In this blog post, I’ll analyze the screenplay of the movie ‘Scandal: A Story of Passion Between a Joseon Man and Woman’, focusing on its main characters, plot, and the meanings of love and jealousy conveyed by the film.
Introduction
One day, while I was pondering the movie ‘The Green Fish’, I happened to come across the film ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ while channel-surfing. Based on the title alone, it seemed like a run-of-the-mill romantic drama, so I was about to change the channel, but the plot began to unfold in a way that felt strangely familiar. Finding this odd, I kept watching, and the movie that immediately came to mind was ‘Scandal’. I soon confirmed that ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ was based on the original novel ‘Scandal’. From that moment on, ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ became an even more intriguing film to me, as I found great pleasure in comparing the original work with the adapted version. My renewed curiosity about ‘Scandal’ eventually led me to analyze the screenplay.
Character Analysis
Jo Won
In the screenplay, Jo Won is portrayed as a highly charismatic character. He possesses exceptional eloquence and good looks capable of capturing a woman’s heart, along with talent in painting and martial arts, and the background of being a descendant of a distinguished family. Consequently, the audience naturally expects Jo Won to easily win over his aunt’s heart. However, contrary to expectations, the fact that he does not succeed easily sparks curiosity about exactly how—and how quickly—Jo-won will be able to win the Lady’s heart.
Jo-won constantly prepares and meticulously plans to achieve his goals, utilizing every ability he possesses to get what he wants. While the screenplay showcases this perfection, it portrays him as a character who ultimately fails to attain true love. Later, when he realizes true love and even gives up his desires to protect it, this stands in stark contrast to his previous image as a womanizer, which can be somewhat confusing for readers and audiences.
Jo Won falls in love for the first time in his life, but ultimately meets his death because of that love. He can be described as a tragic character who loses everything at the very moment he seems to have it all.
Mrs. Jo
On the surface, Mrs. Jo behaves like a typical wife of a scholar-official family, but deep down, she possesses a strong will to fulfill her own desires at all costs. She is highly perceptive and has an exceptional ability to assess situations, able to discern what someone is thinking from just a single word or a glance.
She is also intensely obsessed with getting what she wants. When her husband, Yu Daegam, attempts to take So-ok as a concubine, she uses Jo Won—who is secretly in love with her—to conceive a son. Her jealousy is so strong that she even devises a plan to reveal this fact to Yu Daegam just before his death. This jealousy is further revealed later when Jo Won finally finds true love. Ultimately, Lady Jo cannot tolerate the love between the two and drives them to ruin.
This extreme jealousy further highlights Lady Jo’s presence and establishes her as the pivotal character who holds the key to the story. Although she was aware of every situation and could control almost everything, she failed to express her true feelings honestly and instead pursued only her desires—a course of action that ultimately led to tragedy.
Mrs. Jo’s jealousy and desire are crucial elements that build the play’s tension and also serve to encourage the audience to view the events from a detached perspective.
Lady Suk
Lady Suk is a character of such strong virtue that she remained a widow for nine years after the death of a husband whose face she had never even properly seen. Furthermore, she is not merely a character who emphasizes chastity; she is portrayed as a cultured woman interested in the new ideas and knowledge of her time. She also demonstrates her dedication to helping the less fortunate, grounded in her Catholic faith.
She possesses a steadfast integrity that remains unshaken even by Jo Won’s relentless temptations, and she ultimately chooses to follow her beloved in death after his passing. As a quintessential classical female archetype, she stands in contrast to Lady Jo—who symbolizes modern desires—and serves as a representative of traditional values.
Consequently, the audience naturally wonders what harm Lady Suk will suffer amidst modern desires and intrigues. Furthermore, her determination to uphold her convictions amid constant conflict makes the audience curious about how long she can hold out. Ultimately, even after Jo Won leaves, she cannot forget him, and in the final scene, her decision to follow him in death embodies the most sublime form of love in the work.
So-ok
Why did So-ok continue to be manipulated by Jo Won? It cannot be explained solely by Jo Won’s charm. So-ok is inherently impulsive and lacks self-control. This aspect of her character is revealed when she immediately feels reassured and resumes her relationship with Jo Won after Lady Jo offers to cover up the mistakes she has made.
Furthermore, she displays the immaturity of a young girl—failing to hide her emotions and lashing out at Mrs. Jo’s words, or becoming easily delighted by compliments. The fact that she enters into a relationship with Jo Won despite having Kwon In-ho, the man she loves, demonstrates that she is a character who gradually changes due to her environment, moving away from her initial innocence.
In the latter half of the story, she is portrayed as the figure who takes Mrs. Jo’s place after her downfall. Ultimately, by the end of the story, the audience is led to wonder if Mrs. Jo’s past self might have resembled So-ok. In other words, this implies that Mrs. Jo, too, was initially a character like So-ok but gradually changed due to her circumstances.
