It is true that the two main leads had their flaws - the commander had lost his purpose in life after traumatic experiences in Vietnam, and the main girl did a marriage of reason also after traumatic experiences from her past. Both are adults who didn't experience true love, and they are overwhelmed by their own feelings.
Overall I liked this movie, and I found that the actors played well.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
An (erotic) melodrama whose melodramatics were brilliantly captured
"Obsessed" is an erotic movie about a passionate affair in South Korea around 1969. It is a melodrama whose melodramatics were brilliantly captured - with a Song Seung-heon, who absorbs the drama in his particular passionate manner. What is new in that context, is how he is allowed to act almost shamelessly here.However, "Obsessed" is also an exciting KMovie as it touches on a not so well known chapter in recent South Korean history: the time of Vietnam War.
------------------------- SIDE NOTE: --- South Korea and the Vietnam War ---
It is always the USA that come to mind. But South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and the Philippines also fought in Vietnam. South Korea was the country most involved after the USA. Between 1964 and 1973, around 48.000 Korean soldiers were each year drafted into this war. They had all volunteered, not least because their monthly wages brought in almost twice as much as a normal annual salary would have at the time. However, the South Korean army has gained a dubious reputation with a few massacres (including among civilians) in this war - a chapter from the time of the military dictatorship that has not been fully processed by now. The KMovie gives at least some space/thinking to this aspect - in connection with the consequences of the post-traumatic disorders, including the protagonist.
-----------------------------------------
"Obsessed" conveys some impressions about those 1960s/70s. The already strictly authoritarian context of South Korean every day life becomes even more so during dictatorship at that time, let alone in military itself. Thus every spark of vitality is nipped in the bud by the stiff corset of an immaculate facade. With the affair, an erotic tension is built up that one is not used to from the KDrama orbit. For the protagonists, however, this tension opens up a forbidden, yet addictive space to breathe, love and feel alive - and this precious moment of feeling alive has more value for the distressed male protagonist than anything else - as he has already seen and brought way too much death into this world...
Provoking. Gloomy. Beautifully done.
Was this review helpful to you?
Anything but swallow
If you're looking for a movie that contains a lot of love and romance, this isn't for you. You only realize after watching this movie what you have actually witnessed, regardless of what you think about it when you press play. It is a movie that tackles a lot of psychological problems and it is often misinterpreted by viewers. What makes this movie so worthwhile is often overlooked. The movie really is touching, not in a romantic way, but it will definitely capture your sympathy. If you're here for the steamy scenes, there's better movies for that. The negative aspect comes with the lack of dialogs, as I would certainly have enjoyed more backstory to the characters. However, again, it isn't a movie that's there for the romance and relationship building. Definitely worth a try, it isn't your typical lovey-dovey storyline as I personally don't think there's love involved at all.Was this review helpful to you?
First, I want to say that the script has to be reviewed since:
- I personally didn't felt the love between the 2 main characters, instead it felt like 2 people feeling attracted between one another
- And the main title which Obsessed doesn't reflect in the movie, the obsession between the leads characters should have been more expressed in more complex scenes instead of sex scenes, if they wanted to only expressed it through sex scenes it should have been more intense with really strong emotions
- Plus, I didn't like the character's personalities; the man seems too weak behind his colonel costume and the women too innocent, but they're not child anymore, it's not about a pure love story in high school like we are used to see, these characters are married and are committing adultery so I would I've like them to be responsible and to assume their relationship.
In conclusion, I feel betrayed because the screenwriter wanted to tell the story of married people falling in love like 2 childs falling for the first time but it doesn't work together and their love story has been built too quick. So the movie is a mess and the mixing of all those defects makes it a clumsy movie.
Maybe the chemistry between the 2 characters was bad as well but I have to say that the directing was really good.
Was this review helpful to you?
Beautiful, emotional, sad and amazing!
OMG this was so emotional, so beautiful and sad like poetry !I rare have that much emotions after movie... and first time on MDL I feel angry about other peoples reviews.... how anyone can rate this movie so low and say "couldn't feel love"...
Main leads chemistry was crazy, male leads acting is sooo great you can feel how he can't breath from love, female lead was good too, her acting isn't on ML's level but it's understandable - she was young actress next to veteran actor.
Cinematography with music was so beautiful and harmonic, every scene was needed and good or great!
Main plot and screen time is romance and main leads (though movie is ML's point of view, more his story) but even few scenes without main leads was so well done to show society (not in very dark colors, how it is often with subject of infidelity but still with it's real bitterness) trough soldier's wives and how they discus events and people. I had expectations of more dark/tragic consequenses from society/outer world and was afraid of it, I've seen movies with infidelity especially not modern world and often it's so dark and cruel that after watching you have very hard/bed mood, and I was glad that this movie didn't dramatized too much. Also secondary characters are good, not too much bad or good, I mean to credit main leads or justify their actions (especially infidelity), often movies and tv shows make other characters too bad, so here wasn't that case. Overall every detail, every scene, character was exactly how it should be.
