Netflix has lined up its next high-profile Korean drama series — and this one could get steamy. Currently given the working title Scandals, the show will be an adaptation of the 2003 Korean film Untold Scandal, which reimagined the promiscuous world of the classic French novel Dangerous Liaisons within the context of Korea’s Joseon era. The show will be led by a star-studded cast including Son Ye-jin (Crash Landing on You), Ji Chang-wook (Welcome to Samdal-ri) and Nana, aka Im Jina (Mask Girl). It has already started shooting in Seoul, South Korea.
Directed by K-drama mainstay Jung Ji-woo (Somebody, Tune in for Love), Scandals revolves around a daring and dangerous love game between the remarkable, high-born Lady Cho (Son) and Cho Won (Ji), the era’s greatest playboy —with the conflicted young widow Hui-yeon (Nana) unknowingly entangled in the middle.
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A sumptuous re-creation of Korea’s Joseon era, Scandals “brings to life a world where love and temptation were taboo,” according to Netflix. “The series depicts characters who challenge the strict order of society and engage in a risqué game of love and temptation at a time when harboring desires was forbidden,” the official summary adds.
Stephen Frears famously adapted Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 18th-century novel Dangerous Liaisons for the stage and screen in the 1980s, with the latter starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer and Uma Thurman, and earning a best picture Oscar nomination.
Netflix further described Son’s character, Lady Cho, as a “strategist” and “a woman of talent and charm who goes against the limitations placed on women of her time by making a secret bet on love” — by proposing a temptation game to her admirer, Cho Won. The playboy, Cho Won (Ji), is summed up as a “captivating” pleasure-seeker “who doesn’t trust love and only enjoys dating,” using “everything in his power to win Lady Cho’s heart and their wager.” Nana, meanwhile, will transform into the widow Hui-yeon, who vows to remain chaste after losing her husband, but becomes “conflicted by complex emotions and attraction towards Cho Won.”
Netflix hasn’t shared any release info for Scandals yet, but it’s a relatively safe bet that the steamy series will be ready for release sometime later this year.
