eldianbri

Having waited expectantly for this drama for a fair while as soon as it was mentioned on Netflix, especially given the cast with two of the best actors around as the leads, I have to say that the creeping dissatisfaction I felt as the drama went on was a great disappointment to me.
I know the original book very well, and given the range and capabilities of the two lead actors, I had hoped we were in for an adaptation that would maintain some of the radical amorality of the book. Are SYJ and JCW just fundamentally too nice as people to be able to portray the depths of depravity that the book exploits, and which the script tried to emulate? I don't think the fault lies there ... but it was no good, I just didn't feel any of the perverse push-and-pull relationship the main characters were supposed to have. The widow figure also was annoying with her constant hunched up shoulders. The most fun were the two servants who just got on with life. But I suppose they had an easier job. The sex scenes felt overly manicured, flagrantly aestheticized. Intimacy coaching gone a bit too far?
On the good side however, I have to say that a lot of effort went in to the set, and even the choice of music at times was ironic, eg. the sleazy trumpet (Shostakovitch?) when Cho Won puts on his seductive act. The pansori story-telling was a good idea for a sideways take on the action. The silk worm farm was an excellent metaphor for the ugly hearts under the silks worn by all . The sound of thousands of silkworms chewing the leaves was spot on.
Choderlos de Laclos was exposing the heartless machinations of two libertines at the time (just before the Revolution), but what was this drama saying about today? Blessed if I know.