Love Hurts

The series Tempted (also known as The Great Seducer) starts off with a very handsome student, Kwon SiHyun (Woo Do-hwan), reading a darkly provocative poem in class. This sets the tone for the melodrama, which is loosely based on Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (for English speakers, that's Dangerous Liaisons). This isn't one of my favorite tropes, to be honest; I think playing cruel love games to get revenge is perhaps the most heartless thing you can do. But I was curious about how Koreans would handle the story, so I watched.

The story isn't completely faithful to the classic French story, although it hits the same notes. Three very attractive and wealthy students play similar dangerous games of love and revenge in this adaptation, but their parents and family dramas are also interwoven. Celloist and student president Choi SuJi (Moon Ga Young), along with her chaebol heir friends Kwon SiHyun and Lee SeJu (Kim Min-jae) are like a dark version of the Three Musketeers.

After SuJi is humiliated by her boyfriend, Lee KiYoung (Lee Jae-kyun), who belittles her and her mother for trying to use him to better their social standing, she is furious and wants revenge. She then goes nuclear when her mother and SiHyun's father become engaged; a marriage neither of the youngsters want for personal reasons. At this point in the series there is a self-harming scene that will be disturbing to some; I found it very distressing to watch.

The trio decide to take their revenge out via Eun TaeHee (Joy), a scholarship student who was KiYoung's first love. They also scheme to ruin his engagement to another sheltered rich girl at the same time. SuJi sends SiHyun to seduce TaeHee and then break her heart, and promises to marry him if he does, which they believe will ruin their parents' intention to marry. All of this is a bit unrealistic, but they're teenagers, so I was willing to suspend my disbelief. SiHyun then of course genuinely falls for TaeHee, which is the beginning of the end for his friendship with SuJi and SeJu.

Woo Do-hwan is stellar in his role as the seducer, as is Kim Min-jae as the comical yet tragic third wheel of the trio (by the end of the series I was more interested in him as a character than the other two, which is saying something.) Moon Ga Young's portrayal of her character was so intense I often felt uncomfortable watching her, but I admire her talent. It was Joy who impressed me most; she was so convincing as the young, poor scholarship student caught up in these dangerous love games. Along with the graphic self-harm scene there are some other instances of moderate violence in this series, especially with SeJu getting beat up by his family, so keep that in mind. Available to watch on Viki.com with lots of commercials.