'Scandal' Son Ye-jin and Ji Chang-wook portray love and betrayal... praised for visuals and acting

The Netflix series ″Scandal″ is set in the Joseon Dynasty and presents a story centered on the love, betrayal, and desire of three characters: Lady Jo (Son Ye-jin), Jo Won (Ji Chang-wook), and Hee-yeon (Nana). This work is based on the French classic novel ″Les Liaisons Dangereuses″ and is a re-adaptation following the 2003 film ″Scandal: The Scandalous Lovers of Joseon.″ ″Scandal″ was produced as an eight-episode series and was released on the 18th. The story begins with a wager between Lady Jo and Jo Won. Lady Jo asks Jo Won to impregnate her concubine So-ok (Shin Yoon-ha), and Jo Won proposes a bet involving the widow Hee-yeon. Their dangerous wager leads to a series of events, with Hee-yeon becoming entangled in the process. Lady Jo and Jo Won are cousins and longtime literary friends who once dreamed of running away together as children but were confronted by the realities of life. Over time, their feelings turn into twisted desires. It is revealed that Hee-yeon has been replying to Jo Won’s love letters and ultimately chooses to take Jo Won’s hand. The production expresses the characters’ desires and emotions through details in costumes, spaces, and props. The modern hanbok brand Chaikim participated in the costume design, with Lady Jo’s outfits deepening in green tones as her emotions and desires intensify. Jo Won’s attire features a flashy gat and lightly flowing materials to represent his free-spirited nature, while Hee-yeon’s restrained atmosphere is conveyed through monotone hanboks made of hemp and ramie. Costume designer Kim Young-jin of Chaikim explained, ″Lady Jo’s emotions and desires deepen as the green color gradually becomes more intense.″ Art and props also include devices that reflect the characters’ situations. Traditional paper flowers called ″chaehwa″ are placed in Lady Jo’s space, symbolizing nobility, dignity, and the character’s circumstances. An alarm clock is used as a prop to depict the era where Western civilization and Joseon lifestyle coexisted. The characters’ spaces are designed to reflect their inner selves, featuring layered doors and rooms filled with writings. The space depicting Bukchon uses the uneven terrain to portray the upper-class society in a three-dimensional way. Professor Lee Sun-hee stated, ″We wanted to show that people living in that era also constantly made judgments and choices within the conditions given to them, shaping their own lives.″ Son Ye-jin deeply expressed the complex emotions of Lady Jo. Ji Chang-wook convincingly portrayed Jo Won, shifting between his longing for Lady Jo and his roguish side. Nana vividly depicted Hee-yeon’s restrained life in the early episodes. ″Scandal″ received praise for its mise-en-scène that adds a modern sensibility to the atmosphere of traditional historical dramas, revealing the characters’ emotions and the historical background through costumes, props, and spaces.