The Scandal, why so scandalous? Ji Chang Wook leaves you gasping for air

If you are thinking about tuning into Netflix to catch Ji Chang Wook in his Joseon-era avatar, you have been warned. Trust us when we say that nothing would have prepared you for Wookie's latest show, The Scandal. It is bold, it is wild, and it is something you would have never expected from a K-drama. While Korean shows regularly show couples getting intimate, The Scandal takes it to an unprecedented level. Ji Chang Wook surprises you in his latest role as a playboy nobleman, with explicit imagery forming a core premise of the show.

The Scandal is the story of three people: Lady Cho (Son Ye Jin), Cho-won (Ji Chang Wook) and Hee-yeon (Nana). Lady Cho and Cho-won are ex-lovers and cousins who were forced to part ways. Years later, Lady Cho calls upon him and challenges him to seduce the young widow Hee-yeon, who is committed to chastity and hopes to one day die to be with her late husband. This game of calculated seduction, driven by the need to exert power and fulfil their own desires, pushes them to the limit and changes their lives forever.

Inspiration for The Scandal

The makers have used two stories as inspiration and used them to show a Joseon-era story. The main source is the 1782 French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. The epistolary novel, written as a series of letters, tells the story of a former couple who set out on a quest to corrupt one innocent girl and another married woman.

The Scandal adds several elements from the acclaimed 2003 Korean film Untold Scandal, which picked up the 18th-century French libertine court culture and translated it into the rigid, oppressive Confucian backdrop of late-Joseon Korea. It talks about taboos around widows, concubines and how women lived and were expected to behave. They were denied a place in the world of academics, along with a lack of independence.

Game of lust, power and deceit

This is where The Scandal picks up. Lady Cho feels trapped by society's strict rules for women and isn't allowed to engage in academics and similar things. She is in love with Cho-won but is forced to marry someone else. Her betrayal turns him into a playboy. Years later, frustrated to see her husband with his younger concubine, Lady Cho decided to engage in a game of seduction for personal satisfaction and to prove that she holds the power.

She tells Cho-won to play a scandalous game for personal satisfaction, unbothered by how it may affect those who are being played with. She tells him to woo the next-door young widow and sleep with her. If he can get her proof of his escapade, she agrees to sleep with him. Won, who still desires his cousin, agrees to the wager. What starts is a game of trickery, cheating, and lust.

The Scandal lives up to its name. Ji Chang Wook and Nana engage in sexual acts on screen, while portraying their agony and turmoil. Wookie breaks his image as an action and romantic star with this show. He admitted in interviews that choosing the project was a conscious choice to embrace more mature and complex character motivations.

As a viewer, seeing him in this role delivers great shock value. This is nothing like anything you would have seen Ji Chang Wook play. Cho-won and Hee-yeon engage in sex in full nudity and highly explicit intimate sequences.

The actor says that the intimacy was not intended for simple visual shock value, but was essential to convey his character's "hedonistic nature, libertine lifestyle, and the deeper themes of desire, power, and emotional manipulation." Inside reports have confirmed that standard production protocols and body doubles were used for the sexual scenes.

Ji Chang Wook steals the show

The actor once again proves with this scandalous show that he can pull off just about anything. He performed his own stunts in shows like Healer and K2, as well as played the lover boy with ease in shows like Lovestruck in the City and Welcome to Samdal-Ri. With The Scandal, he enters uncharted territory and still wins it all the way. Ji Chang Wook can do just about anything, and his latest offering proves it yet again.