Kwon In-ho
Kwon In-ho is a character who cannot hide his emotions and suffers the pain of first love. However, he still lacks worldly experience and wisdom. Consequently, he relies on Lady Cho’s words and is thoroughly taken advantage of.
The character of Kwon In-ho demonstrates how easily a person blinded by love can lose their judgment. By showing that he would stop at nothing to form a relationship with Lady Cho and win her love, he reveals how easily human goodness and evil can shift depending on the situation.
Theme – Does true love exist for humans?
Although this is a very fundamental question, this screenplay answers it in the affirmative. The love between Jo Won and Lady Suk, and the love between Kwon In-ho and So-ok, contrast with one another and showcase various forms of love.
However, what the work ultimately addresses is not love, but human jealousy. Lady Jo’s jealousy sparks the wager; that wager gives birth to love; and then, that same jealousy stands in the way of love, ultimately leading to death. The work demonstrates just how powerful and destructive the emotion of jealousy can be, even more so than love.
Plot Analysis
The introduction establishes the story’s setting and objectives. The most crucial event in this scenario is the scene where Jo Won and Lady Jo make a wager regarding Lady Suk’s chastity. Although there is also the incident involving Yudaegam’s attempt to take So-ok as a concubine, this wager can be considered the central event that drives the entire story.
In the development section, various events surrounding the wager unfold. Jo Won approaches the Lady Jo in various ways to undermine her chastity, while she constantly struggles to uphold her convictions. Amidst this, the scene where she dyes her hair with hibiscus water reveals that her heart is gradually changing. This not only hints at the beginning of their love but also serves as a crucial turning point that propels the story to the next stage.
Additionally, the love story between Kwon In-ho and So-ok appears as a subplot in the development section. Their relationship contrasts with that of Jo Won and Lady Jo’s aunt, heightening the drama’s tension. Furthermore, the scene where Yoon Jung-won and Jo Won encounter each other, as well as the revelation that Yoon Jung-won is in love with Lady Jo’s aunt, serve as foreshadowing for events in the climax.
The climax is the stage where the outcome of the two lovers’ relationship is determined. Mrs. Jo’s jealousy begins to surface in earnest. The scene where she reads a letter Jo Won sent to Lady Suk, flies into a rage, and throws it into the brazier hints that their love will by no means end peacefully.
However, there are some slight shortcomings in this section. While the process by which Lady Suk gradually falls for Jo Won is sufficiently depicted, the portrayal of Jo Won’s journey into true love feels relatively lacking. The scene where he steps back even when he has the opportunity to share a bed with Lady Suk appears somewhat abrupt, as Jo Won’s inner transformation is not sufficiently explained. I believe the plot would have been more convincing if Jo Won’s psychological shift had been portrayed with greater nuance in earlier scenes.
At the climax, Lady Jo’s jealousy is translated into action. Ultimately, her jealousy leads to the tragic outcome of Jo Won, the man she loves, being stabbed. This is the moment when the accumulated conflict and desire explode, and it is the point where cause and effect are revealed most dramatically.
In the conclusion, the completion of love is shown through Lady Suk’s decision to follow Jo Won in death after his passing. In contrast, Lady Jo ultimately finds herself forced to flee the clan and falls into ruin. It is a classic yet powerful ending that demonstrates how jealousy leads both the person she loves and herself to ruin.
Personally, however, I am left with a slight sense of disappointment regarding the ending. Instead of simply having Mrs. Jo flee, if the story had concluded with her starting a new wager with Kwon In-ho involving yet another chaste woman, it could have more impressively demonstrated that human jealousy and desire are endlessly cyclical. This is because human jealousy is not an emotion that can be completely eradicated merely by someone’s death or punishment.
Conclusion
The screenplay of ‘Scandal’ unfolds around the conflict between Lady Suk and Lady Jo over Jo Won. The clash between Lady Suk, who symbolizes chastity and purity, and Lady Jo, who symbolizes desire and jealousy, forms the central axis of the work and powerfully demonstrates the consequences of human jealousy.
Furthermore, the title ‘Scandal’ is also highly striking. By using the word “scandal”—which has a Western and modern feel—despite the Joseon Dynasty setting, the work creates a strong sense of contrast. When considered alongside the subtitle, ‘Stories of Passion Between Men and Women of Joseon’, the title alone effectively reveals the nature of the work.
The play forms an even richer structure of conflict as various human relationships—such as the love between Jo Won and Lady Suk, the relationship between Jo Won and Lady Jo, and the love between So-ok and Kwon In-ho—become intricately intertwined. Ultimately, Lady Jo’s jealousy leads to the tragedies of the deaths of both Jo Won, whom she loved, and Lady Suk. The work concludes by demonstrating that jealousy—an emotion everyone harbors in their hearts—can lead not only oneself but also those around one to ruin if left unchecked.
