An Affair (1998) User Reviews

Hanging in the balance

[Atavisten · 7/10 · 14 April 2007]

Somewhere in between Wong Kar-Wai's 'In the Mood for Love' and a TV-drama, this movie about adultery from South-Korea somehow manages to appeal to a broader audience while retaining integrity movie-as-art wise. Lee Je-young was unbeknown-est to me, but I just realized he made three movies (and quite different ones at that) with a widely popular appeal that I really enjoyed unrelated to each other.

This is a doomed relationship, the interesting thing is that they are not judged in any way in the portrayal and it therefore becomes a meditation on love, the impermanence of it and of life itself. Quite profound.

Lee Mi-suk is amazing in the role, and looks better than ever as 38.

Can the adultery be a mean for people to find oneself?

[nkw88 · 25 September 2001]

This film is about alienation, the mutual sympathy, and finding oneself rather than just an love affair of a middle aged woman. It is revealed by the scenes in which Seo-Hyun(LEE Mi-Sook) meets Wu-In (LEE Jung-Jae) that she is captured in her everyday life with her husband. Their meeting and dating always are set in the Nature or open space with bright color tone- lake, woods, and garden.

But her husband always appears within the closed place - a little bit dark and blue interior with cold tone. Though she does not express her dissatisfaction nor shows her facial expression, the surroundings tell viewers what she feels.

LEE Mi-Sook, the heroine of this film, comes back to Korean Film industry from her near 10 year reclusive marriage and shows the beauty of mature Korean woman as Isabelle Huppert shows her gorgeousness in 'School of Flesh'. Director LEE Jae-Yong chooses the minimalist direction in this film and lets the characters, settings, and tones reveal some meanings themselves and lets audience feel the film rather explain how she is gorgeous.

Usually heroines of melodrama weep and cry too much in this situation. But LEE Mi-Sook's performance style is very different from the typical melodramatic performance. She shows nothing but her feeling is allegorized by the surroundings.

There is nothing sexy or cute about choosing sex over your own children x

[rfrf101 · 22 September 2019]

Yes, she was unduly selfish, and makes the mistake most people do when they have Affair which is by confusing sex and emotions with love. This man is 15 years younger than you, your sister's fiance, and you have a son yourself. This heffa literally chose the D over her marriage and son... Yes she was immoral and deserve to wear The Scarlet Letter A. Affair partner is immoral twit and too young to completely understand the ramifications of his actions. This man speaks love with his D. Imagine what will happen when he meets somebody else he has the same type of Attraction for. Anybody who thinks that she did the right thing it just is immorally Warped as she is. No one has the right to pursue happiness at the expense of making everybody else's life miserable and I hope that guilt wrecks her for the rest of her film life.