The Scarlet Letter

2004 "Sex. Lies. Murder."
6.4| 1h55m| en
Details

A cop's desire for love gets in the way of his job and his professional life. Secret love affairs begin to dangerously collide as he gets assigned to a new homicide case.

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Reviews

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Portia Hilton Blistering performances.
Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Graxxor Anandro Vidhelssen An entirely misrepresented film (lesbian cover, Reeeeeeely?) with truly Tarantino level twists bogged down by Desperate Housewives style plot minus the laughs.First of all, this film's pacing is a mess. Over developed scenes stretch on for a quarter hour while an entire opportunity for a superb subplot is squeezed into 45 seconds.Moreover, characters are built up steadily only to end up all but irrelevant while important relationships are glossed over.Furthermore, the cynical poster shot of the two naked women in bed leads to nothing more than a minor footnote in the entire tale...The token lesbian moment looked quite literally as if it were tacked on just to rake in a few extra sales... Pretty poor showing... Seriously, what the hell were the marketing people thinking? Oh yes, they were probably cynically thinking of sales...OK, with the bad out of the way...This film had its glorious moments.... The acting and characterisation were first rate, all the major characters were excellently portrayed with top rank performances. Special props to the portrayal of the detective: equal parts charismatic and total shitbag.The sound editing was excellent.. Clear vocals with excellent ambience in every scene. Additionally, the classical music score and incidental BGM were without fault.But best of all, the camerawork and editing: Top notch... The cinematography is some of the best I've seen at this budget level and really played to the strengths of the storyline... Intimate closeups; dreamy, floaty vistas, Jagged, claustrophobic macros.... 10/10 and worthy of note for students of the genre.And THE SCENE... You'll know it when you watch it: Visceral enough to give Tarantino a hard-on.All in all, a worthwhile watch.... Just don't go in there for the lesbian scenes.
Desertman84 This Scarlet Letter is about the resemblance of the detective's life story to the murder mystery he is trying to solve. Complex emotional relationships and human nature's darker sides are explored in this captivating suspense drama about a cop whose lust for love threatens to get in the way of his professional life.Ki-hoon is guy that doesn't mind an erotic adventure. Even though he is married to charming and beautiful Soo-hyun, he engages in a passionate affair with his wife's friend night club singer Ka-hee. As if things weren't complicated enough, he suddenly starts being attracted to murder suspect Kyung-hee whom he earlier believed to be involved in the killing of her husband. Can Ki-hoon finally overcome all the irresistible temptations he encounters in his life ? These and other questions will be revealed in The Scarlet Letter.It presents a Korean all-star cast in Han Seok-Gyu, Seong Hyeon-A and the late Lee Eun-Ju.It is a must-see as for Asian movie fans. A great thriller as well.Highly recommended for everyone who loves thrillers.
Mister Buggz At first I wasn't sure whether I should watch the movie because of some negative comments, but I decided to give it a try. Bearing in mind that I could always turn it off if I didn't liked it. But I was pleasantly surprised. The story was something I never saw before. Very original. The movie has quite a few twists and surprises that makes sure you are never bored and after every new discovery you want to see how it all turns out. I would definitely recommend it to anyone I know. And if you are lucky enough to obtain a copy or can buy the DVD, don't hesitate.8 out of 10.
qrs_ina Before watching this film, I was quite circumspect regarding the Korean origin. Though, I was intrigued by the fact that the lead actress committed suicide shortly after. In the first part of the film, the plot is rather common- a murder investigation, a policeman's family life, nothing spectacular. But as the plot evolves, it gets more intense. The policeman's life is duplicitous, oscillating between the amenable, newly pregnant wife and a very appealing mistress- the singer Ga-yee. From the time Ga-yee finds out she is pregnant too, everything gets really complicated. She is confronted with Ki-hoon's incapacity to commitment regarding the unborn child and her love for him develops into obsession. In the same time, during the murder investigation, Ki-hoon experiments some sort of physical attraction to the the former wife of the dead man- principal suspect. In a very twisted chance of fate, Ki-hoon and Ga-yee end up locked in the trunk of his car, in an isolated place. The scenes are quite shocking, picturing the raw despair and the dramatic moments are so intense that you almost believe they are real. The paroxysm is reached when Ga-yee has a spontaneous abortion and then begs Ki-hoon to shoot her, which he does. It is worth mentioning that these scenes are very cruel and bloody. The title of the film comes up by Ga-yee's confession that the name she wanted for the baby is Pearl, Hester Pryne's daughter in the novel "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I was very impressed of the ending, in my honest opinion, the actors played excellent some of most complex and hard to imitate human feelings. If I should compare this film to other, it would be with "Irreversible".