『위험한 관계』의 동아시아적 ‘다시쓰기’: <스캔들: 조선남녀상열지사>와 <위험한 관계> 속에 나타난 유교적 교화의 각본과 역사적 층위의 문제들

Abstract

Untold Scandal (2003) and Dangerous Liaisons (2012) are the two historical dramas set in the late 18th century during the Joseon Dynasty and the Shanghai War in the 1930s, respectively. These are adaptations of Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782), a novel dealing with the ideals of French Libertinage in the pre-Revolution era as well as a widely acclaimed 18th-century masterpiece within the trickster or seduction narrative genre. Untold Scandal’s director Lee Jae-yong reportedly wrote his screenplay based on the original novel whereas Dangerous Liaisons, influenced by the success of Lee’s film, was produced in collaboration between Korean director Heo Jin-ho and Chinese writer Yen Gehring. As such the two films were received by the audience as relatively faithful 21st century versions of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. However, when the sexually promiscuous tale of seduction written and loved in the West is made into a historical drama in Korea and China, the differences arise in the process of “re-writing” that inevitably involves East-Asianizing the tale and implementing it into the socio-historical contexts of the region. The liberally-inclined Libertinage, which emerged as a unique phenomenon during the pre-French Revolution period, is unfamiliar and virtually unheard of in East Asian cultures, thereby raising the question of how to accept and re-contextualize the narrative within the East Asian historical dramas. In this regards, Untold Scandal and Dangerous Liaisons can be seen as two fitting examples, demonstrating how the original text can arrive properly only when old and culturally non-relevant parts are removed so certain parts of the original work be denied in accordance with the temporal and spatial implementation that the process of re-writing involves. This article considers Untold Scandal and Dangerous Liaisons as cinematic practice of re-writing that attempts to “East Asianize” the original seduction narrative. The main objective is to examine the points of difference that can be highlighted in such re-writings. First of all, by reading the original novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, I try to define the seduction narrative stemming from French Libertinage, and to conceptualize the subject of hedonism and liberalism inherent within it. Subsequently, Untold Scandal and Dangerous Liaisons differentiate themselves from the original novel in that they present a narrative of Confucian edification as a means to dilute and refract the deviating and often anti-cultural description of the seducer-trickster man in the literary tale. The two films can be understood as prioritizing East Asian values of controlling desire and seeking to return to the real order. Finally, being historical dramas that represent specific historical moments in East Asia, the two films not only more decisively depart from the original novel but also differentiate themselves from each other. Untold Scandal offers a contemporary view of the post-IMF Korean society projected onto the images of Joseon Dynasty in the late 18th century whereas Dangerous Liaisons reflects the Chinese perspective of the nationalistic market economy era and transposes it onto the images of Shanghai in the 1930s. Seen in this light, the films are supported by the addition of historically multi-layered meanings that operate across the time and space in East Asia.