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1998｜108 MIN | Drama, Romance

DIRECTOR E J-young

CAST LEE Jung-jae, LEE Mi-sook, SONG Young-chang, KIM Min

RELEASE DATE October 3, 1998

Prior to his more cerebral sophomore film Asako In Ruby Shoes (2000) and his ground-breaking Joseon Era costume drama Untold Scandal (2003), director E J-yong debuted with the relatively subdued but no less noteworthy melodrama An Affair. 

A tale of a cross-generational romance among two people who have lost their joie de vivre as they dutifully fulfill the roles assigned to them in the newly affluent and increasingly capitalist urban hub of Seoul, E’s film mixes measured melodramatic staples with a hint of tasteful eroticism that may seem tame by today’s standards but was remarkable in an industry that had yet to welcome raunchier fare such as Happy End and Yellow Hair the next year. Although remarkably, the film came out on the same day as IM Sang-soo’s debut work Girls’ Night Out, a film which made waves for its frank approach to female sexuality.

Top star LEE Mi-sook takes on the role of So-hyun, a prim and proper but utterly bored middle-aged housewife who suffers the indifference of her workaholic husband while her son idles his time in his room playing video games. Her younger sister is due to return from America but she asks So-hyun to help her fiancé (Lee Jung-jae) find them a place to live in Seoul after their marriage. As they traipse around various properties in Seoul, the pair slowly begins to develop feelings for one another. 

E, a director who has plied his trade across different styles and genres with all his outings, takes a cautious approach to his debut for much of its early running time, allowing the actors to gradually sink into their parts and for their unutterable interactions to breathe through each scene. Once the affair begins and the lovers’ partners become bigger parts of the narrative, E allows himself more room for understated flourishes and henceforth his skill for pacing and cranking up mood and tension becomes evident. Noteworthy are the various locations used for apartment hunting, which range from the squalid to the affluent and urban to the mystically rural. The starkly different locations highlight the uncertainty in the protagonists’ lives and add an understated edge to their burgeoning relationship.

A solid box office performer (it ranked 7th for the year among Korean films) and a great showcase for star LEE Mi-sook’s nuanced performance, An Affair proved an auspicious and humble start for director E, who went on to grow bolder and bolder with each subsequent step he took.