereotypes, with one framed as corrupt and the other as pure. Their similarities may become just as important as their differences.

What Viewers Should Expect on September 18

The Scandal will consist of eight episodes and premiere globally on Netflix on September 18 at 5 p.m. KST.

It remains a story about Lady Cho’s wager, Cho Won’s seduction and Hui Yeon’s unexpected place inside their game. But Jung Ji Woo’s biggest change could transform that familiar triangle into something less predictable.

For now, a romance between Son Ye Jin and Nana’s characters remains speculation.

What viewers can expect is a relationship that neither the French novel nor the 2003 Korean film explored, and one important enough for the director to identify it twice as the defining difference in his adaptation.

In a drama about people who believe they can control desire, Lady Cho may discover that Hui Yeon is not simply the target of her game.

She could be the person who changes its rules.