Mature context and sex scenes were also sooo beautiful, I can't remember sex shown as beautifully (I only had this feeling about western tv series "Outlander"), it was so open, shown full acts and still so esthetic... it was making love!
p.s. I'm rating story 9'5 because when I see "all 10" reviews I think it's not rational and trustworthy, though story hadn't weak parts, but always is chance of something better, so because I don't love rate every aspect with 10, story gets unfear 9'5 ))))
Was this review helpful to you?
not as interesting as I'd hoped
This isn't the best movie regarding adultery that I've seen but I can't decide if it's the worst. Probably is lol. But nevertheless, I watched it. The intimate scenes were great but the chemistry between the two leads is questionable. Perhaps they could have been a bit more passionate to make their feelings for each other more believable. The impression I got was that their relationship was more physical than anything. I guess that's why I didn't quite buy it when things got deeper. Ultimately this just wasn't as entertaining as I thought it would be. 5/10.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
This movie made my so gosh damn disgusted that I couldn't even finish it. The moment he saw her and had that "look", I just knew it was about to be hell. I don't know what I was expecting, but it sure in hell wasn't THAT.I literally feel sick to my stomach even writing this and remembering the parts I did watch. How. Literally how do you smile in a woman's face knowing you are fucking her husband? How do you look your husband in the face? How in the HELL do you go all out for another woman while trying for a baby with your wife? How do you keep living life like nothing is wrong when you are sleeping with another woman? I don't fucking understand cheating. It pisses me off to no ends. If you are THAT unhappy, then leave! Why in the hell do you get to ruin not just your life or the one you're cheating with, why must you ruin your S/O's life and make them miserable? Cheaters are fucking mental. I said what I said.
My heart breaks for his wife. Knowing she was doing all she could as a wife and doing all she could to have a baby. I'm angry FOR her.
Mind you, I'm speaking of the characters here. Not the actors. If a actor makes you love/hate/whatever then that just means they're doing an amazing job. So huge props to the actors. It's why they're the only things rated a 10.
But damn I couldn't even get into the actual storyline because the affair crap just chapped my ass and kept me beyond pissed off. I wanted to put my foot through the screen. lol
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I don't know why the most people doesn't like this movie. But in my opinion; I have been so excited to watch it. I think the love between the male main lead and the female main lead wasn't pure but it still a "love". We can judge the feelings of others only because we don't agree with there ways to express them. The 18+ scene; even it disgusting me a little; but still so hot and you can feel the love in those scene; it's so realistic. The ending is a tragedy for me; the male lead doesn't forget his love to the last second in his life though the female lead gave up on him and moved on with her life.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
The characters' dynamics were very interesting and pretty well-written. The two leads had many unspoken sides of them that were revealed by their behavior, interactions, and short dialogues. This was enjoyable except when it came to Jin Pyeong's PTSD. We knew he had it from only one 5 min or less visit to the doctor's and then it was never mentioned again. We only knew that his depression, perhaps his panic every time his obsession with the girl was stopped, and his alcohol dependency were related to the PTSD. I feel like more emphasis could have been given there, but it was still heartbreaking to know that he was suffering and where his actions stemmed from. I enjoyed the movie overall; it was quietly, realistically artistic in its shots, the characters were written well and the actors fulfilled them. The supporting characters were also developed nicely but not distracting to the leads.
Even though I feel like Jin Pyeong was crazily in love with her, I still more strongly suspect that he was obsessed and in love with their sexual relationship. There just didn't seem to be enough non-sexual, lovers' interaction with one another. The climatic part of the movie was gripping, and definitely caught all my emotions and attention up until he shot himself. I was surprised that he survived and even though it made me curious as to how the movie would end, I thought the end was a bit of a let down. It came off as cliche while the rest of the movie had been executed in an original way, but I guess the finale was meant to show that he loved her, having her name tattooed on his arm idk.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
não vale a pena assistir só pela cena no carro
achei o plot bem fraco seria melhor de assistir se eles nao fossem comprometidos com outras pessoas ne .. fiquei meio incomodada o filme inteiro toda vez que eu lembrava q os dois eram casadas e tava traíndo e outra coisa eu só assisti o filme por causa de duas cenas (se é que vcs me entendem) porém ou não achei que valeu a pena ter perdido o meu tempo assim, confesso que fiquei obcecada pelo ator song seungheon tipo assim que homem é esse pelo amor de deus quase passei mal em tds as cenas DELEWas this review helpful to you?
Form your own opinion
The reviews for this movie seem to be all over the place. The description for the movie tells you that it's about two married people having an affair, so that's what you should be expecting. I tried my best to avoid spoilers.I felt the romance between the two the moment they met, and explicit scenes aside, there was short snippets where you could see the characters love for each other, which showed how much their relationship was improving and the love was growing. The film is more than just the sexual content, and I'm struggling as how the people in these reviews can't see that. There's a double bogey plot twist, which I was 100% not expecting, but I'm not mad it happened. -- I also feel like people seem to be forgetting about the cultural/historical aspects of the movie, as it was set during the late 1960's.
The acting of the characters is very well done, especially the main lead. He does very well to emote and express how his character has totally become obsessed with this woman, like the film says. People are saying the main leads acting is poor, but that's just the character she was playing, is it not? Right off the bat, her character is introduced as shy, which I was able to see throughout the movie. And why would her character be smiling, when the man she loves is besides his wife?
Overall, I enjoyed this movie and the direction of it. The music choice was SUPER fitting, and it matched especially well during those steamy scenes. I never write reviews but I feel like I have to as nobody is giving this movie justice. If you are old enough, and willing to give this movie a shot, I say go for it. I see why there's mixed reactions to this movie, so just try it yourself and see if you like it.
TDLR: Ignore the reviews and form your own opinion. It's a beautiful story about forbidden love and obsession.
Was this review helpful to you?
